Today we drove up the Northern Penninsula of Newfoundland. The weather must be much more harsh up this way. The Tuckamore trees (black spruce) are stunted, gnarly and short. There are fishing villages every few miles up the West Coast. This road was completed in 1967 before which the only means of travel was boat and in the winter, snowmobile or dog sled. Before the road these people were very isolated. The road follows the shore most of the way and the views of the sea were breathtaking. We noticed along the roadside there were dozens and dozens of little fenced in gardens. Mostly, potatoes, carrots and root crops were growing in them. Even way out from towns, here's be a cute little garden in the borrow pit. Also we saw huge stacks of fire wood, and large racks of lobster traps arranged on the roadside. We found out later that though this is all Crown Land along the road, the people are permitted to use it. Nearer the coast there is little or no topsoil and the wind and sea spray are too harsh for gardens so, since the road was built people have come out and staked out a little spot to grow a garden. Also, they are permitted to cut wood in the winter. The go in on snowmobiles, cut the wood, sled it out to the roadside and stack it. They in the fall after it has cured the truck it all home. The honor system is a given in Newfoundland and no one worries about their garden being raided or their wood stolen. The fences around the gardens are to ward off the moose and caribou.
In St. Anthony we caught a boat tour which took us to see whales and a lovely iceberg. We saw a (rare for this area) Baluga whale and several Humpbacks, one up close. It was very exciting.
Booklogged sat on a box on the prow with a cute little lady. As we plowed over the rollers they were hanging on to each other for dear life in order to stay on that box. We all got such a kick out of their antics, trying to stay balanced.
We enjoyed a nice supper with more Bake Apple for dessert and turned in early to catch up on some sleep and some blogging.
3 comments:
Great pictures! You didn't take one of mom trying to stay balanced? A video of that would be even better!
Sounds like so much fun! I want to see whales some day.
LOL about booklogged on the prow... did she get feeling a bit vomnly there? The iceberg is awesome on several levels. First being that just looking at it makes our hot weather (I'm sure you are missing it) a bit more tolerable for a second. Second is that I've always wanted to catch site of rain water falls coming over cliffs on the slick rock around here. And you got a good one on the side of the berg. Very nice.
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