Trinity ; Rising Tide Theater's “Theresa's Creed” ; Jiggs Dinner ; Bonavista; Mocha Joe repair in Gander ; Port Au Choix ; L'Anse Aux Meadows

(posted from Southern Labrador Library, L'Anse Aux Loup, Labrador (NL))

(This post covers 12 – 16 September, 2010)


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Thursday, 16 September-

We had a good night in our road-side parking lot and woke refreshed. Rain is predicted for later today so after breakfast we cleaned out the ice-box before our departure this morning.
We drove north for about an hour to the Labrador ferry terminal and stopped in to see if the schedule is still as published (sometimes they change due to weather and equipment problems) and to determine costs ($26 for both of us and Mocha Joe) and whether we'd need reservations. The agent said the ferry has been quite busy and though it has slacked off lately, she recommended we make reservations. We weren't sure how long we'll need to visit the attractions further up the Northern Peninsula so we decided we'd call later rather than make them now.
We then continued up the Viking Trail (Route 430) to L'Anse Aux Meadows, home of the L'Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site and North America's only known Norse settlement.
As we approached the Historic Site just before lunch time, we decided to try 'The Norseman' restaurant, which our Frommer guide says is one of the best in Newfoundland. Their food was indeed special. We each had a porto before the meal, then I had a spinach salad with seared scallops and partridgeberry vinagrette dressing. Labashi had a fish chowder. For dessert we shared a pannacotta and I had an 'Irish Descendant'-- -coffee with a shot of Bailey's and a shot of Newfoundland Screech rum.
We then toured the L'Anse Aux Meadows site. We first watched a 30-minute documentary telling the story of how the site was discovered and proven to be a Norse site. In short, a Norwegian husband-and-wife team of archeologists discovered the site in the early Sixties and organized the digs shortly thereafter. The site is dated to 1000 AD and contains artifacts and technology known only in Europe. The key find was a cloak pin which was used by the Norse and used only for a relatively brief time period. The technology unique to the site was the mining and processing of bog-iron and forging it into nails. The L'Anse Aux Meadows site is believed to have been used only for a few years and is thought to have been a repair-station for boats and perhaps a source of natural resources to take back to Greenland. It may have been the Vinland recorded in the Norse Sagas or it may have only been an advance station for that Vinland. If 'Vinland' does indeed refer to wild grapes, there's a problem in that wild grapes have never grown here. The farthest north occurrence of wild grapes is in New Brunswick.
Perhaps the best thing about L'Anse Aux Meadows, though, is the re-created Viking settlement. Parks Canada built several sod-houses using materials from the site. The sod buildings have walls six feet thick and they're very substantially built. They are staffed by men and women in period dress and the interiors are re-created as accurately as known. The large building has three rooms, each with its own fire and those fires felt wonderful on this cold, damp, and foggy day. The implements of daily living and the tools are remarkable, even breathtaking. It's difficult to believe such tools existed so many years ago.
After touring the buildings, we were just in time for a walking tour of the archeological site. It's filled in now, of course, but our guide, Scott, was excellent. Though we were walking about in a cold wind and the fog was condensing on our clothes, we hardly noticed.
After our tour ended, we were walking back to the van when we met our friends from Quebec who we had met on the boat trip to St. Pierre. This group of three couples had been very friendly to us and we saw them several times around St. Pierre so it was nice to once again greet them hundreds of miles from there.
We then drove to Norstead, which is a Viking port village re-enactment. But we didn't go in. With the weather so raw and they obviously staffed by only a skeleton staff here at the very end of the season, we didn't think it would be worth the cost. That may have been a mistake but we had learned so much from the L'Anse Aux Meadows site that we didn't think we'd learn much more.
We then drove on to the town of St. Anthony. We arrived at the library just as it was closing and then tried to call the ferry for reservations only to learn the reservations office had closed only minutes before.
We had supper in the van in the library parking lot awaiting the return of the librarian from supper so we could use the computer to make reservations for the ferry. Unfortunately, the web site didn't work properly and would not take our reservation.
By the time we were done in the library it was almost dark and we had 70 miles to drive back to the ferry. And now we had thick fog and of course the ever-present warnings that we shouldn't drive at night because of the many moose which wander out into the roadway. Today's news carried the sad story of a 22-year-old young man killed early this morning in a car-moose collision and yesterday we talked with a local man who had narrowly missed a collision.
With the fog and the threat of moose on the road, I didn't exceed 45 miles per hour and for a lot of it I did 35 miles per hour (“How fast would you like to be travelling when you hit a moose?”, I kept thinking). And then it started raining.
We finally got back to an overnight parking spot just a few miles from the ferry around 2100. We blogged and read for a bit to settle down from the tension of the drive.

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Wednesday, 15 September-

We awoke to a very nice morning today. Though we had camped near the TCH and there was quite a bit of truck traffic overnight, we didn't seem to hear it. We both slept very well and woke late (around 0800).
After breakfast we began driving west on the TCH, soon reaching Deer Lake and turning there onto the Viking Trail (Route 430) toward Gros Morne National Park.
At mid-morning we stopped at the Gros Morne Visitor's center to check on campgrounds. We learned the nearest campground was now closed for the season but Shallow Bay--- where we had stayed prior to our visit to the Gros Morne Summer Theater performance--- was still open.
We drove to Shallow Bay park and had lunch in the parking lot of the day-use area. We then took showers in the campground and made a phone call home to check messages and then made a call to take care of one of those messages.
We continued north for a few hours until we reached Port-Au-Choix. There we visited the National Historic Site's visitor center and learned about the different cultural groups which have lived in this area. A key area here is 'Philip's Garden', an archeological site where more than 50 Paleo-Eskimo dwellings once lay. These dwellings dated from 4400-3200 BC (!!!!!). They were constructed of whalebone and wood. They were circular, like a teepee, but the whale ribs lifted the conical shape off the ground four feet or so, making them similar to yurts. They were skin-covered, mostly with seal skins.
We then drove to the Philip's Garden Trail and walked for a few hours along the coastal trail. Right after arriving we saw a small whale close to the shore but it soon disappeared. We walked to the archeological sites of Philip's Garden East and West. The former is a large meadow, the latter a terrace lying well above the ocean shore. Today, of course, all we see are a few indentations, but it was here that archeologists found the exquisite stone points of the Paleo-Eskimo and the more numerous stone work of the Dorset Indian and Beothuk cultures.
After our walk we drove to the Point Riche lighthouse, where we saw a boat lying aground. This fishing vessel ran onto the rocks two days ago in high winds and today lies on its side leaking a bit of diesel fuel within a stone's throw of the lighthouse.
We then continued north up Route 430 toward St. Anthony's for another half-hour or so. We found a pulloff/parking lot for the St. Magdalene Bay Trail and had supper. We watched the second episode of 'Random Passage' and then turned in.

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Tuesday, 14 September-

The predicted windy night didn't happen so we may not really have needed to come back to the well-protected provincial park campground. But then again Cape Bonavista is known for its winds and I saw this morning that clouds were still racing across the sky so it still may have been quite windy up on the Cape. In any case we enjoyed the night-drive across the dirt road into the park and we made our decision with the best information we had at the time.
In leaving the park this morning we were now headed back south off the peninsula to then make our way west on the Trans-Canada Highway ('the TCH') and then up the Northern Peninsula and, in a few days, our ferry to Labrador.
As we drove across Route 233 (part of the 'Discovery Trail') I heard a familiar sound. The high-pitched squeal from the front of the engine compartment is back. This time it didn't go away. It did get better but I really, really don't want to be dealing with this later up on the Trans-Labrador. Gander is the next town of any size so we found the Ford dealer (Jim Penney Ford) there. At first the scheduler said she didn't have any openings so they could not help us today. She suggested we try their sister dealership in Grand Falls/Windsor, about an hour west. I asked her to call and we learned they wouldn't be able to fit us in today either. While we were contemplating what to do, the chief service scheduler came in. When our scheduler asked if there would be a recommendation for another shop, she said she could fit us in right after lunch-- an hour from now. Perfect.
We went to the nearby Wal-mart, thinking we'd pick up a few items but then realized we might not be getting a lunch, depending on what the mechanic finds and how long it takes to fix it. We changed course and had lunch at McDonalds and zipped back to the dealership just in time.
Our mechanic, Mark, determined the problem was simply the serpentine belt. I've heard fan belt noises before and was a bit skeptical so I asked Mark to also replace the belt tensioner assembly. That was probably a mistake. After the work was done, I examined the belt-tensioner and if I understand how it works, the only rotating part is an idler pulley and it's okay. If I had just had the belt replaced, I would have had a bill of something like $100. But the new tensioner was $125 and with the extra labor my bill was $300. But I'm still glad I had it done.
We then drove back to the Wal-mart and took care of our little shopping errand. We then looked for a Sobey's grocery store on the GPS but the nearest was on our way west at Grand Falls.
After completing our shopping at Sobey's the time was approaching 1700 and we weren't sure where we'd find parking for the night. We continued west on the TCH and eventurally spotted one at Birchy Lake. It's a classic Newfie 'gravel pit' camping spot There's an old, abandoned school bus camper backed into the trees and a few back-in spots on either side. We settled in and Labashi made supper and then we read and blogged for a few hours, then watched the first episode of 'Random Passage' on DVD.
Our weather today was quite nice. We've had cloudy, windy and raw-feeling weather for the last two days but only a few broken clouds today with temperatures around 60 and light winds. Temperatures overnight have been in the low Fifties and high Forties for the last few nights.

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Monday, 13 September-

We had a windy night but were far enough away from the CBC antenna tower that we weren't bothered by the now-faint throbbing noise of the wind in the wires.
After breakfast we drove north up Route 230. We took a bit of a side trip to Elliston (“the root-cellar capital of the World!”) which is also known for its puffin and murre rookery. The puffins nest in the spring and summer and are gone now but we wanted to see the bird rocks anyway. And we got lucky today. We saw a bald eagle sitting on the nearest island and had an excellent view of him when he took off into the strong wind. He was immediately besieged by gulls and they chased him all over the sky until he finally headed for another small island. But over there the same thing happened-- the gulls swooped mercilessly on him. The last we saw, he disappeared from sight behind the rock with gulls still chasing him.
We continued up 230 to Bonavista and went through town to Dungeon Provincial Park. This beautiful sea-side area is undeveloped and lies along a dirt road leading to the main attraction-- a large sinkhole formed by the sea eroding softer rocks out from under harder rocks, leaving two windows through which the sea intrudes and continues to enlarge the sinkhole. Over time the rocks above the windows will collapse and a 'flowerpot' will be left standing as we see in the next cove.
We briefly visited the Bonavista lighthouse but didn't go through the historical exhibit since it appeared to be much like others we've already seen on this trip. We had lunch under the John Cabot statue in the municipal park and on the plaque below the statue I learned that John Cabot was actually Giovanni Caboto, a Viennese (and thus Italian) explorer sailing under the sponsorship of England. He left England in May 1497 and after five weeks landed “somewhere in Eastern Canada” according to the plaque. “Local tradition”, it continues, “says the landing site was near Cape Bonavista”.
We then went back into Bonavista to the Ryan Premises, a National Historic Site. This museum did a good job explaining the cod fishery and the seal fishery and had an excellent video explaining the collapse of the cod fishery and the fallout from the announcement in 1992 that cod fishing was immediately suspended, putting 20,000 workers out of work that day and kicking off the ripple effects on fish-processing plants and communities across Newfoundland.
We spent most of the afternoon in the museum and loved seeing five or six Film Board of Canada films from the Forties through the Seventies about Newfoundland. The footage of St. John's looked very old but turned out to have been from the late Sixties.
We then drove to a nearby espresso bar we heard about from one of the guides. Like many Newfoundland businesses, there was no sign but for an 8x10 piece of paper taped to the door. 'Espresso Bar upstairs' and we never would have known about it but for the word of mouth.
The espresso bar only opened in July and is attached to a pub and small cafe. The owner, we understand, liked going down to Port Renfrew's 'Two Whales Coffee Shop' for an espresso but decided he'd like to open his own. The shop is called 'Second Story Espresso Bar' and the young guy telling us all about it was John. He says he learned how to make the espresso drinks at the 'Hava-Java' in St. John. And apparently he learned well. I had a cafe mocha and then a cappucino to go and both were very good---- better than those I've had back home, in fact. We wish that business great success. The shop had just the right feel and John had the perfect personality to make us feel at home.
It was well after supper time as we drove back to the Ryan's Premises parking lot and started shelling the shrimp Gary had given us after yesterday's Jiggs' Dinner. Labashi made a good sauteed-shrimp-and-corn dish and we finished up just before dark.
I had thought I'd stay at a gravel lot on Cape Bonavista but we learned at the espresso bar (via our wi-fi connection) that we're supposed to have another windy night. We drove back to Lockpath Provincial Park, this time via the north entrance road (a 12K dirt road which was supposedly very rough but turned out to be better than the south entrance) and got into the same campsite we had last night by 2030.

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Sunday, 12 September-

Winds were high last night but we were snug among the pines. We did notice, however, that around 0300 we could hear a low-frequency sound-- like boombox music in the distance. We couldn't figure out what the sound would be and our natural curiousity led us to speculate about what it might be and kept us awake for more than an hour before we drifted off. We noticed it seemed a bit louder near the park office so we think it may have been the generator. Next time we'll take a spot further away.
We still had some light rain and winds blowing about 20 miles per hour this morning as we drove to a coffee shop a few miles away. It turned out to be closed but we stopped at a gas station across the street from it and asked if there would be someplace serving a Jigg's Dinner today. The Newfoundland specialty is also known as a 'boiled dinner' and just 'Sunday dinner', the latter because it is served every Sunday in many Newfoundland families. In fact, many families also have 'Sunday dinner' on Thursdays, too. We were given directions to a restaurant near Trinity which would be serving it today.
We drove into the small town of Trinity East and looked about and we could see the much more famous Trinity across the bay.
In Trinity we visited a few gift shops and Labashi bought 'Waiting for Time', the followup to 'Random Passage' and the second of the two books upon which the Canadian mini-series 'Random Passage' was based.
In one of the gift shops we learned the Hiscock House as well as the other historical houses managed by the Provincial Government, were open for free today. We toured the Hiscock House and by then it was time for our Jigg's Dinner. We drove to nearby A&K Catering for the dinner and were surprised to find the sign outside not only doesn't identify it as a restaurant, it doesn't show Sunday hours. But on the door, under the porch, was a hand-written sign--- YES, WE'RE OPEN TODAY-- but it wasn't clear what, exactly was open!
We walked into a hallway and that led to the restaurant which turned out to be very small-- only one table which could seat six and two tables which could seat four. All were occupied but two seats were open on the six-place table. The people at the table said we were welcome to sit there if we didn't mind company.
Now a Jigg's Dinner consists of salt-beef and the winter vegetables-- potatoes, carrots, turnip, and cabbage plus pease pudding and mustard-pickles. The salt-beef and vegetables are soaked overnight in fresh water and then boiled together in a pot. A pease pudding is made from yellow split-peas which are also soaked overnight (in a special pease-pudding bag) and then boiled separately. The resulting meal is a masterpiece of tastes --- not to mention a heaping plate-ful of food.
The other people at our table were locals... 'Norm' and his wife and another fellow whose name we didn't catch. Norm is a deckhand on a shrimp trawler and a friend of Gary's, our waiter and (we think) part-owner of the restaurant. Gary also works on the shrimper.
We learned from Norm that shrimping is for what we know as popcorn shrimp and is nearly a year-round fishery. Our other tablemate works on boats but (if we understood correctly) he's not a fisherman but a marine mechanic.
Norm and his wife told us they're going for a drive today and the Jiggs' Dinner is just one of their stops. We later learned it's also a Newfoundland tradition to go for a Sunday drive nearly every Sunday. In Norm's case, he was also going to visit his elderly mother today.
After I finished my dinner, Gary brought out tea and a 'blueberry pudding', which was a blueberry cake covered with a light caramel sauce and served warm. Delicious!
We then drove back into the heart of Trinity to buy our theater tickets for tonight at the Rising Tide Theater. We toured the Mercantile store which had not one but two very good guides. Randy is a Bonavista-born lad who had such a thick accent we could hardly understand him. But he was very knowledgeable and spoke to us about the mix of cultures in this area. It's predominately British but also has a sizable Irish component and he believes there's more than a bit of aboriginal DNA mixed in to most families.
When Randy went to lunch, we were turned over to Terry Kelleher who regaled us for more than an hour about the impact of Americans on Newfoundland, his experiences on Russian ships as a Canadian fisheries observer, his run-ins with the provincial fisheries officials regarding his warnings that the cod fishery was in trouble due to overfishing and the impact of trawling nets on the Grand Banks cod nurseries (Of the Fisheries officials, he said, “The main Fisheries guy was from Saskatchewan, for God's sake!!! What would he know about cod fishing??”). After hearing of Terry's many occupations, I look forward to reading his autobiography one day.
We then drove to New Bonaventure to visit the movie set of 'Random Passage'. We had tea while waiting our tour time and were joined by a couple from Harrisonburg, Virginia. We four then took the tour together with our guide 'Bride', a local woman who knew the story and the site from the inside out. Bride was quite a storyteller and did a great job.
After our tour, we pulled off a road-side pulloff overlooking the little fishing village of New Bonaventure and had supper as the wind whistled strongly around Mocha Joe.
Back at Trinity, we read a bit while waiting our 8 pm curtain time and then saw “Theresa's Creed” as played by the Rising Tide Theater's artistic director, Donna Butt. She was amazing in her one-woman show, a portrayal of an older Newfoundland fisher-wife, looking back at her life's highs and lows.
We had met Donna when she came in past the box office as we bought our tickets and spoke briefly with her. She asked where we were from and I said 'Well, Newfoundland, of course!”. Of course I said it “New-fund-lund” and she laughed uproariously as I corrected myself to 'New-fund-LAND”. She said, “Nice try. Many mainlanders say “New-FOUND-Land”.
After the show Donna came out and shook everyone's hand as we all departed the theater. Nice touch!
I had seen an ad in the theater program for a local restaurant inviting theater-goers for a drink after the show so Labashi and I went over. The small restaurant/inn had a small loft area above the restaurant which had a few lounging chairs. Labashi had a hot toddy and I had an Irish coffee as we chatted for a half-hour or so with a young couple from Calgary, she a recruiter in the oil and gas industry and he a piling-and-shoring specialist for buildings. Nice folks.
It was after 2300 when we drove back to the Provincial Park campground. And we finally learned what the low-frequency noise was last night. It was the wind in the antenna wires. There's a CBC antenna on the hilltop nearby and the wind blowing through the wires makes the eeries throbbing sound. We asked for a camp site as far from the antenna as possible since tonight was supposed to be another windy one.


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