Tablelands, Trout River & Arches Provincial Park,(Sunday, June 11th)

This morning we start with a guided walk of the Tablelands on the other side of Grose Morne.  The tour is at 10 so we leave the trailer at around 845 thinking we have plenty of time but we get there just on time.  Gaby is not feeling good this morning, her cough was pretty bad over night.  After everything we have seen in Newfoundland, the Tablelands are kind of 'blah'.  Yes, if you consider that you are walking on the earth's mantle (1 in 5 places on the planet where you xcan do this)'inner core' of our planet, sure....it's cool.  But in reality it just looks like a big mountain like the ones we saw in the mid-West.  Gab loves the hikes but really doesn't like it when it's slow and having to listen to tour guides.  As much as I would like to follow along with the tour guide (because we adults still think it's interesting), we abandon the tour a half hour in and start our way back to the truck.

Tablelands

 Liane has been asking me since we got to Grose Morne if we had been to Trout River.  Being on the south side of the Park and really not planning on coming back this way, no time like the present to check out this cute boardwalk she talks about.  We took the wrong turn and ended up at the Parks Canada Trout River campground.  Really nice but too small for our big trailer.  It will be perfect in our old days when we plan on travelling in a much smaller rig!  Found our way to a deserted Trout River.  We are here before tourist season and it shows.  The boardwalk is all ours. I had read that there was a nice restaurant in the town.  The village is pretty much all along the ocean with the boardwalk being less than 1km long.  We find  the restaurant I had read about and it many must have read up on it because after we sit down, it started filling up a bit more.  We stuck to local dishes.  Mel - Newfoundland Pea Soup and fish cakes.  Justin - Seafood chowder and a scallop salad.  Gab - as much as I can pull the 'Dr. MJ voudrait que tu manges ça - c'est bon pour la santé...ça ne fonctionne pas pour le poisson.  Donc, Gab mange des croquettes de poulet.  Our meal is delicious.  Justin still dreams about the sweet buns they served with our soup!

James was only this happy when we shared the sweet buns

Seafood chowder

Pea soup

Back to the truck to make our way to the campsite to pack up and head north.  The kids both fall asleep in no time and we sneak in a stop at Stuckless Pond in honor of our and only Will.  The pond is a 10km loop so a bit too much to try and attempt with Gab.  If we had a whole day out of it and packed a picnic we could do it but as much time as we have, we unfortunately don't have all the time in the world.

We are back at the campsite in time for us to pin the trailer in the rain but we are pretty good at it by now.  By the way, we fueled up before arriving at the campsite! Lessons learned!  Norris Point KOA campsite was really nice as they let us checkout really late (it's about 4pm by the time we pull out).  Our destination is 2 hours North in Port Aux Choix.  We stop at Arches Provincial Park.  We are there at the perfect time as we are low tide.  There are 3 arches formed in the rocks as a result of tidal action.  It's a perfect spot for a break and we spend a good half hour having fun underneath the arches.  We are really loving travelling at this time of year in Newfoundland as tourist season doesn't start till later in the month.  We get to enjoy these beautiful natural locations all by ourselves! We are really spoiled.

The rest of the ride seems like nothing since we have been doing long stretches of driving since the beginning.  Matante Doudunne facetimes and we actually have reception. I am telling her how it's BS that there is supposedly tons of Moose in NFLD when we see our first NFLD MOOSE!!!!  Hilarious!   We arrive at Oceanside RV Park.  OMG. Our site is 30 feet from the ocean.  We may have the worst timing ever on this one because there is crazy wind, rain and we are sure there was a bit of hail as we were setting up the trailer.  About a half hour later the sun was almost peaking through the clouds.  Justin sets up the hockey game on the ipad but he can't handle it when it cuts out a bit.  It's actually really good considering it's on wifi.  Anyhow, the terrible Pittsburgh fan falls asleep on the game.  What a guy!

NFLD MOOSE count = 1

Press the video below to have a look at our day!