Following the Viking Trail, Day 1

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

(Newfoundland and Labrador is the correct name of the province, but most people refer to Newfoundland when speaking of the island and use Labrador to talk about the more northern area of the province. We’ll use the common abbreviations of NL for Newfoundland and Lab. for Labrador.)

We got an early start, leaving home at 6:00 a.m. for our 7:20 Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. Then we continued on NWA from Detroit to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where we’d hoped to catch a taxi and take a quick tour of Halifax waterfront during our four hour break. Since a couple of 747s deplaned just as we did, the line through Canadian customs was very long and took a lot of time. We’ll have to tour Halifax some other day.

Our final flight of the day, on Air Canada, took us to Deer Lake, NL where we landed around 8 p.m. As we headed to claim our bags, our Wildland Tours driver and guide, Mark Tsang, met us with a big smile on his face, holding a sign that said, “Welcome Harold and Bonnie.”

For the first of countless times, we climbed into the 12-passenger white van, our home for the week. Explaining that we had a 90-minute drive ahead of us, Mark phoned the restaurant in our motel so we could order a late dinner. He knew the restaurant would be closed when we arrived. This was just the first of many examples of Mark making sure we had everything we needed.

Driving north, we soon reached the southern boundary of Gros Morne (pronounced “morn”) National Park with Mark outlining its general importance and noting that we’d spend the next two days in the park. Much of the time we drove near the coastline of the St. Lawrence Gulf as the sun set over the water and mountains.

It was close to 10 p.m. when we reached our destination, Shallow Bay Resort, located in Cow Head - the first of many colorful NL names we’d learn. (From the water you can see a boulder similar to the shape of a cow’s head. 2006 population was 493. In the 1920s, Cow Head had 20 lobster factories and logging was an important industry.)

The sky was still a dusky twilight and the air crisp and cool as we unlocked the door to our cabin finding two bedrooms, a bath and a combination kitchen-living room. It reminded us of cabins in northern Minnesota or Wisconsin; comfortable, clean and a slightly rustic décor.

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