Cruising Western Brook Pond, Gros Morne NP
On Tuesday, June 9th, Day 12 of the trip and our 5th day in Newfoundland, we took one of the best tours we’ve ever been on – 2 hours sailing the 16-km length of Western Brook Pond, a strange name for one of the world’s most dramatic lakes. The cost $99 per person – seems like a bargain give the day we had, but part of that was due to near-perfect weather.
We arrived 2 hours early to find the huge parking lot 95% full. I expect that this is the #1 tour in Newfoundland. It’s 3 km from the parking lot to the boat dock – I chose to walk it, while Cathy paid $10 to ride a golf cart.
The first photo shows the start of the trail at 10:50.
I took quite a few photos along the trail – many of the plants are new to me.
There goes Cathy in the golf cart.
Nearing the lake.
The tour building, with tickets sales, cafe, gift shop, washrooms, etc, is very nice.
Right at noon, people were disembarking from the largest of three boats. The MV Westbrook I is a catamaran hull. I haven’t been able to find credible passenger capacity but I think she holds about 120.
When boarding began, there were about 40 people ahead of us. I had a specific seat I wanted, and chose to board the smaller Westbrook II, which probably holds about 80 people. On rough days she wouldn’t be as good a ride, not being a cat-hull, but that wasn’t a concern today.
I got the seat I wanted – the front corner of the top deck 🙂 A few people chose to stand at the bow for the entire trip.
Things started off slow as we sailed toward the dramatic part of the lake – which is most of it. We detoured a bit to get a good look at what may be the best, or perhaps the only, good beach on the lake.
From here on, there’s not much to say – I just want you to see this incredible, powerful place.
We reached the end of the lake/fjord at about 1:40. There are two notable waterfalls here – the next photo shows one that was quite well hidden by mist and cliffs.
The next two photos show an incredible waterfall that is completely airborne for the first few hundred feet!
Disembarking, with a couple of hundred more people waiting to take our seats for the third sailing of the day.
Cathy had quite a wait for the golf cart ride back, but we got back to the parking lot within a couple of minutes of each other.
Wow!, what a day!! And it was only about 3:30 – lots of day left, and we weren’t finished exploring. The next post (a shorten one) will cover the rest of the day.
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