Long may your big jig draw: Newfoundland Part 1
Wow.
Not sure how we can do justice to the three awesome weeks we spent in Newfoundland. Three weeks of stunning scenery, great conversations, music and a bit of history thrown in. It helps that it’s the type of place you feel almost instantly at home. People give the steering wheel one hand wave as they drive past, strangers say good morning as they pass you on the street, and many others need no excuse to strike up a conversation anywhere, anytime (in a random car park, in line at the grocery store, on the hiking trail…)
Coming from Toronto where you’re practically taking your life in your hands to cross at an authorised pedestrian crossing, the novelty didn’t wear off of cars stopping from both directions to let you cross the street any time you even walked close to the edge of the road.
We spent two weeks in Avalon (St John’s) and the Bonavista peninsula, and then one week in Gros Morne National Park on the West Coast.
Some of our highlights were:
- Gros Morne National Park - absolutely incredible scenery where we hiked about 50km and got all geeky about geology (it really was cool - see blog post Part 2)
- Getting screech’d in by Lukie
- Meeting the locals and so many other ‘come from aways’ - that Irish lilt made us feel almost like we were back with the gang from County Clare.
- Hiking the East Coast trails and exploring the tiny fishing villages
- Fun place names. Obviously Dildo tops the list but there are so many more
- Seeing puffins
Small towns and fun names
Newfoundland has a huge number of tiny towns, and many of the town names put even Australian naming to shame (Great Sandy Desert) for their fun.
Some of our faves:
- Dildo (of course)
- Witless Cove
- Old Shop
- Random Island
- The combo of Heart’s Delight, Heart’s Desire and Hearts Content all within 10 minutes of each other along the coast.
While Dildo does top the list of ridiculous names (as famously pointed out by Jimmy Kimmel), it is also a really nice little town and has one of our favourite craft breweries overlooking the harbour. By chance the road took us there as our very first stop.
We didn’t have to wait long to get a taste of small town Newfoundland as our first night was spent in Grates Cove, a town of 130 people on the tip of the Avalon peninsula. After a rambling hike along the coast and happening upon a stunning tiny bay where two bald eagles were nesting we arrived back at our Airbnb house in need of a hot shower. But instead Al watched in horror as the water went from clear to a slight tinge of brown then to something like a sludge. Welcome to water insecurity in small towns dependent on well water. Small towns less than an hour’s drive from the Provincial capital city mind you. Turns out they almost ran out of water a few days previously because there had been a wedding in town and the town had doubled in size for a few days. All those pesky city folk taking showers no doubt. Not to worry, the water soon returned to normal and we were able to soak in a seaweed bath as we looked out over the Atlantic ocean.
The Road Less Travelled
One of the locals we met joked that in some parts of the world people drive on the left, in Newfoundland they drive on what’s let of the road. This has been pretty accurate and never more so than on our very first day on the Isle. We were so close to the town with our accommodation we could practically see it, when the gravel road suddenly turned to less a road and more a pile of boulders. Google really needs a way of letting you know “yeh, that road was washed out by a huge storm three years ago and now you can only get through it on an ATV”. On the upside, it led us to meet a fun couple.
We probably should have taken the hint when we saw another ‘come from away’ car that had turned around and was heading back. On our way out, the same car was stopped, so we did the neighbourly thing and stopped to make sure they were OK / share a laugh as tourists. Apparently it doesn’t take long to fall into the Newfoundland way and take the time to say hello and chat.
After the guy in the car had uttered about two syllables we knew where he was from. In response to Michelle’s question “Are you from Australia?”, he answered “Yeah” in that way only Aussies can, as if you just stated the bleedingly obvious. We proceeded to chat from our cars for about 20 minutes. Not to worry, there wasn’t a single other car trying to get past.
This was a perfect introduction to what we would experience almost every day on our trip as locals and tourists alike were more than happy to say hi, stop and chat for a while.
Aye b’y, we was Screech’d in
Most conversations with locals include at some point the question “so, where ya heading?”. They are really interested in ‘come from aways’ and want to make sure you enjoy your stay. Everyone seems to have this need to give you a local tip on somewhere to go or something to do, which is great. One such random tip was that the only place to be screech’d in is at Christian’s pub. We were worried it would be a tourist trap and a bit hokey, but it actually turned out to be grand.
You can get screech’d in at many place, but Christian’s is legendary. The entire bar shuts down during the 45 minute ceremony which is run by Lukie, a local dressed in his full wet weather fishing garb (sou-wester hat and heavy raincoat) and goes something like this:
- Lukie gives a run down on how amazing Newfoundland is and why you want to become an honorary Newfoundlander. It varied from absolutely hilarious to quite emotional. A whole lot of laughs along with some education on Newfoundlanders.
- Everyone calls out their names one-by-one
- Lukie teaches you some Newfoundlandish sayings and songs
- You eat a piece of Newfoundlander steak (fried bologna, or polony in West Australian)
- Lukie calls each person’s name (having remembered all 42 of us that night) and you kiss the cod (yes, an actual fish)
- You drink a shot of screech rum
- You get a certificate as an honorary Newfoundlander
- General sense of warmth ensues
One of the sayings we learned was the title of this blog: Long may your big jig draw. Luckily we’d been to a wooden boat building museum (as you do) where they’d explained the technique of jigging which is basically dropping a line from the boat with a giant hook attached. While commercial fishing no longer uses this method, people we met still use it for family fishing.
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| Al kissing the fish |
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| Lukie for PM |
History and Context
The way in which fishing is the heart and soul of Newfoundland can’t really be appreciated until you visit. It’s evident wherever you look from the fishing boats in every tiny harbour, to the songs in the pubs and the stories people tell.
Fun facts we learned:
- Nearly all the Europeans that first settled the East coast of Newfoundland were from a very small area of Ireland near Waterford, and they settled in a small area of Eastern Newfoundland. No wonder then than the Irish influence is still heard in the accent and music today.
- Newfoundland wasn’t established as a colony, but as fishing Merchant-run settlements. Back in the days when you could drop a bucket in the ocean and bring it straight up full of fish (or so the legend says)
- Boats were built by hand by carefully choosing trees bent in exactly the right way to make the shape of the hull.
- As controversial as seal hunting is, there’s no denying how incredibly dangerous it was for the people walking out on the shifting ice flows when the weather could change in an instant and bring deadly Arctic winds and snow.
- The process of drying and salting cod is called ‘making fish’ and only some of the old ‘stages’ are still in place today. A real Newfoundlander calls it Codfish.
Hiking the East Coast and Central Newfoundland
In our four days in in St John’s and few days in Bonavista peninsula we hiked almost every day along the stunning coastal routes. Much of the coastline has old walking trails used for trading between villages, which have been converted into actual hiking trails. The East Coast Trail is a 5-day hike that runs right through St John’s
The walk from downtown St John’s, along the edge of the harbour, up to Signal Hill was stunning. It even gives the Bondi to Bronte walk a run for its money. Even better, we extended the walk to Quidi Vidi and a stop at the local craft brewery on the stunning little inlet.
Bonavista
The weather on our trip has been perfect almost every day. So much so the locals are in a state of shock at having so many warm, dry days in a row. We did get a taste of typical Newfoundland weather the day we hiked the famous Skerwink trail that promised stunning views over Trinity Harbour. What stated as a blue sky day view suddenly disappeared behind a fog so thick you could hardly see 20m in front of you.
We splashed out on the glamping option at Terra Nova National Park and stayed in what Parks Canada calls a ‘water droplet’ but we prefer to call our spaceship. The short hikes in this area reminded us of Ontario with lots of lake and endless trees.
One of the last remaining fire towers. No longer in use
In search of Puffins
Newfoundland is one of the best places in North America to see puffins, those cute birds that look like a cross between a penguin and a toucan.
We had a few attempts at finding them including a boat trip from Witless Bay on the East coast where we saw them from afar. The fun part was watching them trying to take off as flying is not exactly their strong suit. You find yourself cheering for them as they struggle to skim just above the waves, trying so hard to get lift off, and then collapse and give up.
In an effort to see them up close, we headed to spot near Bonavista where they nest on an island just meters from the shore.
Of food, music and pubs
As we drove to dinner one night our taxi driver, Moose (not an actual one, just a guy with a nickname), suggested that we pop in to the Inn of Olde. Apparently it was a little piece of history, as a tiny pub run by a very friendly pub keeper who has a huge collection of knickknacks in the pub. We suggested we had half an hour before dinner so had time to stop by for a drink. Moose just smiled and said: “You might be able to get out of there in 30 minutes”
So we headed into the wee pub to say hello. The owner was busy chatting to another group so we didn’t have a chance to speak to her much. That is, until we were leaving and she came around the bar to give us a big hug and then proceeded to talk at us for the next 20 minutes about her life story and how she ended up running the pub. Reminded us of Angie’s in London (for the Irish in the audience who will know this one).
In yet another random encounter we asked some guys where they’d suggest we could see some good local music in St John’s. They suggested The Ship and The Black Sheep, then took another look at us, changed their minds and said “The Ship is probably best for you". We realised afterwards that this was thinly veiled code for ‘you look too old for George Street’. And having walked down George Street at midnight we can agree that yes, we are officially too old for it.
The Ship on the other hand was perfect. Low key, local hangout where everyone seems to know each other. They had one singer songwriter that night, the talented Sean Panting, who sang to about 12 of us, except for when a huge pub crawl group suddenly descended on the bar for 45 minutes and then moved on. Some Canadians in this audience may remember Sean as he wrote a very funny song about snowmageddon a few years ago. Most of the crowd were follow local musicians, including Jenny who eventually admitted she’d done quite well in Canada’s Got Talent a few years ago (she came 5th in the inaugural series!).
Newfoundland has some amazing restaurants both in St John’s and tucked away in small towns. We had some excellent meals in St John’s including at Mallard Cottage (amazing wine list by the glass), Terre Restaurant, and The Rooms Cafe.
East Meets West
After two weeks on the more Irish side of the island, we were headed for ‘the West Coast’, which people in the East spoke about like it was another land. And in many ways, it is. Not only was it literally a completely different continent 500 million years ago, making the landscape quite different, it was also colonized by the Protestant English rather than the Catholic Irish of St. John’s.
But our Western exploits will have to wait for Part 2 of our Newfoundland adventures!
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