Tuesday - August 14, 2007

Well, it rained all night last night and kept on going this morning, it would stop for a few minutes so John would run out and do a bit to get ready to go then come back in until there was another lull, so we didn’t get away until about 11. We drove to Grand Falls-Windsor, about 220 km so not a bad drive. The drive was through the middle of the province rather than along the coast so wasn’t as scenic as we have had but the highway was good and there wasn’t a lot traffic. We are now set up at Sanger Memorial Park and it is a very nice park – big sites and full hook ups. They have wi-fi but you can only get it by the office, so we will either have to sit in the truck to use it or at a picnic table. There seem to be a lot of black flies here so I guess we will probably sit in the truck out of bugs way!! They were very busy here, which really surprised us, so I have called and made reservations at Twillingate from Thursday to Sunday inclusive, we don’t want to get up there and find out they are full!

When we got here the sun was shining so after we got set up we decided to go into town and check out the Salmonid Interpretation Centre and it was very interesting. The Exploits River, the largest river on the island, runs by Grand Falls but because the falls are so high the salmon couldn’t get up the river to spawn, so in the 60’s the government built a ladder for the salmon to get up the river. There are 35 rungs on the ladder and the gal at the interpretation centre said a young salmon can get up the rungs in about 20 minutes but it would take all day for an older salmon to make the run. We stood where the ladder started and watched a number of salmon jump up, and also watched a couple get tossed back down by the rushing water, and then at the top we watched quite a few make the last jump – very interesting. We also learned that the Atlantic salmon don’t die after spawning like the Pacific salmon do.

Just as we were ready to head back to the truck it started to rain, luckily we made it to the truck before it really started to come down as it has been coming down in torrents since then (I think the barbecuer is going to get damp tonight!). We drove into Grand Falls-Windsor but by then it was raining so hard you couldn’t see a thing so we gave up and came home. We did see a large Sobey’s as well as Dominion so tomorrow I will check them out for fresh produce but I couldn’t be bothered today as we would have got soaked getting in and out of the store.

We have booked the mussel bound tour for tomorrow afternoon so here’s hoping the weather is nice for it!