Down East with the Cousins

Today we decided to stay in Twillingate and have a day to visit local attractions.

We headed out of town down the Island to the Prime Berth Fishing Premises Museum that had an excellent presentation on the life of the cod fisherman during the 18th and 19th centuries in Northeast Newfoundland. A premises is a fish processing facility that was generally owned by one fisherman with a large family.
Catching the fish was only the first step as the cod then had to be salted, dried and stored until being sold to the local fish merchant.

We then stopped for a light lobster lunch at Doyle Samsone & Sons lobster pool where we met Larry & Wendy Kydd, an RVing couple from Aldergrove, BC just north of where we lived in Arlington, WA. We had met them a few weeks ago at a fishery on PEI where Jeff and Larry enjoyed fresh PEI oysters. Next stop was the Auk Island Winery in Twillingate where Sue sampled a couple of their berry wines and picked up bottles for later.

Our evening was a delightful fun-filled song fest delivered by the Split Peas, a very professional group of middle ages ladies who sing a full repertoire of Newfoundland folk music. It was one of the strongly recommended Twillingate attractions everyone had told us not to miss and a great show that included a visit by Mummers for a quick dance.

Tomorrow we head over to Fogo Island if the weather continues to cooperate.

Jeff,

Ardra and I just love your travel logs and especially your great pictures.  Keep 'em coming.  Thanks...
nks...

JerryF

We're really enjoying your travelogue (someday we'll get there, some day) and we're glad to see you're drinking Diet Coke (and not that P-word stuff) but MORE lobster????

Wendy

Jerry & Wendy:

Thanks for the kind words.

Two years ago we took the caravan to Mexico and though we had just experienced the trip of our lifetimes but then we headed north to Alaska last summer and decided that was the best trip we would ever see.

Now we are doing it again! Today was just one more example of how just another day turns into something we will never forget. As Betty Brewer has said: "This is just the greatest lifestyle!"

Wednesday:  More Newfoundland Moments

We got up this morning to threatening skies and a forecast of rain showers in Twillingate so we decided to head west to clearer skies. Since we hadn't planned an early departure by the time we got on the road it was almost 10:00AM. We made it 20 miles down the peninsula when Sue saw signs for U-pick raspberries so we pulled over and unhooked the car for her to go berry picking.

She arrived back in a steady rain shower with about five pounds of fresh raspberries and after hooking up (in the rain) we got back on the road. After another 40 miles we stopped in Grand Falls-Windsor to restock the refrigerator. While Sue shopped at Sobey's Foods Jeff filled up with our first diesel refueling in Newfoundland for $5.60USD a gallon. Fortunately it will be almost enough to get us off the island. We parked in Sobey's lot and had lunch in the m/h in the middle of a thunderstorm.

By then it was 1:30PM and the GPS was telling us we wouldn't arrive in Rocky Harbour until 5:45PM or so. We decided to head west and see how far we got as the day was pretty well wasted. The weather improved, the road was great, and the traffic light so we pulled into Rocky Harbour, located in the Gross Morne National Park shortly before 6:00PM.

After getting parked we learned that Anchors Aweigh, a local group that provides Newfoundland folk entertainment would be playing at 9:00PM in the Pub at the Ocean Motel. Because they would not be on again until Friday evening after we left Rocky Harbour we headed down to the Ocean Motel for dinner around 7:00PM and then purchased tickets and chose our seats by 7:45PM to insure a seat.

By the time the group started at 9:00PM we were both exhausted and were almost ready to leave but that changed in a hurry! Last night we were entertained in a community hall by seven middle-aged ladies who very professionally gave us a taste of Newfoundland music and culture. The show started at 7:00PM and the intermission included Toutins (Fried flatbread) and Tea and a chance to buy the group's CD's. A great deal of the music was written by one of the group but they also sang many Newfoundland old favorites.Tonight we were in a pub and the show kicked off at 9:00PM with a lot of foot stomping music, many stories, and much humor. By intermission the group had gotton everyone to tell about themselves and got all of us out of our seats getting involved with their music.Their entertainment included many of the same songs as the Split Peas last night but with a completely different flavor and at a much higher volume level! When the intermission came around we spent 20 minutes meeting people from all over the US and Canada and then sat down for the second set. The show was even more hilarious after the break and we did not get out of there until after midnight!

Tonight could not have been a bigger contrast with the Split Peas but was just as enjoyable and the two shows have given us a taste of Newfoundland that we will never forget.

Jeff,

I am so envious that you got to see Anchor's Aweigh.  I will take some credit in telling you about the need for reservations.  We got to PEI today, our most expensive campground to date.  Weather makes such a diffrence and like you we have a glorious day. 

Betty

Betty Brewer said:

Jeff,

I am so envious that you got to see Anchor's Aweigh.  I will take some credit in telling you about the need for reservations.  We got to PEI today, our most expensive campground to date.  Weather makes such a diffrence and like you we have a glorious day. 

Betty

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Betty:    We are just across the bridge in New Brunswick at Murray Beach Provincial Park.  We are driving ov er to the island tomorrow for a day trip (Friday)  Where will you be, maybe we can have lunch or a cup of coffee or something.  I can bring my pen to sign your canvas print.

Ron, we're at our cottage in Parlee Beach, about 30 to 40 minutes from you.  Dave and Jeanette are hoping to meet up with us tomorrow evening on their way back from Newfoundland, are you going to be back, if so we could maybe all try to meet up.  If we had of known you were at Murray Beach, we could have swung by, as we were in Cap Pele picking up lobster and crab for supper, and its about half way there.  It had been years since we had been in the Murray Beach Park, but we drove through it yesterday, it has matured nicely.

Ed & Donna

Betty Brewer said:

Jeff,

I am so envious that you got to see Anchor's Aweigh.  I will take some credit in telling you about the need for reservations.  We got to PEI today, our most expensive campground to date.  Weather makes such a diffrence and like you we have a glorious day. 

Betty

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Betty:

You are right,  tickets went on sale at 7:30PM and taking your advice we were there before 7:45PM. 8)

You wouldn't want to trade our weather but if you noticed we had a front row seat and no one in the other two chairs; the season is winding down. More on the Anchors Aweigh group in today's blog when I get it finished.

Thursday:  Our First Day in Gros Morne

Nothing went as planned today but with a rainbow to start the day it had to turn out OK! We got up to sunshine but a rainbow soon formed over the campground caused by the fog and mist moving in off the bay. By then we had lunch packed and were planning a full day touring Gros Morne National Park. By the time we got to the visitor's center it was raining, windy, and getting colder so we decided to postpone the long trip and stick closer to home.The visitor's center not only includes info on the park but also the entire Viking trail up to the northern end of the peninsula where we are headed so we spent quite a while watching videos and talking to the girls working about the park and the trip north.

Gros Morne represents a distinctive part of Canada with its Tectonic plate formations, extensive and beautiful coastal mountains and fiords. It is Canada's largest national park and has been named a World Heritage Site because of its complex geology and coastal scenery. We headed out to Lobster Head Light that has been turned into a historical display of the Newfoundland West Coast and those that have lived here.

The weather continued to deteriorate so we headed back to the m/h for lunch after stopping to make reservations for an evening cruise of Bonne Bay that included a kitchen party for entertainment. (An informal musical get together that is an integral part of Newfoundland culture.)

We had dinner again at the Ocean Motel's great dining room and headed for the boat. To our delight we arrived dockside to discover several members of the Anchors Aweigh group we were entertained by last night were working crew members on the boat and would be the entertainment again tonight. The cruise through Bonne Bay was beautiful as the weather had cleared and the waters calm. We saw eagles soaring along the ridges and gannets diving for fish in the bay. The cliffs and tablelands that jut up out of the bay are magnificent! We cruised both arms of the bay until dusk when it was time to move downstairs for the evenings entertainment.

We had a chance to talk to most of the crew and it was interesting to learn the background of the group. Wayne, the lead singer and announcer of the group works full time in the entertainment and tourism business while Wade, the guitarist tonight, is a music teacher in a local high school.The most interesting of all was Rich, a very accomplished accordionist who also was the comedian last night dressing up in several skits. His stage demeanor does a great job of covering up a retired high school principal who owns the Ocean Motel, the largest in town, the tour boat company we were on, and other businesses in the Rocky Harbour area.
Tonight's show went on for 45 minutes past the scheduled docking as we dropped of some of the Newfoundland passengers at a different dock and the group kept playing. This was a far more casual performance but every bit as entertaining as last night and as always their crowd responded.

Tomorrow we tour the Park.

Serendipity is such a wonderful thing.  It's amazing how things seem to go wrong and then get better!

ArdraF

ArdraF said:

Serendipity is such a wonderful thing.  It's amazing how things seem to go wrong and then get better!

ArdraF

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Ardra:

That seems to be what life is filled with as we mature, eh?

Friday:  Big Gloomy

The literal translation of Gros Morne did not come close to describing Gros Morne today. The sun was out on one of the nicest days we have seen with temperatures in the high 70's and the mountains and waters of the park just shining. We decided to explore the south end of the park across the long fiord formed by the two arms of Bonne Bay that makes a 4 mile trip for the birds an hour of driving! The most prominent feature of the southern reaches of the park are the Tablelands. These flat topped plateaus were formed of the mantle rock that surrounds the earth's molten core. They were thrust upward by the pressure of the movement of the African and North American continental plates. This area provided the final physical proof of the tectonic theory of continental drift. (Wow, what an addition to our vocabulary!) The rock is laden with harsh chemicals that after 10,000,000 years still prevent plant growth and create their moonscape look.

Over the ridge from the Tablelands is the small community of Trout River, a small fishing community that we explored before having a picnic lunch on their boardwalk looking out across the small bay. We had a conversation with a elderly resident who was quick to tell Jeff how the "govmnt" didn't let them hunt or fish anything today but that he had caught everything except a whale in his lifetime.

We drove back over the Tablelands area to Woody Point where we could look across the head of Bonne Bay to Norris Point that is about 3 miles from the campground. It was here that we dropped off passengers last night on the cruise whom we met in the local coffee stand this afternoon when we stopped for a break.

From here it was a long 40 mile drive back around the fiord to Rocky Harbour but the consolation was that the drive is through some of the most scenic coastal mountains in the world!

Tomorrow we head north to explore the rest of the park.

Looks like a beautiful day. Wish I was out on that sailboat.

Wendy
GO DENVER !

Wendy:

So did we, especially around 4:00PM when we had to drive back around!

Jeff and Sue,

One of those main roads in/out of the park has a number of pulloffs with interpretive signs.  One of them absolutely amazed me.  When you look to the south side of the road you're looking at the northernmost end of the Appalachian Mountain range and when you look to the north side of the road you're looking at arctic tundra.  I had no clue until I read that sign that the Appalachians extended that far north.

I'm so very pleased for you that the weather is sunny.  It's such a gorgeous place!

ArdraF

Yes, the Appalachians get a bit further north than New York and New England. What really amazes us is how up close you can get here. The Park guide yesterday was a rock nut and was showing us how the Tablelands are forming new rocks all the time. They look red but up close are a deep green.

The coastal range is magnificent!

Saturday:  Bogs and Boats

Today turned out to be perfect again as we enjoyed mid 70's temperatures and clear skies. We enjoyed a late breakfast in Rocky Harbour and headed north along the coast about 20 miles to the parking lot for the Western Brook Pond boat tour. The coastal range at this point rises out of the bogs and marshes about 3 kilometers back from the sea.

We were there to take a 2 1/2 hour boat tour that cruises the pond. The park requires the passengers to walk the 3 kilometers back to the boat landing on the west shore of the pond. It is a beautiful walk, much of it on a boardwalk protecting the fauna of the bogs and marshes that stretch back to the coastal range, The last glaciers formed a rolling plain from the mountains to the sea that over time filled with dead plants and animals to form bogs or water filled marshes supporting a rich variety of plant and animal species.

The walk took 45 minutes and we had time to read up on the formation of Western Brook Pond. A crack in the earth's crust caused a 10 mile long valley to be formed when the coastal mountain range thrust up out of the sea and over time glaciers scooped out the surface to form a pond that is about 500' deep and winds back through the valley making a spectacular boat trip.

The trip was filled with sheer walls rising 2000 feet broken by sub valleys formed by smaller glaciers or waterfalls dropping the water runoff from the top of the plateau to the pond's surface below. Although it was a windy day once we entered the valley the waters calmed and we concentrated on the views.For those with permits there is a dock at the east end of the pond to disembark and climb up out of the valley. The hike takes five days and is not for the weak of body or spirit!

We returned to the docks around 3:30Pm and walked back to the car to finish our exploration of the north end of Gros Morne. We stopped at the wreck of the Ethie, a coastal steamer who ran aground in a storm described as a storm like "no other" in 1919. Fortunately all 98 souls aboard make it safely to shore including a baby carried in a mail pouch. The years seas and storms have not been kind to the remains of the Ethie.

Out next stop was at Green Point to stroll the coastal trail along the coast but unfortunately we started at the north end and gave up after a kilometer or so because the trail stayed in the pine trees and prevented views of the coast. We returned to the car and drove to the south end where the trail is out in the open but by then had had enough walking (10k) for the day. We drove out to the point at Sally Cove for a view of the mouth of Bonne Bay to the south.

After returning to Rocky Harbour for a dinner of good seafood at reasonable prices at Jackies we headed back to the m/h where Jeff washed the CRV and Sue started packing for tomorrow morning's departure for St Anthony at the North end of the peninsula.

Just spectacular!

ArdraF

Jeff,

I am so glad you are having good weather.  I am further impressed with your narrative on the places you visit.  Having just visited those same places I can only say DITTO!  Great reports and photos.  While no 2  trips will ever be the  same, it is fun to see your perspective on the sights!  Isn't Newfoundland grand?

Betty