July 11, 2008 Twillingate Outskirts NL
Our first venture of the day was to visit Prime Berth Fishing Museum. It looked really hokey outside with a fake whale tale in the bay and dummies in boats. For a mere $5 per person we got a most informative presentations about cod fishing as it as was back when. Bill was our guide and he told of being a lad of 8 years old and his job was to throw the fish up on the table for the elders to gut, clean, de-bone them to ready them for the salt drying process. He used a live codfish to demonstrate the process. EWWWWW the smell. He further pointed out the bucket of cod liver oil from which all of us “old timers have had a taste.” When cod was processed the livers were kept and sold to the pharmacies that was the only cash crop a fisherman received. Most other payments for their toils of the year by fishing were made on credit and exchanged at years end for the supplies used. Not many got ahead. What a hard life. They had no Wal-marts, or Cabellas to turn to for anything. They wove their own nets from cotton as it gets more strength when wet than any other natural fiber. They repaired nets in winters and spun needles of yarn to be ready for the repair in the evening. Bill was our guide and is a retired 5th grade teacher. His accent is very Irish and he was very knowledgeable. It was like listening to a story teller. It was in 1966 that the cod fish moratorium came into place which regulated the entire fishing industry and it surely stopped the economics of the area. Now commercial fishing only has a 6 week season from late May to mid June. If he wanted to go out and fish, he would have a five fish a day limit. Nets are no longer allowed. All fish with hooks and jigs.
While there is no biblical reference that says one must not eat meat on Friday, The Pope made such an edict to benefit the fishing industries . Consider please that, I’m not a theological historian, I just report what I heard in tourist venues. I really enjoyed the information Bill showed us about how “the rooms” were used to prepare fish in their day, before refrigeration.
Now in our car in search of lunch, Terry wanted a lobster shack for an authentic fresh lobster lunch. We happened on one and selected the lobster from a pool of hundreds. Russ and I had lobster sandwiches and then waited while Terry devoured the whole thing after we watched it being cooked.
I heard a squeaking sound that sounded like rusty door hinges and upon investigation saw 2 small critters. Russ and Terry photographed them and we later learned they were wild mink who rarely come to this section of the shore. So now we have lobster lunch in the sun, with a mink showing ! Can life get any better? We continued our drive thought many arms of this seashore. The names of each little cove and outlet are wonderful. We visited Too Good Arm, Herring Neck, Virgin Arm, Pine Cove Point to name a few. There were no grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants or anything in these little villages. Just scenic vistas . Wow and Wow. I had brought my own chips for snack in the car just in case.
We headed back to town hoping to see the iceberg from the dump road. However we learned from tourists on the road it was not there. Not to be believed and we have a 4 wheel drive after all, we ventured on. At the dump site, a local informed us the berg had broken in two in the late evening and tumbled over out of view, much to our dismay and even more to the chagrin of the tour boats going out to view it. Moral of this, make haste while you can! We were happy to have seen the glimpse yesterday!
Off to the Dinner show…..We dined at the local Community Center and watched the Circle Dinner Theatre perform. It did not compare to last night’s show but the comedy gave a good laugh, we got to sing along and the couples at our table were delightful. Many of the tourist in this area are from Ontario. The sky tonight rivaled an Arizona sunset. It was hues of pink and more pink and deep pink and encircled the entire horizon. None of us had a camera.
