Monday, cold, cloudy, breezy, Pistolet Bay Provincial Park, site #29, Pistolet Bay, NL
Woke up, got dressed and had breakfast. Drove over to the comfort station and took showers. Janice did one load of laundry while Hanson walked down to the office to pay for the night, $20.15 CAD. Laundry was $1.50 wash and $2 dry.
Saw 2 moose by the road side on the way out. They might be the same two we saw on the other side of the road when we came in last night.
We drove up to Cook Harbor. Not much there. Pretty flat and stony with not much vegetation.
Could see a huge, tall iceberg at an equally huge distance though.
Continued on to Wild Bight. Where we saw lots of little coves with boulders on their mud flats and interesting boats up on a small hill.
Drove on a very potholed gravel road to Cape Norman lighthouse, which is the most northern point of the main island and shines its light every 8 seconds. Had to stop and park by the only other house on that road and walk toward the lighthouse because the potholes got so bad.
Lots of small Arctic type wildflowers on the otherwise barren ground. There was even a bumblebee making the rounds of the flowers. Signs indicated that “Northwest Newfoundland is the only place in the world where the Barrens Willow and Fernald’s Braya plants are found.” Apparently it was the wrong season, so we couldn’t really identify either one.
We walked to the shore, admired and photographed the rocks and several icebergs and then walked back to the van.
Drove out the same way we came in past Wild Bight and once again passed the odd rocks on the mud flats. When we came to the boats we also saw a bald eagle perched on one of those odd rocks.
Back on the main road I saw another moose very close to the road that was startled by our van and started to run. Hanson did not see it because he was concentrating on avoiding the road imperfections.
Turned off the Viking Trail, RT. 430, onto the Grenfel Trail, Rt. 432, and saw a caribou right by the side of the road and not scared of us at all. Hanson backed the van up so we could get some photos.
Just south of Main Brook, we turned off the Grenfel Trail and headed toward Public Wharf to boondock for the night. It was a quiet little inlet off of Hare Bay.
We watched as a Harbour Patrol boat pulled up to the dock and didn’t do anything that we could see. Made dinner of sweet potato stew and rice with quinoa and sour cream and guacamole and beer. Then a man and woman came up in a little boat and tied up and drove off in the pickup truck.
Before we went to sleep it began to rain.