Rocky Harbour to River of Ponds, New Foundland – 15 July 2023
We continued our journey northwards following the Viking trail, a 489 km one way drive which connects Deer Lake in the South of NL with St Anthony in the North. The Trail was lined with beautiful wildflowers and scenic views of mountains, forests, and rugged coastline. We passed several small villages dotted with houses by the water with their fishing boats, nets and lobster pots. As we exited the North entrance of Gros Morne Park which is fastidiously maintained by the Feds, there was a definite change in the quality of the road and we were back to lots of potholes again. We also completely lost cell coverage. RV Trip wizard which we rely on to keep us on “RV safe routes” seem to think our campground was further than it was and we ended up missing the turn and travelling another 10km before we could find a place to safely turn around.
When we eventually arrived at the Campground we were given a spot in a forested area. The spot was parallel to the road and difficult to manoeuvre into because it was uneven, had several trees and also soft ground. I jumped out to guide Derek and was immediately attacked by swarms of flying bugs. I ran back to the car and grabbed my jacket which I zipped up with my head gear on. It was sweltering hot and I was sweating profusely, swinging my arms around in all directions to swat them away. It was horrible. Luckily a guy who was already parked in the spot behind us came over and took over helping to direct Derek, as I tried to get away from the bugs. It wasn’t long before I heard a crunch and Derek had hit the back of the RV into the utility pole – we should have never trusted this guy. The whole edge on the back had come away and there were scratches on the side. I then went back to help again and we got the RV into the spot but it was sinking in the mud and if it rained we would be in trouble. I jumped back into the truck to pull my sweaty jacket off and escape the bugs and Derek jumped out the other side and walked over to the office to try and get another spot. Luckily there was space right across from the Lake which was on gravel and not in the forest. Not entirely bug free but much better. This time getting into the spot was easy, however, our problems were not over yet.
We had no sewer connection – that was ok, we could dump on the way out, but we had a problem with the power. We had adjusted to campsites in the Atlantic provinces only having 30 instead of 50 amps and we’re careful not to overload, but as soon as Derek connected the power, the voltage started at 110v (usually it starts at 120v) and as soon as he started turning things on (even if they were only 10amp), the voltage dropped to below 100 v and the electrical management system inside the RV shut off all the power to protect the electrical components. This was an absolute nightmare as we couldn’t switch anything on, including the air con and the temperature inside the RV was 28 degrees c. I couldn’t bear to be inside and sat with Jax outside in the shade, both of us getting eaten alive by bugs with no cell or internet reception. Eventually Derek pulled everything out of the basement of the RV and climbed inside to see if he could figure out what the issue was. After what seemed like a few hours, things were no better. I went up to the office and got myself an ice cream (hell they were advertising soft serve with about 35 flavours) and got Derek a drink and then asked the office if they had any known issues with the power at our site. Lucky for us they had an Electrician handy who came down to chat with Derek. It seems that the park’s electrical circuits were overloaded (it was a hot day and lots of RVs had their air con on which draws a lot of current) Also older RVs don’t have any protection against voltage drops and will continue to use the lower voltage (which can damage electrical equipment) but because we have an EMS it cuts the power off when the voltage is too low. It was eventually resolved when the Electrician moved our site’s outlet to a less loaded circuit and we could finally cool the Beast down. We still only had about half the power available but at least the voltage did not drop.
The next challenge was the water pressure. It was so low that the toilet’s shut off valve could not close and therefore kept filling the toilet up slowly. So we decided to fill the water tank and use the onboard pump to increase the pressure which solved the problem of the leaky toilet, but the water pump ever so often cycled on which indicated a possible leak somewhere in the RV’s underbelly. So, finally we resolved that issue by filling up bottles of water and using those instead of the tank.
So that day was a bit of a write off to say the least. With all the issues we didn’t really have time to appreciate the lovely lake in front of us. There were several people swimming and every so often I would take Jax down to paddle. Im hoping we do get to swim before we leave. I did end up with about 10 very big bites at the back of my neck which were still bothering me a week later. Also, I had a couple of bites just on the side of my eye. Thank goodness I was wearing glasses. – such nasty buggers.
The River of Ponds derives its name from the river that flows from a number of ponds in the area extending from the foot of the Long Range Mountain to the ocean. Since arriving in NL we have seen signs for Ponds, Bogs, Streams, Rivers, Brooks and more. In a nutshell, a pond has water flowing in and out of it and is used to describe lakes here; a bog is like a marsh usually formed from rain and as streams refer to any type of flowing body of water, many water bodies such as rivers, creeks, brooks, and rivulets are called streams.
The following day we took a drive out to the national historic site at Port aux Choix. When we got there we found a large visitors centre/museum and a sign warning of nearby Cariboo. I left Derek to walk Jax and went inside to investigate. As I turned the corner inside the centre I saw a large, furry male Cariboo peering at me through the floor length windows. He was not the least bit concerned just chewing away on something. Apparently he often comes to the visitors centre – I guess he feels quite safe there. It was a really exciting moment to see such a beautiful creature so close up. His back was full of scars, I would imagine from fighting with other bull Cariboos. I took loads of pictures of him and then walked around the museum which had a lot of information about early Maritime Archaic, Dorset, Groswater and Beothuk inhabitants. Then I swapped with Derek so he could take a look as well. There were a few other Cariboos that I could see walking along the road in the distance. Later we drove a little further to the end of the road where there was the Point Riche lighthouse. The lighthouse had several trails in different directions and there were loads of beautiful wildflowers. We walked on the beach for a while which was filled with very very large unusually shaped granite rocks and then walked across the field to an ancient burial ground. On the way home we stopped at Foodland. I bought a few vegetables but they were very poor quality and the protein was very limited unless you wanted to buy frozen, breaded stuff. Everything is so pricey here, not sure how people manage.
The following day we took a drive to Arches Provincial Park. I was expecting to see many more arches and also a nice trail. There was not much there, just a large rock with three arches in it. It was still cool though to think that these arches have formed over millions of years by erosion from glaciers, wind and water and that it is anticipated that they will continue to erode until all that is left is a rock pillar or sea stack.
Our last day at the campsite so Jax and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and found the River of Ponds trail. It was quite overgrown and I felt a little vulnerable being by myself. The trail was lined with brightly coloured signs and little bird houses and there were several ponds leading off it for salmon fishing. As we walked, frogs kept on jumping on the path in front of us which made Jax go crazy. Eventually I heard a man’s voice ahead which sounded like he was talking to a dog so I hastly turned around and took Jax back home. I was very curious about the frogs I had seen and as they were quite big I wondered if they were toads. Turns out they are Mink frogs and very common in eastern Canada. They smell like Minks which is akin to rotten onions. The Males are generally smaller than females and their eardrums are larger than their eyes, while in the female it is the same size. The female can lay 500-2000 eggs at once! I learned that the key difference between a Toad and Frog is that Toads tends to have dry, bumpy, warty skin, shorter body and muscular legs. Frogs, on other hand, tend to have slimy, smoother bodies, longer legs and bulgy eyes.
The one thing I am noticing a lot here is the amount of chopped wood that is stacked along the sides of the road. Piles and piles of it. Also sometimes the wood is stacked in long vertical sticks. I read that many local people use wood as a source of heat for their homes. The wood is cut in winter and transported from wood cutting areas to the highways using snowmobiles and bob sleighs. The wood is left to dry during summer and taken to the homes in the fall. Everyone knows who owns which wood and they don’t steal from each other. The most common wood is spruce and fir.
