Tuesday 13 June 2017

Western Brook Pond (Thursday, 8 June)

This morning we are excited!  We are in Grose Morne and ready for some adventure.  Visitor centre opens at 9 so we were there at around  940ish.  Parks Canada staff was great and gave us some great trails that would be perfect for us with the kids and told us to try and get booked on the Western Brook pond as it has been sold out the last few days.  So first thing we do is call up to make reservations and the 12 o'clock boat is full so we are on standby for the 3o'clock tour.  We have to call in at 1 to see if the tour is a go (they need a minimum to run the tour).  Meanwhile we head over to Berry Head Pond for a 2km loop.  Gaby loves the walk and has to stop at every plant/flower to take a picture for Kim.  Kim and Gaby always go for walks with the dogs and she's a big reason why Gab is so good at keeping up on our crazy adventures.  We saw a beaver damn and the trees they took down to make their hut.  (I would have never noticed...but my nature buffs - Gab and Justin spotted it).  It was a great trail for the stroller.  Gaby was having fun trying to call the Moose - 'Here Moosey Moosey' :)  We have yet to see a Moose in Newfoundland.  The only one we saw was in New Brunswick on the drive up.



Left over guac!  Never happens when Will's around!!!

We make our way back to the campsite for a good lunch and call at 1230 to find out the tour is a go. Off we go because it's a 30 minute drive-ish and we also have a 3km hike in to reach the boat.  Poor James - we wake him up again out of his car seat to put him in the backpack.  He has no complaints in the back pack...he loves it.  The cost of the boat tour is pretty expensive! 146$ for the 4 of us.  But when in Grose Morne....you have to do it.  It really was worth every penny.  The weather was amazing but we were warned to bring our winter gear, which we did.  We were happy to have our tuques! The wind blows right through you.  The fjord is now fresh water so technically it really isn't a fjord because to fit the description of a 'fjord' it should be salt water.  The boat we were in had to be air lifted to the pond and the other boats were taken to the pond in pieces during the winter over the bog.  Our french tour guide was really nice.  Her boyfriend was posted here last year and they are in Rocky Harbor for 3 years.  She has learned to love it but she really misses fresh fruit and vegetables.  It's about a 1.5hr drive for a grocery store.  Yikes!  But on the bright side, she said you can get a nice house on the OCEAN for 150 to 200k.  Try buying a shack for that price on the St-Lawrence!! The highlight of the tour for Gaby was at first the waterfalls, but then, on our way back, water was splashing into the boat and onto the deck floor! She was entertaining the other passengers with her full out belly laugh.  We had a lot of fun.  James did well considering he didn't have a nap. He got fussy near the end and Justin took him down to the lower deck.  For the last bit of the tour, they turned on Newfy jams, James loved it! He was clapping along and also putting on a show.  The walk back did our little man in, and he found a way to fall asleep in the backpack.  Our little trooper Gab also did awesome.  She was a little tired near the end and needed to use the restroom but she pushed through and we got back to the parking lot.

Looking towards Western Brook Pond

The fjord in teh background is our destination!

Beautiful walk to the fjord!

On our hike in to Western Brook Pond



Comfy on the boat
Having Fun with BB Girl
One of the falls along the fjord

James is done in!

Just taking in some rays
My little trooper did 8kms today!  Once at the campsite, she forgot how tired she was and headed for the bouncy mat while we enjoyed the sunshine!  Another wonderful day!

I am pretty upset with myself because I think my GoPro footage from the boat tour was deleted by accident.  I have been switching SD card between my camera and Gaby's 'caméra d'aventure'.  I have a feeling she or James may have deleted the footage before I downloaded it.  I am going to try and recover the footage but for now... it's more important to make the memories than to capture them.  The SD card came with a 'recovery' software download so fingers crossed!




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