Twillingate II

Yesterday's post was short because I'd been out drinking beers with Jen's colleague most of the evening. Her co-worker is also travelling around Newfoundland right now and they'd made a sort-of plan to meet up here in Twillingate. Like many places these days, this town has its own brewery- Split Rock- and we spent a few hours sampling their offerings. While at the Stage Head Pub we chatted with a slightly intoxicated local who, we found out, was going to be a guide on our boat trip today (see below).

Our early morning boat tour (ideally) takes you to whales and icebergs and sea birds. We saw one of those things and it wasn't whales or icebergs. Apparently all the whales are to the south right now around the Avalon peninsula, and that's where we're headed in two days. Fingers crossed! The icebergs are all up on the northwestern end of the island right now, including a massive block floating off the coast near L'Anse aux Meadows. Oh well- no planning with Mother Nature. 

It rained overnight and this morning fog had everything socked in. We couldn't see much as the boat left the harbor but that also made for some dramatic scenery as the rocky cliffs emerged and disappeared throughout the ride. The water is extremely deep right off the coastline- 200 feet less than 50 yards from the cliffs in some places. This draws whales very close to shore where they can scoop up massive schools of fish. Not today, of course, but they are here sometimes (see Mother Nature, above).

We did get to see two bald eagles and their nest, as well as scores of sea birds with their little fuzzy fledglings on breeding colonies on the rocks. I can't remember all the breeds but there were gannets, dovekies or little auks (referred to by our guide as "the puffin's ugly cousin"), kittiwakes and something like 100 species of gull. My shitty camera phone didn't capture the eagles with any clarity but hop on over to Jenmac's insta @macntash18 to see a good shot! We also got to see some incredible rock formations including sea stacks.

I learned today that a "Tickle" is a narrow channel between rocks that can be dangerous if you don't know the waters, because the rocks that sit below the water will tickle your hull if you aren't careful. Our bar buddy/tour guide Gary told us that!

A little history that I didn't get to yesterday. Like many of the towns in Newfoundland, Twillingate's European history begins with a temporary fishing outport. Here it was the French who were first to arrive around 1650, making it one of the earliest in the province. They named this place Toulinguet because it reminded them of a cluster of islands off the coast of France. A permanent English settlement was started around 1738 when twelve families arrived from Devonshire and the name was anglicized to Twillingate.  

The area was the homeland of indigenous people thousands of years earlier. The Beothuk (pronounced Bee-oth-uk) were here when the Europeans arrived, and we visited the Beothuk Interpretation Centre today in nearby Boyd's Cove to see a coastal village site that was partially excavated in the 1980s. This group only numbered a few thousand. Apparently the Beothuk did not engage in trade with the Europeans, but like every other colonial group, the French then English ignored indigenous land rights, harvested most of the natural resources, pushed the Beothuk into the interior and away from their traditional hunting and fishing/marine lands, and by the 1820s there were virtually no people left who identified as descendants (that's what the museum displays said, anyway. That may not actually be true).       

Don't worry, I didn't pick the flowers.

Beothuk house pits- good thing there's an interpretive panel and numbers to show us where they are!

After our museum and site visit, we headed back towards Twillingate and took a beautiful hike out to a natural sea arch. The sun had finally come out and it was a beautiful summer day- perfect for this scenery. 

Root cellars are big historic resources here- we passed several on our way to the water including this one dated to 1930. Now home to a crow.

This was just stunning! Jen climbing down on the rocks for a closer view and to provide much-needed scale.

We also enjoyed lobster rolls (and beer) for lunch and a great dinner which included (beer and) sesame-crusted local scallops. Yummm! We also got to enjoy some much needed Vitamin C and Sea on our little front porch and then our second beautiful sunset. Tomorrow we head south and east to the Bonavista peninsula and so help me god we're gonna see puffins. Stay tuned...