Gander to Doyles, Newfoundland – 26 August 2023

Kings Point, NL – 26 August, 2023

After Gander we moved on to Kings Point, a small town on Green Bay, NL and spent the night at a lovely campsite overlooking the water. Before settling in we went for a quick visit into town before heading out for a hike along the Alexander Murray Trail. There was a Whale Pavilion at Kings Point with a beautifully preserved 50-foot female whale skeleton on display, which is the world’s largest reconstruction of a Humpback whale. She was unfortunately caught in a fishing net in 2001 with her calf and did not survive. They towed her to King’s Point where they had the idea to put her skeleton on display. Apparently it was quite the task and they ended up having to ship a number of her bones to Alberta for reconstruction.

Deer Lake, NL – 27 August, 2023

After Kings Point it was on to Deer Lake where we stayed a couple of nights at the Gateway to the North RV park. It rained solidly the day we arrived and the next day we hurriedly went for a walk between showers on the Humber Lake trail which fortunately for us was a short walk from the campground. The trail was very well maintained with well marked trails strewn with sawdust.

We saw some fascinating fungi here, in particular what is called Witches Butter. The shape was irregular, gelatinous, and brain-like and as you can see in the photo it was a bright lemon yellow colour. Apparently “the brain” tremors when disturbed and during dry weather, it dries and shrivels into a leathery mass. Then, when it rains, it fully revives back into its original state!

In researching fungi I read that there are over 100,000 species worldwide. I will certainly be on the lookout for different species going forward, especially as we spend a lot of time in forests.

Doyles, NL – 29 August, 2023

The following day it was a few hour trip back to the first campground we had stayed in when we arrived 2 months ago in Doyles. It was good to be back there again and we were able to get the very same campsite that we had, had previously.

We had been watching the weather closely as not only was there a threat of a tropical storm, which could possibly be a hurricane called Franklin but there was also a weather disturbance which if the two collided would mean trouble and no leaving the island on the ferry. Lucky for us nothing came of either of them and we were able to leave as planned.