Wednesday, June 10, 2015

St. Anthony, Newfoundland–Part 1

I arrived in St. Anthony, NL on Jun 4 on a rainy, grey day.  As I was about 30 Km out of St. Anthony I saw my first icebergs, I was so excited!!

I set out as soon as I was settled at Triplenl_ls_d1_goose_cove_pumley_trail Falls RV Park.  I ended up going to Goose Cove and walking part of the Pumley Trail, but it was so foggy I could not see much --

While driving around, I found the St. Anthony Bight park.  It was an extremely rough dirt road, but worth it!  In the cove were a couple of icebergs and I decided to follow the “journey” of one of these icebergs over the next couple of days.  It’s not going anywhere because it is grounded, but I want to see how much it melts over the next several days.

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The cove itself is interesting and I have enjoyed just sitting on the rocks a couple of days.  Twice I have heard a loud thunder like noise and then a big splash as large pieces of the iceberg break off.

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About 95% of the icebergs in this area (known as iceberg alley) are from Greenland.  They have traveled quite a distance!

On my second day, I took a tour with Northland Discovery Boat Tours.   In the last 15 years or so I have started getting sea sick, so I was concerned.  I took some medicine to keep from getting sick. I felt a bit queasy, but did not get sick like several other people on the boat.

Anyway, the glaciers were awesome.  I have had a hard time narrowing down which pictures to post.  The next 9 pictures are all from the first iceberg that we went to.  This iceberg is about 120 feet tall at the tallest point (from the water and up).  It is currently grounded in water that is approximately 180 feet deep, so part of it is 180 feet below the surface of the water.  It was huge.

We went around it, so below are many pictures of the same huge iceberg from different angles.  It kind of looks like 2 icebergs, but it is all connected.

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If that was all we saw the trip would have been worth it, but there was more to see!!!  It is hard to tell the size of these, but all are huge.  Not as large as the first one but the one below is about 70 feet high. 

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Some houses on a hill overlooking the water for a brief non-iceberg moment!

nl_ls_d2_tour91The next several pictures are all of the same iceberg from different angles.  The size, shape and textures of these make it so interesting.  As the boat made its way around we found that this iceberg has a channel through it.nl_ls_d2_tour92nl_ls_d2_tour92anl_ls_d2_tour93nl_ls_d2_tour94nl_ls_d2_tour95nl_ls_d2_tour97nl_ls_d2_tour98More houses on the hill as we head back to the dock.nl_ls_d2_tour99

It was a great trip and I have several more days here!

After the boat trip, I went back to St. Anthony Bight park and relaxed a while.

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1 comment:

  1. Oh your iceberg pictures are fantastic! It always amazes me that they are blue. I know my lips turn blue when I am really cold but I doubt that's why icebergs are blue. It does make me sad though to think that we are warming the climate and melting them all. Thanks for letting me see these. Beautiful color.

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