1st
June 2016
Dildo, Icebergs,
and a Loonie
Still not a soul
in my campsite when I got up and left, so I said my grateful thanks to the
trees and headed out. It had been a very
peaceful site !
Down the road I
soon came upon my first surprise of the day – A sign pointing to a town called
Dildo ! Just off the main road, it is a
normal (for round here) sleepy little fishing town that is similar to places
like Chicken Alaska in so fr as they make a business out of their unusual
names. So there is Dildo Store, Dildo
Post Office, and lots of other Dildos in town – Including a statue of a certain
Captain Dildo, of which the less said the better. And no, I do not have a photo !
Moving on from
Dildo I passed a spectacular Shag Rock, and after driving through Heart’s
Delight, I came to Heart’s Desire, and shortly after that, Heart’s
Content. Oh dear oh dear !! Actually Heart’s Content was quite fun. I noticed a sign to the “House of Commons” so
set off to find out what that could be – But before I got there I had to stop
on the narrow lane to let an oncoming car past.
But he didn’t pass – He pulled up, wound down his window, and waited for
me to roll mine down (easier said than done on a RHD car !). I wondered what he
wanted,
Carrying on to
the end of the lane, I passed the “House of Commons” (actually a certain Bill
Piercey’s shed !) before I came to a little lighthouse out on the point, and
went for a wander – Very bleak, windy and cold ! Then it was back through the
little town, passing some very brightly painted buildings, and continuing on up
the west coast of this northwesterly peninsula of the larger Avalon Peninsula,
with the Trinity Bay inlet on my left.
I came into a
little town called Turk’s Cove and found even more brightly painted building
and sheds – They really brighten things up round here, and it is a very common
(and fun) aspect of Newfoundland.
Newfoundland’s nickname is “The Rock”, and you can see why – it really
is one big rock, so all these bright buildings really bring it alive. Up the road a little further, New Melbourne
(?) deserved a quick visit, and I found a big fish plant there whose effluent
was obviously keeping the local seagull population happy and well fed !
From there it was
up to the very tip of the peninsula, at Grates Cove. As I came down the hill into town I could see
the top of a big iceberg that was obviously very close to the beach, so in
order to see it better I followed a little dirt trail down the side of the hill
– I think it was actually the driveway to a house, but round here no one seems
to mind too much ! When I got down to the bottom sure enough there was a
sizeable iceberg hung up on a rock, and lots of small bits of ice floating
around the rocks and washing up on the beach.
As I stood there
in the freezing wind and watched the death of an iceberg, a little 4WD quad
bike came down the hill, with a guy in a T shirt and no hat riding it. I watced as he carefully drove right down the
rocks onto the beach, and then started filling up a couple of buckets with bits
of ice off the beach. When he came back
up the hill 5 minutes later, I had to stop him and find out more, didn’t I
? First of all he did admit it was a
cold day, but obviously he hadn’t felt it was cold enough to require him to
wear a jacket ! As far as the ice was
concerned, he said “I have been waiting for our first iceberg to come in to
shore so I could get some ice for my rum” !!
Apparently iceberg ice is so dense that if you put a lump in a G & T
(or rum !) at the beginning of the night, and had 2 or 3 refills, you would
still be using the same lump of ice 3 hours later ! So it is valued for use in drinks ! And he was really happy to have some for his
drinks tonight, and took off up the hill to his house.
Before taking me
off, he told me that only about an hour ago the iceberg had rolled, with
accompanying crashes and bangs etc (icebergs do not roll over quietly !) – He
said it was very spectacular – Missed it, bugger !! Spent too long looking around Dildo !! I then drove around the little town up onto
the cliff on the other side, where there are several houses that I am told are
becoming increasingly popular with “mainlanders” as holiday houses. Bit chilly I would have thought, but probably
very dramatic, especially in winter storm !
It turns out that
a family of Coopers were one of the first settlers in Grates Cove in 1790, and
the Cooper’s daughter Margaret was probably the first person ever to be born in
Grates Cove. (For those who are unaware,
my sister in England is called Margaret !).
Once again, cod fishing has always been the main stay of Grates Cove
(like everywhere else in Newfoundland), and Grates Cove regular produced the
highest per capita landing of cod of any community in Newfoundland. John Cabot is also reported to have landed
here a couple of times, once being shipwrecked here !
I then drove not
far round the coast to Bay of Verde, yet another picturesque little fishing
village in a sheltered bay - With a church with a very green and new looking
roof, as well as the usual colourful houses, end even colourful fishing boats
in the harbour. And over on the other
side of the bay were the now common big icebergs, washed into the bay.
From Bay de Verde
I then came down the eastern shore of Conception Bay, making my way towards St
John’s, and I had done most of this road a couple of days earlier, so the only
new thing to remark on was that I finally saw some Loon’s in a lake beside the
road. I don’t think the Loon is Canada’s
national bird, but the one dollar coin in nicknamed a Loon, or the Loonie,
after the bird (while the 2 $ coin is named the Toonie. It gets interesting in the shop – “That’ll be
$5 please”. “OK” I say, studying my
handful of strange coins. “Just give me
a toonie and 3 of those loonie’s, and we’ll be right” says the salesman. Yeah right !!
From there on
down the coast, it was as usual lake after lake after lake – If you are getting
the impression that there is a lot of water round here, you would be very
correct. I stopped in at Tim Horton’s to
do some email, and shortly after that Marie said she was home from work, so I
went round to their house which was just around the corner.
Marie had
arranged to take tomorrow off work to show me around St John’s, so while we
were chatting about what we would do, I mentioned that I would need to get some
fuel for the car before I left, and where was the cheapest place ? Suddenly Marie leapt up and said “I forgot –
We need to get fuel tonight – The price of fuel is going up some 25 cents a
litre at midnight !”. She had forgotten
that the new Provincial Government is blaming the previous government for lying
about the state of the Provinces finances, and in order to raise some money to
cover the debts is putting the price of fuel up this week, and putting sales
tax on everything else up at the end of June !
Hmmm – Time to get out of Newfoundland !!?
After fueling up,
and being given some delicious Moose stew for supper, I settled into the nice
soft bed provided by Ben and Marie, and slept like a log, looking forward to
seeing the sight’s of St John’s tomorrow.
Hopefully the weather would be kind.
Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6291699766266948081?authkey=Gv1sRgCP_evem3rP38Xw
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