2nd
June 2016
Port, Forts, and
Gibbets
After Ben had
gone to work, and we had a quick breakfast, Marie and I set off to explore St
John’s in her convertible Chrysler Crossfire, which only sees the light of day
during the summer, and is in absolutely pristine condition. It wasn’t warm enough to put the top down,
but it was good fun driving around St John’s in something a lot sportier than
Troopie ! We drove through part of downtown St John’s where the houses are
traditionally painted in all sorts of different colours, and then headed south
out of town to Cape Spear.
Cape Spear is the
most easterly point in North America, and is a wild and rocky part of the coast
– And the bitterly cold wind was blowing very strongly. There was an increasing expanse of blue sky,
but the wind kept you in check and made you realize how exposed this place is
right on the edge of the Atlantic. Much
of the cliff edge has enormous gun batteries and magazines built in 1941 to
protect the harbour during WW II. One
aspect of these guns was very spectacular – They were know as disappearing guns
because the used to be able to be lowered down out of sight when not in
use. In 1896 these particular guns were
originally installed to protect Philadelphia, and were then transferred here in
1941.
We didn’t spend
too long in the cold wind before driving back into town, ending up at the Newman
Port Vaults. Story has it that in 1679 a
vessel heading from Oporto in Portugal to London laden with Port was set upon
by a French Privateer, and although it eventually escaped, it lost its way and
ended up on St John’s. After wintering
in St John’s, she eventually returned to London, where it was found that the
port had acquired a new, finer flavour, and ever since then, Newman’s have
wintered their port in St John’s before returning it to Europe for sale. Ironically, and Europeans will understand
this, EU
On the way
through town, alongside the shipping wharves, we passed a huge liquid mud plant
and bulk silos for M-I Swaco, who was the company I used to work for ! We went past the Quidi Vidi brewery, which
brews some of Newfoundland’s favourite micro-brews, including one made from
iceberg water sourced from the local icebergs.
From there we wound our way up to Signal Hill, overlooking the narrow
entrance to the harbour, stopping for a quick sandwich for lunch on the way.
On top of the
hill overlooking the city is Cabot Tower, built in 1900 to honour John Cabot’s
arrival in 1497, as well as Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. In the late 18th century there was
a barracks here on Signal Hill which changed hands between the French and the
English a couple of times until in 1762 the final North American battle of the
Seven Years War took place here, and ended France’s aspirations for control of eastern North America. The
Cabot Tower was also the scene of Guglielmo Marconi’s first transatlantic
wireless message received from Cornwall in 1901.
Marie then took
me on the North Head Trail walk which is a favourite with people from St
John’s, and after the climb up to Signal Hill then winds its way down around
the rocks and often very narrow trails along the cliffs, along the edge of the
harbour entrance, eventually returning into the old part of town where the walk
actually crossed the balcony of someone’s house !
At the narrowest
part of the harbour entrance, ever since the 1660’s, they have strung cables,
or nets and ropes in the older days, to prevent enemy ships sailing into the
harbour, including, later, German U boats.
We then made our way past Fort Waldegrave, which was built in 1798 and
served as a support battery for Chain Rock, where the boom was laid across the
harbour entrance.
Once we left
Signal Hill, we wandered home via a big Marine Research centre located on part
of the wild coastline just outside St John’s, where we saw some of the local
marine life in touch pools, as well as some harp seals which have been bred
here and are used in their research.
After that we went home via a couple of shops, including the wine store
to get some white wine to go with the local delicacy that Marie was cooking for
me tonight – Fish and brewis, with schrunchions. Basically this is salted and dried cod (like
they have eaten here for hundreds of years), which is then soaked in water all
day to gradually remove the salt, and then cooked. It is accompanied by the brewis which is
basically a dried bread which, before soaking, is like a VERY hard biscuit,
which would be able to be stored indefinitely, and has to also be soaked in
water to make it edible. Finally there
were the schrunchions which are more
like pork crackling, but most of it is just the fat, not the crunchy
crackling. My verdict ? I really liked
the fish – The saltiness is totally gone once it has been soaked properly. The schrunchions were delicious – But then I
am a softy for pork crackling of any description, even though I know it is SO
bad for you !! As for the brewis bread –
No, didn’t really like that – Nothing bad about it – It is just that it is
virtually tasteless and soft and mushy, a bit like if you soaked any bread in
water. But then if 200 years ago that
was all one had, it would be fine – As long as you coated it liberally with schrunchions
to give it lots of flavor !
After supper some
of Marie’s family that I had met last week in Norris Point came over for a
drink, and it was great to catch up with them again before I left. Carmel very kindly gave me some of her little
local “rock paintings” to take with me – So I can have a little bit of
traditional Newfoundland at home in Australia to remind me of my trip. Perfect !
And so to
bed…..With the plan to head out tomorrow after visiting the Toyota dealer who
are interested to see my car (Ben works for the company that has the Toyota
agency here). Additionally, when I
downloaded my photos off my camera this evening, I found that many of them had
not come out – When I was in the Port Cellars right at the beginning of the
day, I had taken a couple of flash photos, and then stupidly left the camera
settings on “flash”, so most of my photos of the beautiful sunny day around St
John’s were horribly over exposed and useless. So before going to Toyota I plan to run back
up to Signal Hill and retake some of the photos because the scenery around St
John’s is just so good, especially in the beautiful sunshine which we had
today. Hopefully I will get some more
sunshine in the morning ! So if you
think some of today’s photos seem to be a bit out of order, you are correct !
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