I didn't get to sight see much in Corner Brook and so it will be added to the "Nfld. to-do list". Since Corner Brook is the closest city to St. Anthony (4-5 hr. drive) I expect I'll be driving down to it for a few more times before the year is out.I drove into Gros Morne National Park and it is a sight to behold. It, too, is a UNESCO site and during its induction the following comment was made: "As the Galapagos are to Biology so is Gros Morne to geology". Weighty words indeed.
Newfoundland island is geologically very, very interesting. Not only are the rocks here very old (3 billion yrs with the oldest known rocks on the planet being 4 billion) but Nfld. is right on the edge of the North American plate which collided with the Eurasian/African plates in the distant past. That's why the eastern most fringes of Nfld. contain African rocks.I went on a tour with a Canada Parks guide and he put it quite succinctly: "North America and Europe came close together and Gros Morne was born". The mountains, which used to be rock on the seafloor, were forced up and now have been eroding for quite some time. He took us on a tour of the Tablelands to see some of the geology and flora of the area. My guidebook described the Tablelands as being similar to the surface of the moon. I'll agree it looks quite out-of-this-world but the rocks had a funny yellowy-beige tinge (apparently the result of the iron-rich rocks being exposed to air and water, hmm, that's funny, I'm not sure which iron compound would be yellowy).
It's amazing that plants can grow on a really rocky surface. In Nfld., plants grow "low and slow". Indeed, the winds are so vicious here that you can see wind-damaged plants and flowers. The most interesting native flora include: an orchid (of all plants!), carnivorous plants (e.g. pitcher plants), and "old growth forest" with one juniper bush apparently being around 1,000 years old. He handed out cross-sectional samples of some of the trees and you need a magnifying glass to be able to count the densely packed rings. 
The afternoon was supposed to be another highlight -- a boat tour of a "pond". A "pond" is essentially a fjord (created as glaciers cut into the rock to get to the sea) that later became landlocked. Unfortunately, the weather was not going to cooperate. It was overcast and intermittently raining. When I arrived at the dock there was also fog and the trip was cancelled because of poor visibility. Unfortunately, it will be bright and sunny tomorrow -- arrgh, bad timing.
At this point I was wet, sticky, and just wanted a roof over my head so I headed straight to my B&B to finish off the day. I had a traditional pan-fried cod dinner at a local restaurant before tucking in.
