Gone south camping in Gros Morne

Day 8, July 14th.  Saturday.
(I'm putting the day of the week now because I keep forgetting what day it is.)

I left home a week ago today. Wow.  It's been one hell of a week.  I did quite a bit, but there's much to see and do.

I woke up at about 7:45, went and showered right away so that i could cook myself the eggs I've been waiting for (read: dreading)

I do not have high hopes for the eggs and simulated bacon.  Seems the Bauly brand of food needs to be cooked rather than add water and sit.

powdered eggs

I added water and let it sit anyhow, because I'm crazy that way.

Well, I made myself some nice egg soup at about 8:30.  I tried a few spoonfulls of this gritty, bland soup in case it had a decent taste.  It didn't. It's disgusting.  The Mounting House brand was actually pretty good comparatively and could eat bags of it.

I don't know how Bauly manages to stuff 200+ calories and 16 grams of fat in that bag.  they should have put a few grams of flavor.  That was a waste of $5

Well, at least I have some decent coffee and a Sweet and Salty nut bar.

A GS biker who was camping came by to chat.  His GS broke down last year and he left it here until he could pick it up.  I don't think I could do that myself.  My bike is my life right now and I couldn't leave it unless I really had to.
He invited me over for breakfast, but I declined.

The American across the way (forgot his name, Eric maybe?) came by to chat again and take a picture of the bike and me with the bike.  He invited me to a blueberry pancake breakfast but declined as well.  I wanted to get on the move. lots to see, many miles to cover.

My bike brings all the boys to the yard and they're like... it's better than yours.

They came by when I was having my coffee and typing up the blog in notepad.  It may not be written any better, but it'll save me time later.

I broke camp and headed to L'Anse Au Meadows.  It's a UNESCO world heritage site and on my bucket list.  That list is not getting any shorter somehow and I keep adding new things to the list.  I should just have a short list of where I DON'T want to go.

In the parking lot I met a KTM rider who just got there.  He was travelling with 2 GS riders.  He didn't go to the site as he has been there before.

He did the TLH in 2 days, where it took me 4.  They had no problems and found the road to be in great shape.  REALLY?  I thought that road was the hardest I'd been on.  He said that the Dempster highway going to Inuvik is much harder.  We'll see when I ride it.  He had a friend die on the Cabot Trail last week. Seems a deer took him out, and he was an experienced rider.  I need to keep my eyes peeled.


When  suddenly,Vikings!

I toured around the old Viking site, forgoing the tour.  I wanted to go my own pace and see what I wanted to see.

Viking Porn

Island circled, is...

...this island in the distance? wow.

Sculpture of the meeting of the worlds.

Must be a highly prized Viking boot

Re-created Viking site.  This is what you see in all the commercials with the little girl running out of a doorway.

I walked in the doorway beside the Viking sitting there.  I thought he, and the woman beside him were statues.  They were doing Viking things

This Viking was a Blacksmith, the black part being the color of metal he worked on.  He did mostly nails and other things with the bog ore found locally.  The site was made as a temporary winter camp to fix the boats to make the run back to Iceland with resources found in North America. 

random flower.

looks like she's late for work.  the Blacksmith is probably hungry... get in the kitchen!

On my way out I came upon a camera on the boardwalk.  I picked it up and ran back (walked briskly) to a small group of Japanese tourists.  It was hard to tell who's it was as they all had two cameras slung around their necks.  The Japanese are an odd group of people.

I left the viking site and started to head over to St Anthony because of what the info girl had said about the iceberg stuck near it.  On my way back though, I saw a massive iceberg.  Never seen one before and it looked absolutely massive.

Getting close to St Anthony I saw a smaller iceberg.  double score!  no pictures of that one as that stretch of highway is really busy.

Got a coffee and fuel and headed south.  I wasn't really hungry even though I hadn't eaten much.  I'll figure something out.

I wanted to camp out in Gros Morne National Park which was 300km away.  It gave me an ETA of 5:10pm on the GPS.

Just outside of Anchor Point I spotted a moose standing in a bog.  Not close (about 100 feet away) but at least I know they're plotting, waiting for me to make a mistake and BAM, run out onto the road in front of me.

Right before I hit Gros Morne, I ran out of gas in the primary and had to swtich to reserve. Already? CRAP.  I only have about 30km before I run dry and there doesn't seem to be any gas for many miles.
Luckily about 30 KM later, I found my oasis.
I put 20 litres in (meaning I had 1 Litre left) and went on my merry way.   few miles down the road I stopped in a grocery all in one store to do some shopping.

I bought a pack of Brats, a can of molasses beans and two packs of laundry detergent.  Hobo supper it is.

Views along the way

I found a nice spot by the Ocean, but didn't have a ranger and i wanted wood.  I passed on that spot and followed a sign for Berry hill camping.  Ranger is here with wood. Heh.  The ranger told me that at the other location there was wood, but you would have to wait until a ranger got there at 8pm or so.  I didn't want to wait, plus the site seemed crowded.

Got a nice little spot ($32), quiet enough for the 60+ spots here.

I got wood.

The fellow across the way came to chat.  He's got a Vstrom and we chatted bikes for a bit. He just retired from Bell (Aliant) as a cable repair/linesman/ outside tech.  He says cable kinda sucks because all the cable is old and he just had to patch everything.

small world.

Made camp and started my fire. While setting up the tent I noticed something move in the bushes.

I poked him a few times with a stick.  Les Stroud would be proud.
I also noticed that I put the tent right by a strawberry patch.  The berries are good for the local wildlife, and I'm not starving, so I passed.

Grilled brats and bean on the menu, with a Rolo hot chocolate for desert in my Hobo can (i'm keeping it, it's the best size)

I tried to get my cell to tether so i could upload the blog, but that didn't work out.
I cleaned my utensils in the common kitchen area (sinks) and an older woman said she liked my shirt.  She actually sounded southern. The shirt in question is "God made me an Atheist". Lol.  People look at the shirt usually and don't know what to say.

Not much else going on, but staring at the fire and charging my cell through my laptop.
I laid down on top of the picnic table and looked up at the sky.  It was an amazing scene, the clearest of nights.  It has been overcast pretty much since I left home and this was the first night I saw the stars.  They were gorgeous.

There were so nice, I had to take a picture to share with you.