MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Spring 2019

36 ML BLUE SPRING 2019 words :: Ned Morgan photos :: Craig Minielly Instead of referring to Newfoundland by well-worn epithet “The Rock”, I suggest a rethink. After visiting last June, and experiencing an awful lot of rock, it would be more accurate—though decidedly less pithy—to refer to Newfoundland as “The Three Geologic Zones”: Avalon (East), Dunnage/Gander (Central), and Humber (West). My expedition cruise around Newfoundland took up the first half of June aboard the 137-metre Ocean Endeavour , a 1B ice-class passenger ship operated by Adventure Canada. The voyage felt Odyssey-like—a quest to uncover distant realms of mist and myth. Place-names like Avalon, Isle Aux Morts and Lourdes reinforced this impression. The fact that the Paleoeskimo, Thule, Norse, and other now-vanished peoples passed along these shores, further reinforced this impression. While many of the peoples who travelled here have come and gone, the rock remains— largely unchanged through our comparatively short human epoch. The many varieties of rock on offer in Newfoundland are worthy of many volumes and even a small library of interpretation. Due to space constraints I can offer but a brief impression of one of The Rock’s geologic zones. HUMBER GEOLOGIC ZONE: COX’S AND BRAKE’S COVE As we approach Cox’s Cove—roughly a quarter of the way up Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula, in the Bay of Islands—I notice a staircase leading up a steep headland just west of the harbour. After we disembark for the day, I walk to the edge of Cox’s Cove and find the staircase, which plunges from a small overgrown park to a ROUNDING THE ROCK Newfoundland’s rocky coastline, up close and in the round TRAVEL The reconstruction of the Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.The Site lies at the northern tip of Newfoundland.