While hiking in the Tablelands in Gros Morne National Park, NL we ran into some fellow tourists from "away" that told us there was a giant iceberg stuck in La Scie Harbour. We had yet to see an iceberg so the next day we packed up camp and headed off in search of our next adventure. I'll never forget the view of La Scie from the top of the hill. The town was nestled along the shore; the Harbour, a long bay was full of harbour ice. At its mouth was a gigantic iceberg that looked like a big white ship at anchor. Apparently the iceberg was actually grounded, stuck on the ocean bottom.

Ron became like a man possessed. We had to find a closer view of the iceberg to photograph it. We drove down the hill into the town and skirted the shoreline around the Harbour. But we could not find a spot along the shore with a close enough view for pictures. That's when Ron announced that the photographs would have to be taken from a kayak. I started to question how safe that might be but he of course was going regardless. The iceberg wasn't visible from the dock. Therefore Ron in his kayak wouldn't be visible either. That thought made my decision easy. I would rather paddle my own kayak in the frigid water full of ice floes and see what Ron was doing than stand on a shore and wonder - even if it would only be my 4th time ever in a kayak!

We unloaded our kayaks from the car, put on our gear and shoved off. The water was surprisingly flat and after a few minutes of paddling I realized I was actually enjoying myself! It was exhilarating to paddle past chunks of ice that were as big as my kayak and sometimes bigger. The view of the iceberg out in the mouth of the harbour was amazing. The crisp sea air smelled fresh. Ron would even pass me the camera to take some shots of him. But the wide-angle lens I used wouldn't show the mammoth size of the iceberg in the background very well. He would take a shot of me with a larger lens as I paddled in front of the iceberg. It more accurately shows the iceberg's size compared to me in my 17-foot long kayak. However it makes me look much closer to the iceberg than I really was. Honest. We were well aware that icebergs could roll or split off causing disastrous kayak-tipping waves. We weren't getting that close. This iceberg was so grounded it wasn't going anywhere. The only time I became alarmed for my safety was when a seal swam beside me checking me out. I knew if it bumped my kayak and caused me to tip that I wouldn't last long in the extremely cold water. Five minutes perhaps.

After about an hour my feet started to feel the cold in spite of my neoprene booties. So we paddled back to shore and reloaded our kayaks back onto our vehicle. Later Ron would stand on a rickety wharf further up the harbour to get the shot above of ice floes and wharves and cause a sensation with local kids. Of course the entire town had probably been well aware of our arrival the moment we drove into town with our yellow and red kayaks on the car roof.

The next day we would be shocked to find that overnight the wind and the tide had taken all the ice out of the harbour. Only the iceberg remained stuck in the mouth. With the higher winds even we weren't fool hardy enough to venture out in our kayaks near that iceberg again.