Dan Will Travel

I'm Dan and I WILL Travel

Ok all of you wine, whiskey, scotch, and port snobs. This place has really got one over you. Look at this beautiful blue beer bottle. Made with 20,000 year old iceberg water!

And it is quite good beer. Might have been better at 15,000 years, but still nice.

It says: Made with pure 20,000 year old iceberg water. Remember the old Olympia brewery tag line? “Its the water” Well, in this case it sure is the story!

At the risk of exposing my stupidity and/or losing all remaining readers, I will do a very brief, reasonably factual story here that explains why, as Price Edwards said in dedicating the UNESCO world heritage site here at Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland is for geology as the Galapagos are for biology. The case for tectonic plates was really made here. When the fossils of eastern Newfoundland (NFLD) related to Spain and Africa and the fossils of western NFLD related to North America, there had to be a reason. Throw in one of the most bizarre places on the planet (the tablelands) where the rock literally from the earth’s deep interior mantle was thrust onto the surface and you have one of the best cases for the tectonic plate theory that is now fully accepted. But this really dates only back 50 years or so. It turns out that NFLD was part of the ancient super continent which broke apart and then this area reconnected again. OK, I will quit with all of this, but it really is quite something what they were able to put together from what was learned at Gros Morne National Park here.

Distant view of the tablelands. Even from a distance, it is clear that this is not a normal formation. Unusual shapes, and colors.
The tablelands. One of the more bizarre places on the planet. Although this rock from the earth’s mantle is similar to typical rock in how it is made up, the chemicals are in different proportions making plants essentially unable to grow on it.
Weird very yellow rock. I guess this is a view of what rock normally far below us inside the earth might look like?
Lovely town of Norris Point where I stayed in the park

When I laid this trip out, the main reason for the entire trip was Newfoundland. I wanted to experience the remoteness, the beauty, and most of all the floating icebergs that travel south on “Iceberg Alley.” Whether I succeeded with the icebergs will come later. For now, here are some initial impressions

After 6 1/2 hours on a great ferry, this is the first thing I saw. Port aux Basques. Immediately one notices the lack of trees and the more somber paint colors. And to think the Basques from Spain fished right here 500 years ago!
Made it! This is definitely a remote place, but google Newfoundland and Labrador and look at the province’s web site. Has to be one of the best tourist web sites anywhere! It will make you want to come too.

View from a lonely country road southern Newfoundland.
Any fans of American Pickers? Well, the guys should drop by here when they are in the area. LOL. I cannot begin to describe how remote this was. And why anyone would go to all of this bother for essentially no one to see it.
Pretty typical Newfoundland scene. Water, rain, and bogs.
Yes, it is cold, raining heavily and windy. Pretty permanent condition here I think.