Impressions of Newfoundland- The Rock

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Tomorrow will be a week since we left Newfoundland on the Atlantic Vision ferry. We've slowed down a bit to recover from our hectic pace on the island. Before the memories fade too much, I want to record some impressions of our time there.



Greg and I expected to enjoy Newfoundland. We thought it would be different, interesting, and scenic. We had read about the natural beauty and the friendliness of the residents. We didn't expect to fall in love with Newfoundland!



Our plan was a one time visit. The ferry tariff round trip for the RV was over $500. To justify spending that much we thought that almost five weeks would be enough time to see everything at a leisurely pace, and we didn't expect to come back. “One and done!”, as the saying goes. We were so wrong! Not only did we not see everything, we want to go back. Not soon, there are so many other places we still want to see, but someday.



What made us fall in love with Newfoundland? The beauty and the people. There are many beautiful places in this world, including our own country. Canada has amazing beauty, too. We had already seen some of it's best; the Bay of Fundy, the coast of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail, and the beaches of Prince Edward Island. Newfoundland outshines them all. It is like each of these, multiplied many times. There is but one Cabot Trail, but on Newfoundland, many, many like it in the course of a drive, and nothing special is noted about them. We saw multitudes of gorgeous rivers, bays, inlets, lakes, ponds, waterfalls, coastal beaches and cliffs, bogs, wetlands, forests, and mountains and valleys. Around every turn a new vista to take your breath away!



That beauty combined with the ancient rocks became fascinating. The earth's physical history is written large there, where ancient continents collided and pulled apart. All of that geologic history creating the beauty that exists in the present. St John's sits on ancient rock that is shared with Africa. As the continents pulled apart and created the Atlantic Ocean, part of Africa got left behind. We stood in the Tablelands in Gros Morne National Park and looked across three mountains that proved the modern theory of plate tectonics. What shouldn't have existed within sight of each other did, and geologists finally found their holy grail. To understand the forces that so long ago created this place called Newfoundland made the beauty around us even more awe inspiring.



To spend each day soaking up the beauty of the natural environment and and each night in the quiet of nature, or lulled to sleep by water sounds, was refreshing beyond measure. The rain, fog, and winds blew in too. This is no tropical paradise and planted in the middle of the northern ocean, Newfoundland has more than it's fair share of all of them. We rode them out and accepted them as part of the experience of living for a short time with such beauty. Summer on Newfoundland is short, but sweet, and we have no desire to be there for the winter, with it's snow and storms!



Our last few days it was becoming obvious that summer was waning. The multitudes of wild flowers had reached their peak and passed. The huge purple clover flowers on the side of the road that greeted us as we arrived, were brown and dying. The fireweed had blossomed in our last few weeks there. It blooms from the bottom of the stalk to the top. As we left the last blossoms had fallen off and the seed pods were still clinging to the stalks.. Goldenrod had sprung up, the cattails had brown heads, and the berries were ripening. Cars parked barely off the shoulders, even on the Trans-Canada Highway, as people way off the roadway, swung their white buckets filling with berries.



We saw the first waterfowl in a line flying south along the beach. Soon the wetlands will be filling with migratory birds, some going as far as southern South America, powered by the abundance of sea life and shell fish they spent the summer in Newfoundland eating. We had a short burst of warm sunny weather, and the locals came to the beaches for brief forays into the still cold surf. Families were still traveling before school begins. Newfoundlanders love their camping trailers. They filled the parks everywhere we went. Tourists were beginning to leave the island. Far more RV's got on the ferry with us when we left, than were getting off. The long days were starting to shorten, but the temperature was still warm, a last burst of heat before the winter. I don't know how cold it has to be for the black flies to die off. They annoyed us until our departure!



The beauty of Newfoundland was equaled by the friendliness of its people. In many respects they reminded us of Alaskans. They were rugged, hardy folk, used to dealing with whatever life and nature dealt them. Outside the cities many earned their livelihood from the sea, and their families had done so for many generations. Scratching a living from The Rock at times hasn't been easy. Modern life has changed many things, but still, no one controls the ocean and the weather. It seems that life in Newfoundland revolves around both.



Except for the indigenous peoples, Newfoundland has been settled longer than anywhere else in North America. With the Vikings arriving around 1,000 AD, there were almost continuous explorations, summer fishermen and then settlers arriving. Newfoundland was the first big place you hit on the way across the Atlantic! The abundance of sea life attracted many nationalities, and many of the settlers were French, English, Irish, Scots, and Basque. They established their fishing villages in isolation from one another along the coasts. There were no roads, in some places foot paths between the villages, or you traveled by boat. Each village retained its language and the isolation created unique dialects over the centuries. There are over 300 dialects in Newfoundland! Everywhere we went outside the cities we heard the most interesting dialects and expressions. Often we had to ask people to repeat themselves. We just couldn't get it the first time. South of St. John's on the Avalon Peninsula, especially in the areas settled by Irish, we heard the most interesting brogues. Many places around Newfoundland people dropped their “th's”. Our tour guide at Mistaken Point told us about the “tousands and tousands of gannetts over tere at St. Mary's”. Many of the unique dialects are getting watered down as people have access to TV, radio, the movies, and the internet.



The isolation of the communities I think, has contributed to the friendliness of the people. Living in a harsh climate and relying on one another in an emergency, or even for everyday life, when food or supplies may be hard to find, creates a culture where everyone looks out for each other, even the stranger in your midst. No one knows when it might be themselves that need help, so they look after everyone. You won't be broken down on the side of the road for long before someone stops to help. Whenever we stopped along the road just to eat lunch, people left us alone. As soon as it was obvious that we had a tire problem, we had a half dozen people stop to help, even after Tom, with the Calgary Stampede hat, had already stopped and was helping us. He got himself quite dirty crawling under the RV, and went home once for more tools to help us better. His patching job held long enough for us to get farther down the road. When the tire started losing air again, and there was no garage around, and the next day was Sunday, our waitress introduced us to Bunny, the crab fisherman, who happened to walk in at the right time. He invited us to come by his house the next morning and he found the second hole and patched it. He gave up his Sunday morning to help strangers and visit with us about his life in the small fishing village of St. Bride's at the southern end of the Avalon Peninsula, almost as far south as you can go. He said that they never lock there houses and always leave the truck keys in the ignition. He said that last month he came home to find his snow mobile trailer missing. When he went in his house, he found the telephone answering machine blinking with a message from a neighbor saying that he had borrowed the trailer to haul his ATVs somewhere.



Who else do we remember fondly? The waitress in Twillingate who “Ma' darlin'”-ed us all through lunch. The women working the entrance gate and check-in at the town park at Leading Tickles. They were so proud of their park and how clean their showers were. They really were! As soon as you finished showering, they cleaned them! It was service with a smile. Greg couldn't resist the homemade date bars they were selling at the office. Also, in Leading Tickles we had a long conversation with the young woman running the town museum and gift shop. She was dressed to the nines and took her job very seriously. We learned from her why all the friendly locals kept driving through our campground. It was the best place to see if it was worth going fishing that day!



Chris, the owner of Paradise Farm Campground outside of Bonavista, who thought Greg was a local and wondered why he kept saying he was from Maryland. Greg's Scot's ancestry was showing! He taught us the meaning of the local phrase, “Some stunned”, meaning not too smart. He told us where to find the puffins.



The man working in the record shop in St. John's, who encouraged me to buy a CD with the classic Newfoundland song on it, “Wave Over Wave”, after telling me about hearing it in a bar in Tasmania, and crying. It has since become one of my favorite songs.



Kris, our geologist guide at Tablelands. She took the time after the hike to visit with us, and even though she grew up in Washington, DC, she has spent her whole adult life in Canada and is married to a Newfoundlander. That gave her unique insights into Newfoundland.



The many shop workers and owners, and restaurant waitstaff and owners, who spent the extra time with us being warm and friendly, answering questions and explaining food to us. Yes, they are in the tourist industry and should be expected to cater to us, but, more often than not, they were curious about us too, and interested in where we were from and what we thought of Newfoundland and its people. Our whole time in Newfoundland I can't recall anyone being rude in public, and no road rage. Newfoundlanders can drive like “a bat out of hell”, but only to pass you! Greg pulled over whenever he could, and they seemed to appreciate it.


Favorite memories of Newfoundland, in no particular order. I am not compiling a David Letterman “Top Ten”!


Getting within a few feet of puffins at Elliston.
Sailing around an iceberg on the cruise out of St. Anthony.
Boondocking in the fog at the Cape Race lighthouse and listening to the foghorn all night.
Gannets in the fog and sheep in the path at St. Mary's Ecological Preserve.
Boondocking beside the Barachois Waterfall trail near Burnt Islands on the Granite Coast. Beautiful sunset and sunrise amid the barren, rocky hills and bogs.
Hiking the Tablelands in Gros Morne National Park.
The boat tour of Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park.
Ferry to Labrador and two nights camping along the surf at Pinware River Provincial Park and boondocking near the L'anx Amour lighthouse in the fog.
Green Point Campground and hiking the Oceanview Trail and to Green Point in Gros Morne.
Camping along the cove at Leading Tickles while the squalls rolled across the bay.
Wildflowers everywhere, especially the roadsides.
The sub-arctic wildness of Burnt Cape Ecological Preserve and seeing the plant that grows nowhere else in the world.
Learning about Bunny's life.
Hiking the Skerwink Trail and seeing the family of otters.
Auk Island Winery tour in Twillingate and their berry wines.
Viking artifacts at L'Ans aux Meadows.
Our last day walking the sandy beach in the sunshine at J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park near Port au Basque after hiking to see a fault.
Moose stew, partridgeberry pie, bakeapple pie
Newfoundland clouds. They look like a painting.
Traditional Newfoundland music, especially “Wave Over Wave”.
Listening to the ridiculously wrong weather reports!
Learning that I would not die from black fly bites, just be disfigured for a while!
Knowing that Greg was loving Newfoundland as much as I was...



Greg's favorites included most of the above as well as:
Seeing Big Picture geology on the hoof rather than on a map. Such as strolling barefoot on the beach across a major plate boundary.
Seeing obvious evidence of recent glacial action almost everywhere.
Prosaic things like...fish and chips, Quidi Vidi, accidentally climbing on to the ferry's crew deck and leaving half an hour later after hearing all about the hassles caused by the Blue Puttees “touching” the rocks.