Trip report 7 - Port au Choix, Gros Morne, Tablelands, Woody Point, Norris Point and Lobster Cove Lighthouse
This follows on from Trip Report 6 which can be read here:
tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g154962-i754-k40…
We were sad to leave the Northern Peninsula. We had loved the wide open spaces and the barrens. Highway 430 was a much nicer run than the 432. There were good views of the Labrador coastline as we dropped down the hill at Eddie’s Cove. It was a nice run down the coast coast to Flower’s Cove, an attractive settlement around a big bay. We stopped to do the THROMBOLITE TRAIL just south FLOWERS COVE. There is a small parking area at the side of the road and a boardwalk to Marjorie’s Bridge (complete with big sign above it) and path to the thrombolite site. These look like huge rounded cracked bun-like boulders along the edge of the shore. We could see more across the bay.
We did the short detour to Port au Choix which is at the end of the peninsula and catches all the sun. We stopped off at PORT AU CHOIX VISITOR CENTRE. This is a large stark building sticking up a bit like a sore thumb in a landscape of coastal barrens. These are the site of one of the richest archaeological remains dating back over 5000 years with the remains of Maritime Archaic Indians, Groswater and Dorset Palaeoeskimos and Recent Indians (ancestors of the Beothuks). The existing vegetation pattern of limestone barrens with low patchy forest is probably very similar to that during Palaeoeskimo settlement.
We watched the video and went round the exhibits. We looked at the start of the Dorset trail across peninsula but decided it might be ‘boring’ as it made its way across fine limestone chippings. Instead we drove to POINT RICHIE LIGHTHOUSE and did the start of the PHILIP’S GARDEN TRAIL along the cliff top. It was a flat and uninspiring coastline with little relief. We could have been walking through a road stone quarry with all the chippings. We decided it was a long and uninteresting walk so gave up and drove back through Port au Choix (a big, modern town with a lot of new housing and little character) to Old Point au Choix (delightful) and did the start of other end of the Philip’s Garden Trail.
This was much better and more interesting as it took us through lush vegetation, low tuckermore and limestone pavement to the major Palaeoeskimo site at PHILIP’S GARDEN and is a lovely spot. Groswater and Dorset Palaeoeskimos settled here and there are the remains of 50 houses made from whale bone and sealskin with fireplaces, middens and activity areas. They have been been backfilled and reinstated after excavation so all that can be seen are the faint outlines of the semi subterranean homes in the turf. The alkaline soil preserved numerous artefacts including remains tools, weapons, discarded food and bones. Some of these are now on display in the Visitor Centre.
We stopped at the ANCHOR CAFE in Port au Choix for Fish and Shrimp Chowder ($5.95) which was excellent, thick and good.
It was now a glorious afternoon and we had a lovely run to Rocky Harbour with the sun lighting up the edge of the Long Range Mountains.
After Labrador and the Northern Peninsula, ROCKY HARBOUR felt big, busy and very touristy but it didn’t seem as bad after a bottle of Auk Island Winery’s Funkey Puffin bought from the Liquor store...
We were booked into BOTTOM BROOK COTTAGES (separate review).
Next morning the weather forecast was for a dry morning but wet afternoon and wet the following day. We have visited Norway several times and having seen and sailed on fjords, Western Brook wasn’t on our list of priorities.
We decided that Tablelands was our top priority and we would do that in the morning. It was a nice drive from Wiltondale through the mountains with mainly coniferous forest but some deciduous in places. Glenburnie is a small scattered settlement. Birchy Head, Shoal Brook and Winterhouse Brook all run into each other and are in a lovely setting at the base of substantial mountains. We took the road which climbs up past the Discovery Centre with wooded hills to the right and the orange hillside of Tablelands to the left.
TABLELANDS is unique as it is one of the few places you can actually see the rocks which make up the earth’s mantle. It is made up of peridotite which was forced up from the depths when the continents of Africa and America collided 450 millions of years ago.
Serpentine can be found in places where water has reacted with the peridotite and precipitated calcium. These rocks appear greenish with a white snakeskin pattern on the surface.
Peridotite is naturally dark in colour but it contains a high percentage of iron which oxides on exposure to air giving the rocks an orange red colour which means they really do glow in the sunlight. The rock contains high levels of heavy metals like chromium and nickel as well as magnesium which are toxic to most plants. It is also low in essential minerals like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus as well as calcium.
Very few plants can grow on the bare rock. However where soil collects in hollows plants begin to appear and there were patches of small trees in damper places where more depth of soil had accumulated.
There is a large parking area off the side of the road with information boards. It is an easy walk following an old trackway until it swings away into Winter Brook Canyon - a large open area at the base of the mountains. The sides rise steeply to the flat plateau.
There are boardwalks over the wetter areas which end at a viewing platform. At the start of the trail there is a short "Serpentine Loop'. This is shown on the map in the car park but is not clearly marked from the main trail. It is a narrow path which meanders through the low vegetation and across small rock fragments.
We saw asters, small Michaelmas daisies, Canadian burnett, sneezewort. There were lots of pitcher plants in the wetter areas and also cinnamon fern.
We really enjoyed the walk. There was so much to stop and look at and this was one of the few walks in Newfoundland where you are guaranteed good views as there are no trees to get in the way!
The sun had kept trying to appear earlier but by the time we got back to the car it was beginning to turn dull and cloudy.
We drove to Trout River along the bottom of Tablelands. There were two steep valleys with waterfalls tumbling down them. When we got to TROUT RIVER it brightened and the sun kept trying to come out. We parked up and followed the boardwalk along the shore to the fishing harbour at the mouth of the river where there were some old wooden houses. We came back along the main street where two houses had hand made knitted items pegged out for sale on a line in front of the house. After a cup of tea in the Seaside Restaurant we drove to Trout River Pond (a long gash in the mountains) for the views.
We drove back to WOODY POINT, a pretty settlement with lots of old houses, mostly well maintained although many now have UPVC cladding. The Town of Woody Point has a Heritage Walk and I had been sent a copy of the leaflet before we left home. We started to follow this, stopping to read about the different buildings. We stopped to talk to the person rebuilding Butt’s Store. This had belonged to his great grandfather, but had burnt down twice. He had been a fish merchant and the store, attached to his house, sold everything. The person now lives across the road in the house which had belonged to his Great Aunt Jane and which is now B&B.
We watched the rain clouds collecting over Winterbrook so headed to the cafe attached to Seaside Souvenirs for a bowl of seafood chowder (too much dried sage masked the taste of the fish) to warm us up. When we came out it was raining steadily so we headed back to the DISCOVERY CENTRE. This is a huge building but to be honest, we didn’t think there was a lot in it. There was a huge display all about global warming. We are sceptics. Other displays about the Park were superficial and there was little solid information. We were far from impressed and I would only rank it 2*. It did have a good selection of postcards - the best we had seen so far with a lot of views.
We liked Woody Point. It had a lot of character and didn’t have the pressure of tourists of Rocky Harbour. If planning the journey again I would stop here rather than Rocky Harbour.
Next morning the weather looked better than the forecast and there were a few breaks in the cloud as we drove to Norris Point. This is a nice drive with some good views of Long Mountains and Gros Morne Mountain above the trees. We stopped at the photographer’s view point at Jenniex House for the view across Norris Point to Woody Point. The orange rocks of Tablelands were catching the sun although the tops were still in cloud. The rest of the landscape was still quite dark.
We dropped down into NORRIS POINT and parked up by the cafe and admired the remains of the root cellar in the bank by car park. This was the first one we had seen. We went for a walk round the town. It is a long spread out settlement with three churches, a couple of shops, post office, craft shop, Bonne Bay Marine Centre (interactive tours of the aquarium) and a cafe which is also the booking office for boat tours. There were several quite old wooden houses and a large new development being planned at the edge of the town. There is no fishing now although there were a few pleasure boats in the very sheltered harbour. Because of reduced cod stocks, locals are only allowed to fish for cod for a couple of weeks in summer and a week in September. They are restricted to five fish per person or 15 per boat and there are strict penalties if they are caught breaking the rules.
We looked at the trails up Burnt Hill but they looked very muddy after all the rain the previous afternoon.
We then went back to the JENNIEX HOUSE. This is a 1926 pepper pot house which was moved from Neddie’s Harbour to its present position high above Norris Point in 1995. The house had a log foundation of six inch logs fastened to floor joists. The walls were built from rough lumber one inch thick and insulated with sawdust and wood chips. The floor insulation was birch rind and tar felt. Hanging up in the doorway was a blown up paper bag. It was meant to look like a wasps nest and was supposed to stop wasps entering the house as wasps avoid a strange nest.
The curator is a niece of Mrs Jenniex who raised 14 children in this house. Her husband had fished in the summer and worked in the lumber camp at Lomond in the winter. In the spring boats arrived to take the lumber to Corner Brook to the pulp mills. The ground floor has a craft shop (all locals work) and a small refreshment area selling tea, coffee and slice homemade bread with molasses. The original range and washing machine are in the kitchen. Upstairs were 2 bedrooms and a large through room with assorted artefacts. It was an interesting visit, especially talking to the curator
We did the walk through the trees to the ‘viewpoint’ but in fact views weren’t as good as those from the house. There was rampant vegetation with hazel and maple seedlings growing beneath the conifers.
By now the weather was beginning to improve and there were some patches of sunshine . We decided to go to LOBSTER COVE LIGHTHOUSE. This is a pretty photogenic white building with red brown trim at the end of the headland marking the approach to Rocky Harbour and Bonne Bay. It was built in 1892 but automated in 1970 when it became an artists studio. It is now run by Parks Canada and there is a small display on archaic and palaeoeskimos and more modern photos. The Lighthouse keepers’ office was furnished but there is no access to the light. We spent a long time talking to the curator who was very garrulous and the stories poured out.
By the time left, the sun had come out and it was a glorious day with blue sky. We did the short trail round the headland for views of Lobster Cove that was resettled when the National Park established. People were given a new house but the old folk were very upset about having to move out.
