I'se de bye

Gros Morne mountain

Newfoundland continues to enchant us. We have left St. John’s and are gradually working our way across the province to Port Au Basque to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia.  We stopped in Gander to spend the night and went for a walk to work out the kinks from sitting in the car too long.   In contrast to St. John’s, which is the oldest city in North America, Gander is relatively new having been built during WW2 as an airbase.  It is the site of the famous 9-11 incident which brought the hospitality of the Newfoundlanders to fame.  This hospitality and warmth is a real thing.  Everyone we met on the street greeted us – even a group of young girls who interrupted their heavy conversation about hair and makeup to smile and say hello.  Our waitress at the restaurant said to us, “ Oi reconnize ye frum earlier t’day, me love.  Ye were out walkin’, eh?”

I don’t think you could get away with anything in Gander…

We went and explored a bit of Gros Morne National park yesterday and today.  Telen had been there before about twenty years ago and wanted to see it again.  It really is beautiful and apparently is a world heritage site because of that.  Not to demean the park but, as beautiful as it is, it is not more beautiful than most places in BC - including our own Vancouver Island.  It is different, however, in that there are many small villages perched right on the shore and the houses are placed in more or less complete disorder.  None of this "streets and avenues" business – you build the houses where you live, bye.

The Village of Norris Point

We stopped at a lighthouse and had a chat with the Parks Canada lady who was curating it.  We asked her where a good place to get lunch was and she said to go to Jackie’s Place.  When I asked her where that was she pointed out the door and said “Roight dere.”   I looked out the door and all I could see was the parking lot and some trees.  When I looked puzzled she said, “Oi can see it frum here, bye!” and pointed across the bay to the village of Rocky Harbour in the distance.  We never did find Jackie or her restaurant, if she had one.   For all we know it might have just been Jackie’s house and maybe she made a good lunch.

Interestingly enough, in the lighthouse where they had a brief history of the west of Newfoundland, they referred to 1949 as the year Canada joined Newfoundland.   I love it.

Today we took a cruise around Bonne Bay which is part of Gros Morne park.  It was quite interesting learning about the history and geology of the area.  We came across some porpoises in the bay and we gave chase.   I thought we were going to run them down we came so close and the porpoises were swimming hard to get away.   If a captain had done that in BC we would find him hanging above the harbor with the crows feasting on his eyeballs.

Telen spotted a moose on the hillside as we were cruising by.  Apparently moose were introduced here in 1900 and have since made a concerted effort to take over Newfoundland.

Telen's Moose running from the sound of a wok 

I think they should introduce some Chinese to deal with them.  I am sure they would come up with some recipes for stir-fried moose.   But then what would we do with all the Chinese?

I‘m not sure Telen will forgive me for that remark…

I mean, Boris and Natasha haven’t even been able to deal with one Moose much less over half a million of them.

Sunning myself on the balmy beaches of Newfoundland near Lobster Cove Head

Here are some interesting things we noticed here.  Lots of houses still have their Christmas lights up.   And that is not through neglect – the houses and yards here are immaculate.  People seem to put solar lights in the cemeteries on the graves of their loved ones.  Are ghosts afraid of the dark?  No one gives you distances in kilometers; they give to you in time.   “It’s boot 1 are west of ‘ere, bye.” (it’s about 1 hour west of here, boy)

People here in Newfoundland are proud of being Newfies.  They have a long history of taking care of each other and struggling to wrest a living from an inhospitable land.  This has shaped their character making them strong, proud, resilient and caring. 

They have a right to be proud.