Twillingate

It is a 1 ½ hour ferry ride across the strait of Belle Isle from St Barbe to Blanc Sablon Quebec. We camped 3 nights in the campground at the ferry, not much of a campground but we had electric and a nice building with showers and a room to play joker. The fisherman here still hunt seal and there is an economuseum where you can watch workers making sealskin products that are for sale there, boots gloves and purses. We also saw the church at Flowers Cove that was built from the selling of sealskin boots. The seal eat the fish but the industry is way down now as there is no longer a great demand for the products, we were told now a sealskin can go for $7, but the products at the museum here bring good prices. There is much hand work that goes into them.
It was very foggy for our crossing and we couldn’t see anything in the water.. Friday was the only day that you could cross and come back on the same day so we were pretty much forced to go in the fog. The fog cleared for our return trip and we had a very nice day. The towns along the coast are very small. A beautiful light house “Port Amour” is there to light the Strait of Belle Isle. These Lights provided a shorter steamship route between Canada and Europe. These are dangerous waters and a lot of shipwrecks have been seen by the lightkeeper. The keeper of the light made a good living here and had a very nice home. The same family ran the light house for 85 years. The lens made so much heat that the lightkeepers shirt caught on fire when he was working inside the lens.
Heading south from St Barbe, the ferry crossing, we stopped just down the road the small fishing community of Port au Choix where there is a national Heritage site with digs and a nice trail by the sea to view the lighthouse, whale and caribou. We had a nice walk but no wildlife to be seen today. We went from there to Deer Lake, leaving Kay and Frank in Rocky Harbour to wait for their mail. We spent two nights there making another run into Corner Brook, and Pasadna where we stopped at Meyer’s Minerals to watch the artists make lovely jewelry and sculpture out of some of the same beautiful rocks we’ve been picking up. Especially beautiful are the pieces made from Labradorite a rock found mostly in Labrador and Newfoundland. They are blue and green with lines through them.
I resisted temptation!
We started east, destination Twillingate, but only got 70 miles down the road when we stopped at a visitors center to check out the area. On the front porch of the center we met John Southcutt, a woodcarver who was producing wonderful fairy houses! I spent awhile talking with him and admiring his work, and to my surprise he invited us to his home for supper. Of course we accepted and what a lovely evening we had! They live in a home overlooking Halls Bay, with a spiral staircase spanning 3 floors. They see whale and eagles when the whale chase the capelin but unfortunately the capelin were not here. Hope we catch up with them somewhere on this trip, it sounds like you can see puffins and all kinds of wildlife when they come into a harbour. They have only lived here about a year moving back from Ontario when they retired. John told us “You can tell a Newfoundlander in heaven because they are the only ones who want to go back home.” Marg couldn’t have been nicer, she gave me what she called a little piece of Newfoundland, it is a birch bark pendent with a beautiful little rock on it, on a fishing cord. She has to be a real Newfie to welcome strangers into her home. We were told this may happen because the people here are so warm and friendly, but we never expected it to happen to us. As we arrived at their home they greeted us on the bridge, this is what Newfoundlanders call their deck. The porch is what they call the section inside their door, where you wipe your feet and remove your shoes. John took us on a tour of his workshop and I did end up purchasing a ferry house. We will think of them fondly when we admire our little house.
We went on to Grand Falls for Canada Day, (like our 4th of July). Each town has it’s own celebration much like in the states. We could watch a nice fireworks display from Casey’s window. The papermill in Grand falls just closed March 31st, leaving 750 people unemployed there.
We finally made it to Twillingate and Kay and Frank caught up with us. There mail still isn’t in Rocky Harbour, the post office there will forward it when it arrives. We sure are lucky to have our Jen take care of ours! Thank You Jen!
There is a huge iceberg here now. It was 1/3 mile long when it arrived about 6 days agio, it split into at least 3 large pieces but they are still very impressive. They have entertainment about every night. We went to a dinner theater Friday. They presented Newfie humor at its best. I got some pictures but I suffered for them, I knelt down in a patch of nettle and my legs and ankles burned and itched like mad for about10 hours!
We toured Prime Berth, a fishing museum where cod fishing ways until 1960 were explained expertly by Bill Cooze who took us completely through the process. Newfoundland put a moratorum on Cod fishing in 1991, hoping that the cod would come back after they became very scarace. The government bought out the fisherman over 55, sent the younger ones to college, and that left only the ones in the middle who took up other kinds of fishing, lobster shrimp, crab. Seems to be working for the fisherman but the cod breeding beds have been destroyed by net bottom dragging and only lots of time will tell if the cod will ever return in numbers.
Bye for now,