Newfoundland - Central and Eastern

Wednesday, Aug. 3

After taking the ferry back from Labrador Monday afternoon we camped along the coast on a rocky beach. Tuesday we headed south, going back to Rocky Harbour (once you’re in Newfoundland, you do a lot of backtracking, because very few roads make a loop - you have to go back on the same road you’ve been on before). At Rocky Harbour we stocked up on fresh and smoked fish. Surprisingly, in this land of fisherman and fish of all kinds, there are very few places to buy fresh fish. Most of the fish is taken from the ships directly to a processing plant where it is immediately taken care of and sent on its way. Rocky Harbour is the only place along the western and northern coasts to buy fresh fish!

As we headed east on the one east/west highway, we began to notice lots of differences from where we’d been. In the interior, and fairly close to the coast, the trees are much bigger, so there were actually some lumber mills. Also, people here seemed to have more money than their neighbors on the western and northern coasts, possibly because there are more residents and therefore more jobs available for the spouses of the fishermen, or jobs for men that do not involve fishing. The houses were bigger and more decorative, whereas on the other coasts the houses were just a place to live, with nothing much done to beautify anything on the outside. I found that even the schools on the western and northern coasts were drab and uninviting, but here in the central and eastern sides, they are more welcoming. Also, more people here seem to live away from the main part of town, so not all of the houses are clustered together. I also saw houses with for sale signs here. In the north and west they probably don’t need signs, just word of mouth if they want to sell their house.

There are many lakes, both large and small, along with bay after bay, and it began to look more like America with houses spread out along the shore and pleasure boats and jetskis, something that I had not seen at all on the western and northern coasts. If people here have gardens or firewood piles, they are by their houses, not along the road, because most of the land along the road seems to be privately owned, not owned by the province.

We camped for the night on the Bay of Exploits, an area that reminded me of the Thousand Islands because of the number of islands sprinkled all over. If you look at a map of Newfoundland, it’s sometimes difficult to discern where the bay ends and freshwater lakes begin because the whole area is blue with a little green around it.

Today we drove on to the tip of one of the clusters of islands to a town called Twillingate. It is supposed to be part of iceberg alley, but there were no icebergs anywhere around. We went to the end of the peninsula to see Long Point LIghthouse, a milkbottle shaped lighthouse built of stone. It was perched high on the cliff and we could see the Atlantic all around us, but no bergs. The fishing villages here are much closer together than the fishing villages on the west and north, and they run together to make one fairly large town. People still fish here, but it is turning into more of a tourist area.

From there we headed to Musgrave Harbour in honor of Frank and Eva Mae. It was on a point of land jutting into the Atlantic with no other nearby villages. We went to the harbour where we saw the day’s shrimp catch being iced down for shipment. Here, the boats are quite large as they fish in the Atlantic and must be able to withstand the rigors of the sea. The temperature here on the Atlantic side is very different, too. It’s 10 to 20 degrees cooler than what we were experiencing last week. The locals are used to it, however. It’s 57 degrees and Bob and I have on jackets, but the kids here are in shorts and tank tops!

Our next stop was Newtown, called “the Venice of Newfoundland” because of all of the canals, called “tickles” here. It is made up of many islands of all different sizes. The early settlers would have a whole island for themselves and all of their kinfolk, and would get about with boats. Now the islands have been joined by bridges, or in some cases, fill, giving the area the “Venice” look.

A wealthy family of fishermen had owned one island and built a school, a store, a boat shed, and two huge houses there. They have been turned over to a trust and are now a museum. The houses were gorgeous, but the best part of the trip was our guide, Jesse. He is an 18 year old whose ancestors on both sides have always been sea captains, fishing the waters around here, some of them even being involved in the dangerous seal fishing industry. Jesse plans to follow in their footsteps, but he’ll be the first in the family to actually attend a university to learn his trade. He is working at the museum so he can “get on the government roles by paying taxes” (probably something like our social security, or maybe something to do with his college payments). Like all of his relatives, he has worked on boats since he was very young, but this young man knows that the fishing industry is going downhill, and his goal it to be certified to captain larger ships, perhaps even cruise ships one day.

Jesse’s dad and uncles own their own fish processing plant and three huge boats. They fish for snowcrabs and shrimp, working at that about 4 months of the year. I guess each boat is allowed 1 million pounds of crab a year which Jesse said they get in about 15 trips. Fifty crab pots are tied to the main trap line about twenty feet apart, and then dropped overboard in a large circle with a buoy at one end of the trap line. They set two trap lines, usually one day apart, so they are picking up crab from one of the lines each day, rebaiting them, and then putting them back down. Jesse said that the whole line usually yields about 80,000 or more crabs at one time.

When they fish for shrimp, they are also allowed 1 million pounds. For that they have huge trawling nets attached to their boats with a weighted part under the water. They have to be real careful as they troll, because they don’t know what their net might snag on at the bottom of the sea, and if it snags, it can drag the boat under.

They don’t fish for lobster, because you don’t need very big boats to do that. Lobster don’t grow well in deep water, so they are fished for much closer to shore. For the crabs, they sometimes go 200 miles off shore. During crabbing season, Jesses said the men might only come into port for a few hours of rest before heading back out, or they might stay out overnight. Definitely not something I would want to experience!

Thursday, Aug. 4

As we were driving today, we noticed a cove full of blue and white buoys. Knowing that it was not lobster season, we were curious as to their use. We found out that they belonged to a mussel farm! Who knew such things existed? Evidently the mussels attach themselves to the ropes coming down from the buoys and are thus easily harvested.

Speaking of animals, today was the first time that we saw any farms or farm animals in Newfoundland. We saw dairy cows, horses, sheep, pigs, and chickens. We saw several of them grazing on the rocky cliffs, where unlike other rocky cliffs we’ve seen, there was grass. Some of the horses were blocking the road we were driving on, much like the buffalo in Cody State Park did last summer. They came right up to the RV and didn’t want to move. One looked right at Bob through his side window, and one looked at me through my side window. Bob rolled his window down a little to pet the one on his side, which seemed to satisfy the horse enough to move on to a safer place along with his buddies!

We stopped for a while in the tiny coastal village of Trinity which is a provincial historic site with most of the buildings are brightly painted, restored and protected, and there are rules in the town as to what they can and cannot do to their buildings. Everything must be kept the way it was in the early 19th century when this was a busy industrial center rivaling St. John’s. The population is now about 200 and the fishing industry has given way to tourism.

There was a beautiful Anglican church there, built in 1880, that had seating for 500. Somehow, I don’t think they fill it any more! There was also a small Catholic church reported to be the oldest all-wooden church in the province, built in 1833. We noticed here, and in all of the other towns that we visited, that the cemeteries belong to the churches. Since most of the churches don’t have room beside them for a cemetery, the graveyards are located some distance away. Since each church has its own graveyard, and since some towns have 3 or 4 churches, you will see an equal number of cemeteries, often right next to each other, separated by a short, white fence.

The highlight of our day was again at a lighthouse point. This time it was Cape Bonavista lighthouse at the tip of Bonavista Peninsula. The lighthouse itself was nothing special to look at, but at the bottom of the tall, rocky cliffs we saw at least a dozen humpback whales performing their stunts for the crowd. Twice we saw two whales breach at the same time. Boy, was that ever a splash! There was also a colony of puffins located on a rocky crag behind the lighthouse. As we watched them fly on and off their island, the quickness of their short wings beating against the sky reminded me of a child’s wind-up toy rotating as fast as it could!

We camped for the night on a narrow promontory of land jutting into the dark, cold ocean. We literally were surrounded by water on three sides, and could almost look straight down onto the sharp rocks about 100 feet below. I do not like to be very near the edge of any cliff, so that was a bit of a challenge for me to allow us to camp there. I didn’t allow Bob to park in the spot with only about two feet on each side of the RV before the cliff’s edge, however!

It was misty, foggy weather with a temperature of about 50 degrees, made much colder by the constant winds coming off the North Atlantic. The winds were so strong in the middle of the night, buffeting the RV like it was a piece of paper, that I feared we’d be blown right off the cliff! I certainly know what the pounding surf sounds like after a night there, too! I’m glad there are people like Jesse, mentioned above, who want to be sea captains, but that would not appeal to me at all. One night of just being that close to the raging ocean was enough for me!

Friday, Aug. 5

We drove to St. John, the capital and largest city in Newfoundland. First we went to Cape Spear, the most easterly part of North America. It was very foggy there, as in the whole area here, but we could see 60 to 100 feet ahead of us. The ocean was roiling at the cape. Angry waves attacked the large rusty colored rocks along the cliffs, the almost black sea water splashing up the most beautiful turquoise blue edge with frothy white foam on top.

We have been told that it’s always foggy in St. John because this is where the cold Labrador current meets the warm Gulf Stream current. It would be great to see some of this area on a sunny day. The row houses and apartment houses in the city are like an artist’s palette, each one a different color from its neighbor.

St. John’s is a city of about 100,000, and with the other towns on the Avalon Peninsula where it is located, the area population is about 500,000. That’s half the population of the whole province!

We walked around George Street, which seems to be pub central, then we ate at a local hangout called The Ship Pub. It is a great place where the locals hang out. I guess it is also used in the tv show Doyle which is popular here. While there we met an oilman from Houston and shared supper and conversation with him.

Saturday, Aug. 6

We had a wonderful day despite the rain and fog. Ingrid Clarke, Mary Haag’s niece, gave us a tour of St. John’s which was great to hear from someone who has lived here all her life. We went to the the museum called “The Rooms” which is supposed to remind people of the little sheds fishermen around here use for their fishing supplies and where they would gut and salt their cod, etc. It was great to have everything we’ve been seeing in the province explained in detail. All of the museums here in Newfoundland have been outstanding. One can tell that a lot of effort has been put into them.

St. John’s is said to be the oldest city in North America. That’s entirely possible since so much fishing was going on here. There seemed to be constant wars between the French and the British for control of the harbor. The harbor is a natural place with a narrow channel to enter, and it is deep enough for large ships. That way, the boats are protected from the harsh North Atlantic. Even today it is a busy harbor with cruise ships, container ships, and others using it. The fishing boats seem to keep to another part of the harbor, and smaller boats use the harbor at Quidi Vidi.

We also went out to Quidi Vidi village, a small fishing village right near the city. While there we toured the brewery and had some delicious Quidi Vidi Iceberg beer made from the waters of icebergs. Some companies harvest the ice from the bergs, melt it, and sell it to companies to use. It is very pure water, so it made the beer have a very light taste.

In the evening we went to the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival where we heard lots of great music from bluegrass to Celtic. There was a huge crowd there, and they really got into the music, dancing and singing along with the performers. One group from Cape Breton Island, called Barra McNeil, was made up of six siblings ranging from their late 20s to about 40. They have been doing this since they were young, and what a phenomenal show they put on. They had bagpipes, flutes, mandolin, guitar, banjo, and keyboard, and played them all. At one time four of them step-danced while the others played. Another group was called the Dardenells. They played accordian, mandolin, banjo, guitar and a hand-held drum. One of their members is going around to all of the outports (small outlying fishing villages) and learning the old songs from the older residents there before they are gone for good.

Sunday, Aug. 7

We took advantage of the rainy day to finally do some laundry so we didn’t do too much sight-seeing today. We did go up to Signal Hill which rises high over the harbor of St John’s. It is no longer used as lookout against intruders, but if it isn’t foggy, you can see a long way from there in all directions. I’m glad I never had to stand as a sentinel there! If it’s this cold and windy in August, I can’t imagine what it must be like in February!

It’s very windy and cold here right now. The winds shook the RV all night, and were probably 40 -50 mph. Winds at St. John’s airport can reach 90 mph and at Signal Hill they can reach 125 mph!

The harbor at St. John’s is 1.25 miles long and 1/2 mile wide with a depth from 30 - 90 feet. In order to get into the harbor, a ship has to travel through the Narrows which are between 600 and 1,036 feet wide with a depth of only 35 feet. One has to be a good ship captain to pilot some of the larger ships into the harbor. Approximately 1,000 ships of significant size dock there during the course of a year.

We also walked along Water Street, George St., and Duckworth St. in the very old part of town next to the harbor.

In the evening we went back to another night of folk music. We really enjoyed the first group, called Celtic Fiddlers, which was made up of teenagers. One 16 year old boy in the group can play 22 different instruments! The last act was a tribute to Ryan’s Fancy, a group that did a lot for Newfoundland folk music over the last 40 years. One member of the group is still around and he played and sang with lots of other talented musicians from the area. They played several traditional songs, including a sea shanty. At the very end of the show about forty people were on stage as they played the “Ode to Newfoundland” which sounded like a national anthem. Actually Newfoundland was not part of Canada until 1949, so the song could predate that, and therefore would qualify as a national anthem, I guess. One of the teenagers also sang a song about Newfoundland that stated “I know she’s a rock with lots of wind and bad weather, but she’s home sweet home to me.” You can tell that Newfoundlanders are proud of their province!

Monday, Aug. 8

It was finally clear and almost sunny in St. John’s so we headed up to Signal Hill to get a view of the city in clear skies instead of foggy. I am still impressed that anyone could live up there. The signalman’s family lived here, and during the 1800s military families also lived here until a baby died from smoke inhalation in the cold, drafty quarters.

We’ve really enjoyed St. John’s. It’s such a small city that it is super easy to navigate, and everyone is friendly. It is so colorful, it makes you feel good just to look at it, despite the fog!

We first stopped at Bidgoods, a grocery store. It was the biggest store we have been in since we’ve been here, and Bob remarked that it’s Newfoundland Wegman’s! We went there to get native fish and meat, so we stocked up on caribou steak, seal flipper, seal sausage, caribou and moose sausage, cod cheeks, fresh and frozen cod. We still have some salmon, smoked salmon, and smoked herring. We are really enjoying fresh seafood every night! We’ve had and loved cod tongue, fish and brewis, and fishcakes while here, also!

From there we headed south in the Avalon Peninsula, taking the “Irish Loop” which goes around the coast of the peninsula. It is so named because so many Irish people settled here.

It sure was desolate country. I am reading a book called Latitudes of Melt which is set at the bottom of the peninsula in Cape Race and surroundings. In the book they talk about the barrens. They sure are barren - nothing but moss and low grass appears to be growing on the flat ground all over the lower part of the Avalon Peninsula. The villages were not even nice looking as on the west coast. The houses were not grouped together, but spread out along the road and other spur roads. There was no where around where the people might have worked unless they fished. It had to be at over an hour to St. John’s, possibly two hours, so I’m not sure if they would work there.

Bob was delighted to see a small herd of caribou; one male and five females.

We went back up to Brigus, a tiny village on one of the many peninsulas near St. John’s. Brigus is a very old village, settled in about 1620 as a fishing village. Now it seems to be a bedroom community for rich people. Most of the houses are surrounded by white picket fences, or in some cases, stone fences. There is a large harbor, and two smaller harbors for smaller boats. We camped in a town park by the larger harbor. I really love the town, and could see living here, in its quiet calm, yet being close to civilization if I wanted it!

Tuesday, Aug. 9

We left our peaceful spot in Brigus and started our trek west and then south to catch the ferry tomorrow at Port aux Basques. We stopped near Great Falls to visit a Logger’s Life Museum. I know similar logging camps were also used in the US. Boy, was that hard work. They lived in cabins in the woods where they worked, felling trees from sunup to dark, and if any part of the tree was wasted with their cutting, they were fined. They had spruce boughs for mattresses and slept two to a narrow bed. I’m sure the spruce smell helped to deaden some of the other smells in there!

After our RV cooked codfish supper on the beach in St. Georges, we headed to the ferry dock. We don’t have to be there until 3 AM, but think we’d like to get some sleep, so we’re hoping they’ll let us get in the line and go to sleep until they need us at about 4 AM (you have to be there 2 hours early, but they don’t do much until about 30 minutes to 1 hour before.

Click here for some great pictures.