Terri and Peter's RV Adventures

Why not? This is a place of many wonders and if I use my US/California filter to assess the health of trees, for example, I’ll be wrong. If I assume a grocery store or gas station will be available within 5 miles, I’ll be wrong. If I think there will be cell service along the coast, I’ll be wrong. If I think a general store won’t have everything I need (except oatmeal that may contain wheat and organic produce) including what I’d buy at a hardware or drug store, I’d be wrong. And if I thought that you can only find fjords in Norway, I’d definitely be wrong because we saw one here, in Western Brook, on the central/northern coast of Newfoundland/Labrador.

Getting a leisurely start, we decided to head up the coast as far as we felt like it. Tomorrow we hope to go all the way to St. Anthony’s, which is at the tip of Newfoundland/Labrador. This province has a wide, expansive coastline along its northern edge, aiming east. There is very little development, just the occasional primary colored cottages, red, yellow, blue. Maybe they paint them those colors so they can dig out of the snow in the winter or maybe just to create some color in what appears to be a more monochromatic scenery of evergreen forests, brown and grey mountains, and a blue/grey ocean depending on the cloud cover. One thing is certain: the winds are steady and close to hurricane force.

Driving along the coast, exposed to wind and unending views of a storm whipped, white-capped Atlantic Ocean, Mother Nature’s purest elements are in full view and experience. About a half hour north, we found Western Brook, generically and innocently enough named. One wouldn’t expect to be able to find a fjord there, but we did, sort of.

Leaving Cali in the car (even she knew the winds were too fierce), Peter, Lily and I walked a fairly level path along an open field where caribou dine in the winter months, and the wind nearly knocked us off our feet. It wound past a white capped pond to the shelter of a stand of stunted growth pine trees. They look like the trees I’ve seen at timberline in the Rockies, just before no trees can thrive. They are dwarf size, looking like gnarled miniature versions of the pine trees I’m more familiar with. I learned later from a chance encounter with a fish and game guy I met at the gas station that trees can’t grow very tall here due to the winds and short growing season.

Following this path led us eventually to a large body of fresh water that wound its way through an opening straddled by massive rock walls sheared off, like twin El Capitans in Yosemite. We weren’t aware there were boat tours through the fjord so maybe if our schedule works out, we’ll try to take a two hour boat cruise through the fjord. There are several other fjords on the island but they are about three hours drive from us. It was an all five senses day and invigorating experiencing nature in full force.

Heading back, we stopped at Rocky Harbor, a sizable town relatively speaking, where we found the general store that, despite its small size, managed to have just about everything we needed (forget organic for this next month!). Since we are under a boil water advisory, we added gallons of bottled water to our must-have list. Returning to camp, I made dinner, sat in on my Mussar group by phone and threw balls for Lily after dinner. The funny part came when Cali, whom I’d left behind at the trailer, decided to follow us, several “blocks” away.

It’s just amazing how these dogs acclimate to their new home very quickly and figure out where our camp is. The other clue that Cali had rebounded from her stomach issue was that she actually jumped up and ran (as an old lady, but ran nonetheless) after a squirrel who scrambled up a tree). I can’t remember the last time she did that. Made my heart full.

Tomorrow, we hope for an earlier start and a trip to the tip of northernmost Newfoundland–St. Anthony, where we hope to see whales, puffins and maybe an iceberg or two!