Day 30: Little Bay to Rocky Harbour

The rising sun woke me up this morning at 5:15am. The interior of the van was glowing with a warm red light. I hastily pulled down the shade and shot the sun through the screen just as it was coming over the horizon on the water. What a way to start the day! Then I went back to sleep.

This is the most glorious outdoor breakfast spot on the whole trip so far.

I could spend another day here, but we need to move on to our next location, where it most likely will be raining. There is absolutely nothing to do here except look at the water. I could take another day of that.

We were rewarded this morning with a whale (?) sighting in the bay as we walked along the beach. Newfoundland mainly sees humpback whales but another 21 species of whales and dolphins visit every summer including minke, sperm, pothead, blue, and orca. I could see a dorsal fin when it came out of the water but not enough to identify it. Could it have been a large dolphin that I saw?

There were also cormorants and greater yellow legs this morning along with a few great black backed gulls and some sparrows and ravens.

Sitting outside the van finishing up our coffees, we also spotted what looked to be an otter (river or sea?) swimming and diving. It didn’t swim like a seal which are plentiful here too. It was quite close to shore.

It was 75F when we left camp at 10 am. We are heading east back to Gros Morne. We lost the sun and several degrees by 11:30. Once we get back to Deer Lake, we start exploring the northern parts of Gros Morne NP and the Viking Trail up to L’Anse aux Meadows.

We stopped in Rocky Harbour at the end of Bonne Bay on the north shore. We had lunch at Earle’s Restaurant where I had  mooseburger and Brian had Newfoundland fish chowder. Moose is very mild and lean. At the seafood warehouse on the wharf, we purchased frozen Atlantic ocean-grown salmon and shelled lobster meat from the equivalent of 2 lobster. We’ll save that for Labrador.

We visited the museum at the lighthouse. There was an excellent exhibit on the lives of the lighthouse keepers and their families.

We are camping at Berry Hill campground in Gros Morne NP. It’s cool and drizzly. By chance, our campsite is near the laundry! I raced to get a machine. On rainy days, everyone does laundry. With only 2 washers and dryers, it was going to take a while. There was another couple there with almost the identical camper to ours, and it turned out that the wife was a Roadtrek Facebook friend of Brian’s. We ended up spending the afternoon in the laundry room chatting with everyone else. A nice way in the end, to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Laundry done and more reservations confirmed for Labrador, we settled in for a quiet evening in the van. I’ve picked out a Saturday night movie.