The first stop in the Tablelands area is at the Discovery Center, the visitor center on this side of Gros Morne NP. We were wondering if we are going to meet the cruise passengers and this is where they are, there is a bus outside but when we enter they are nowhere to be seen. We doubt they are hiking but we will take it as we start with the gift shop and the plush life size bear and moose taking photos with them.
We find out that the cruise passengers were in the movie theater quite evidently when they start to file out and fill out all the exhibits. Still we continue first with the exhibit about the Native people and what they were eating, plants nice, moose nose, oh my god it is even a delicacy, let’s run away.
And the next panel is how to call the moose for supper, to eat it, poor moose. Also this is not some ancient wisdom, mooses were introduced in late 1800s so there is no established tradition to kill and eat moose in Newfoundland.
The second section is about the geological importance of the Tablelands which was the reason Gros Morne became an Unesco World Heritage Site. It shows part of Rodinia, an ancient supercontinent as well as significant portions of other geological eras.
And with this multitude of geological areas available there are also a multitude of fossils with the most common one being as you would expect, trilobites. We enjoy the exhibits even with the significant number of cruise passengers around but then iti is time to move on towards the Tablelands proper.
