day 3 – july 3:

a full, full day: another early morning… out by 5am for the long trek to the west coast. destination: rocky harbour. the map said it would take about 8.5 hours to get there – it took 12 – with stops, of course 😉

as soon as i left st. john’s, i hit fog. it would last for a solid 2 hours, at times with no visibility except for the hood of the car… i had reached the village of deep bight just off the trans-canada highway (tch), on trinity bay, when i noticed light starting to break through the fog. i made my way to the waterfront and parked by the boat launch to witness a most glorious scene: fog and clouds set aglow as they were breaking over the water.

as is the case with a lot of the tch through most other provinces, the road can get a bit dull as the highway winds through the countryside and misses all those little towns and villages that are otherwise seen via secondary roads. alas, in newfoundland, the tch is the only game in town when trying to reach the west coast from the east coast. so, i ate up the kilometres passing the communities of gambo, gander, bishop’s falls, badger and others.

as i was approaching the town of springdale in central newfoundland, i decided to stop at the visitor centre on the tch. i had been driving for quite a while and thought a little distraction would be good. i asked the young lady behind the counter if there was anything scenic in the general area and she pointed me to the 800′ rattling brook falls. it was about a half hour away using the 390 and 391 off the tch. sold!

after hitting a post office in king’s point (because i had forgotten to mail a letter back in toronto), i got back on the tch and made my way towards my west coast destination.

as one of the staff had mentioned at an earlier visitor centre i stopped at, when you approach the west coast of newfoundland, the landscape changes… it becomes more mountainous and rugged. so it was the case when i reached deer lake and broke off the tch onto the 430 heading north towards gros morne national park and ultimately rocky harbour.

after passing the park entrance, it’s almost as if you enter a new dimension… the road (the viking trail) becomes much prettier, the views become nothing short of spectacular – in short i was in heaven! i made a quick  stop along this scenic wonder at an unidentified lookout overlooking wigwam pond – breathtaking!

my destination reached some 12 hours later, i checked into my room, dropped off my luggage and set out to find something for dinner in rocky harbour. a vegetarian chilli meal finished, i headed out to lobster cove head lighthouse for dusk and sunset views of bonne bay and the gulf of st. lawrence.