Our next stop was in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Of course the pronunciation here is not New Found Land it’s more of newfunlun. Newfoundlanders talk fast and combine words. Why come up for air? Just mash it all together.
We had at tour that left at 10 am. Our goal is to see the Gros Morne National Park. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The drive was 2 hours. Along the way we commented that we never thought anyone lived up this far in Canada. Who knew?
Lunch was at a restaurant in Trout River. The Sea Side restaurant. Homemade sandwiches and soup. Good stuff. Dessert was an elderberry tart.
After lunch we went for an “interpretive” hike through the Gros Morne Park. Our guide showed us several different carnivorous plants along the way. The soil is so poor that the plants need to eat insects to survive.
We were in area of the park called the table lands. James Cook gave them this name on his visit here. The flat area reminded him of a dining table and with the winter snow, the table looked like it had a cloth on it. Maybe he was hungry.
Here, the mantle of the earth is exposed. The mantle contains high levels of metals and plants cannot grow on its soil.The iron rusts from the exposure to oxygen and the area has a rusty hue to it. The theory of plate tectonics was confirmed here. One plate collided with another and pulled up part of the mantle which is normally 5 – 15 miles underground.
The mantle is black iron on the inside and rusty on the outside.
A moss grows on the rocks. Dormant until water is poured on and then the moss turns green.
We spent about an hour on this trail and then went into a small museum on the site. Most of the museum focused on plate techtonics.
The ride back to the ship was about 2 hours and it was 3:30. Unlike third party tours, this was a HAL tour and we had the guarantee of getting back in time. We arrived 30 minutes past all aboard of 5:30. The tender was waiting for us and we motored back to the ship.
It was already getting late so we went right up to the Lido Deck to have dinner.
I received a call from Air Canada about my bag. I gave them the ships location in Iceland on Monday. They will fly the bag out tomorrow and deliver it on Monday. I went down to the front desk to get the address of the report. There was a HAL form to fill out for a missing bag. The port agents in Iceland have been notified and now expect to receive a bag that will be put on the ship.
I have learned from other passengers to always carry a change of clothes in your carry on bag. Noted. Air Canada will not even get involved until 48 hours have passed since the bag was lost. The bag was shipped to Sydney Nova Scotia after we had already left. I expect to get notification that it has arrived in Iceland soon.
We met a passenger today who said that there were 18 people that missed the Boston sailing. I wonder how many of those people had the same luck with bags?
We heard the evening entertainment from the front desk. It wasn’t bad but agreed that it wasn’t great. We skipped that for an early night and some sleep.
Tomorrow we stop at Red Bay, Labrador. I doubt if there is much to see. We do not have a tour planned. This is our final stop before crossing the Atlantic to Iceland. Tomorrow should provide more ship time like team trivia and dinner in the dining room.