Western Brook Pond (8/8/23 Tue)

Before bed last night I went to the pavillion for some internet service and purchased Western Brook Pond boat tour tickets for Tuesday at 1600.

The boat tour takes you into one of the most beaatiful locations in Gros Morne. But one must hike 2.7km into the boat dock to get onto the boat. So we targeted 1400 in the parking lot, to give us time to prep, hike, and get our boarding passes.

No need to rush, we had some time to kill. Coffee in camp then headed up the coast to Sally's Cove for breakfast. At breakfast we met a woman confirming the parking lot was correct for the boat tour. I assured her that she wasn't daft, the parkting lot she went to was the corret one for the Western Brook Pond cruise, even though so little information is shown at the trailhead. Then she pulled up her email with the direction and said it wsa taking her much further North. When we looked closely at her email and she was going to the Bon Cove tour, on the coast further north. Apparently she forgot that the Western Brook Pond tour was full and she booked a different one. OK so maybe she was a bit daft.

Anne and I decided to just head up the coast about and hour and see some of the other good "view" waypoints I had entered on the gps last year. They did indicate some great views along the road, but all offered no place to pull off to snap photos. Eventally we reached the target town, but it did not have the expected gas stop. Thats OK, we didn't need gas. We went to a market instead and picked up some peanut-butter and jelly, bread and chips. Thinking it could be our dinner.

Then we headed back to the parking lot for our hike. It's a beautiful hike into the dock. You keep getting closer to the mountains, until you find a lake and dock in your way. Luckily that obsticle was solved our with our $72CA/each tickets.

The tour takes about 2 hours and runs the full length of the "pond" (which I would call a lake). There are many reveals and stories that go with the amazing scenery. The lighting at 1700 is great for some shots and made others near impossible. But what you could photograph was spectacular and well worth the cost to see. On the trip back to port our tour guide pulls out a guitar and starts playing Newfie music for us.

Back at the dock the concession area was open until the crowd was done. I'm not sure about the food, as we ate none, but the coffee was fine. The walk back to the parking lot was just as pretty as the walk in. Especially if you remember to to turn around and look back at the mountains regularly.

Once back at the bikes, we decided to head to Rocky Harbour for dinner at Jackie's and not eat our PB&J dinner. Great idea for tonight, but now we need to pack everything up early and head for the Labrador Ferry. We don't have endless storage space. And we need to pack up and go early, as the ferry is 2.5 hours ride north and we hope to load at 1030.