Gros Morne National Park - day 2

Today was the first really rainy day that we've had here on Newfoundland - or at least when we weren't driving from one place to another (we have had drizzly/rainy days on a couple of the days when we were driving). We had planned to join a ranger-led hike to the Tablelands area of the park, so we went ahead and went anyway... and we enjoyed it even though it was drizzly or rainy pretty much the whole time.... so not many good pictures!

The Tablelands area of Gros Morne is an area of the earth's mantle that has pushed up through the crust and exposed. It is quite different from other areas on the earth as no vegetation can grow on this surface - until top soil gets blown in by the wind and then plants can grow.

Unfortunately, because it was raining, I couldn't take notes either... and there aren't a lot of things I remember precisely enough to share.

One thing though was the plant "wormwood" - this is one of the plants that starts to grow in this harsh environment. The ranger said that the "grandmothers" would collect it and make a concoction that would be used for deworming children and animals (and I guess, adults too, but maybe they don't need it as frequently).

Another was the "pitcher plant" - its leaves are in the form of pitchers that collect water. Insects such as mosquitoes and midges lay their eggs in the water and the larvae hatch and eat other insects that end up in the pitcher. The plant extracts nitrogen from the larvae poop in its leaves!

Leaves of the Pitcher plant

With the rain, at times the sun came out... and there was a beautiful rainbow:

Rainbow over the path/road that we had traveled!

Tomorrow we will be heading further south, near where we will be catching the ferry back to Nova Scotia at the end of the week.