Iceberg Alley, Newfoundland

Iceberg Alley, Newfoundland

Some of you may remember that, last year (2019), we spent a month in Newfoundland - our first visit to our easternmost province. It had been on our bucket list for many years, so it was awesome to finally dust off that ambition.

Since then, I have been meaning to post a blog about the amazing experience we had with our encounters with icebergs in, what is known as, Iceberg Alley. At last, I've gotten around to writing this. 

Before you watch the slide show, there are a couple of interesting things we found out about these ice giants - mainly from the guide on the Iceberg Tour Boat, out of Saint Anthony. 

Icebergs usually being their journey when huge chunks off ice break off from the glaciers near to Greenland. It usually takes 2 years for them to float into the vicinity of Newfoundland/Labrador, where they tend to become trapped in bays, or bights, and remain there for a couple of months until they melt away, usually in mid-late July. The month of June is an excellent time to view them, as they sometimes come quite close to the shoreline, and there are some amazing photos, on social media, of humongous icebergs forming a backdrop to a small village, with buildings dwarfed in front of them.

This video shows some Greenland gravel on the top of the flat surface:

 

On some of the photos, you'll see a straight blue line, in the iceberg. These lines indicate a previous waterline mark before an iceberg upends, as a result of becoming top heavy. We didn't see it, in person, but when an iceberg turns upside down, it is a phenomenal event to witness. 

In this slide show, the first two pictures in the slide show are taken from the roadside on our journey up the western side of the Island, on our way up north to Saint Anthony. 

This first glimpse of an iceberg was spectacular as it was shaped like a huge swan!

Most of the pics are from our boat tour. One iceberg, at Saint Carols, was so magnificent that, at the end of the tour, we decided to drive round to the cove and view it from the land. We remained there for a couple of hours, taking in the sheer beauty of this natural edifice while enjoying a picnic on the rocks. 

Towards the end, you'll see another photo of an iceberg taken from Dungeons Provincial Park, near Bonavista, and the last few are from an iceberg we went to see near Twillingate. The latter iceberg (with the boat next to it) actually split in two the following day. We missed it by just a few minutes. 

Anyway, here's the slide show.... just click the picture to start it. 

The guide and skipper on the tour boat had a great sense of humour, too. As we approached our first large iceberg, they started to play the theme music from the movie, 'Titanic'! The boat went in quite close, and the tour guide was able to chip off a large piece of ice, which he proceeded to break up into small pieces for each of the tourists to try. Although there was a slight taste of salt (because it had been in the sea), it was crystal clear, and refreshing. The glaciers from which the iceberg had come were formed before the Industrial Revolution, and so were free from most of the pollution formed since that era. 

He was telling us that many local folk gather the ice from the bergs and use it to make beer. They call it, 'Iceberg Beer', and it's a speciality in the area. 

Beer, or no beer, we will never forget our first encounter with these ice giants.