Thursday, July 28, 2016

Day 25 Trinity Bay


Early this morning we set out to find a dentist. David has been pushing his luck with this loose crown and this is the first place where we found a website that claimed a dentist. We took a little detour to Trinity before heading to the dentist in Bonavista. We wanted to score tickets to the Rising Poor Tide Summer Theatre and since we haven’t had huge luck with such things since we arrived we adopted what we hoped was the book early enough policy!

Poor David! The town of Trinity is so pretty! It really was very cruel to bring him there just for tickets and make him leave without pictures to go to the dentist! The tickets were no problem and I promised him a return trip to Trinity, so with just a few “I have to stop here for one picture” moments, we were on the road to Bonavista.

As it happens he could have taken all day. After a short wait (the sign said I’m with a patient and will get to you as soon as I can) we learned, the website is very out of date and they “have to get to that”!! The second dentist in the practice who covered the outport offices, left for Halifax. The main dentist only get out here every few weeks for a day. This wasn’t his day or week! Oh well! He says he will just keep chewing on the other side until we reach St. John’s!

Bonavista is beautiful so it certainly wasn’t a wasted trip! We set out for the water and local wharf as we so often do. There is a reason the wharf is central to these outports. While it may not have been originally designed to quickly orient us to the surrounding town, it always does such a great job of it we certainly don’t mind taking advantage! When Giovanni Caboto first laid eyes on this spot in 1497, he called it Buena Vista. A beautiful sight it certainly is! Still a busy fishing harbour, many of the buildings are being restored and there is plenty to see and do to learn about Cabot’s discovery and the early days of the community.

After some time on the wharf we wandered over to the Ye Matthew Legacy, a museum dedicated to retelling Cabot’s tale and now housing the replica of The Matthew created in celebration of the 500 year anniversary! The ship sailed from Bristol, as Cabot had done, and is now in permanent drydock in the museum. You can board her though, and we spent a long time on board with a local expert who was happy to provide the private tour complete with loads of background story. Now this is the way we should be teaching history in school! We weren’t sure initially whether we would bother going in. It’s another glorious, sunny day and there is so much we want to see and take pictures of we hesitated to spend time indoors! So glad out instincts served us well with this one – well worth the visit!

Before leaving there we asked for directions to an art studio that George and Valerie had suggested we visit! Paddy Barry was a local photographer who worked with the Fogo Island Inn and was a friend of theirs. He left Fogo some time ago to open his own gallery in Bonavista. We found it without much trouble but it was closed. As we were pulling out of the parking lot a man drove in. When asked, he confirmed he was indeed Paddy Barry and the next while past in wonderful conversation about Fogo Island, Bonavista and his incredible photography! Newfoundlanders are such incredibly open and friendly folk. Spend time with a stranger here and leave richer for the experience! Paddy set us on the way to Neil’s Yard for lunch! He told us to follow the water and the signs for free Wi-Fi and we couldn’t miss it!

I can assure you we missed nothing by heading to Neil’s Yard for lunch. Newfoundland had become such an eclectic mix of people like Neil Shah. He is British, came from London on holiday, fell in love with Newfoundland and never left! He had thought he would love a place on the coast of Cornwall but discovered the price was out of his reach and little was available. He travelled to Newfoundland and discovered Bonavista which reminded him of the Cornwall coast. Sweeten the deal with government subsidies that were available at the time for someone with a proposal that would support tourism and Neil was sold!

The menu was small like the little café/gift shop that was right on the beach. The building, originally a store when it was built in 1830, has been lovingly restored. Our lunch of fresh crisp salad and homemade crepes were absolutely delicious with a cup of tea. Lunch was so delicious in fact that by the time I remembered to take a picture, there was no lunch left to photograph! The only criticism I could imagine anyone leveling is, like all Newfoundland buildings, there is no air conditioning and the day was hot! Neil looked after that quickly though by opening the door to the ocean and announcing Newfie A/C with a lovely ocean breeze! David commented that Neil was the perfect “front man” for a place like that. Friendly and unassuming, he chatted happily to everyone and created a bit of a kitchen table atmosphere among the tables. The people at the table next to us had been visiting from Nova Scotia and had been in every day since they arrived – apparently once even twice in one day, when they came back for an afternoon tea and dessert crepe! As Neil looked after everything but the cooking (his partner in back did that) I couldn’t help but notice his face was set in a perpetual grin! Whether out front to personally greet every person who came to the door, delivering food to the table, behind the counter steeping tea, or in the back kitchen plating food (I could see him there from where I sat), not once did I see him without the kind of grin that might suggest he has a secret! I suppose, in a way, he does. Clearly he loves the spot where life has landed him - what better secret than that could you possibly know!

We spent a happy few hours wandering the back streets and shores of Bonavista with David filling his camera with images I can’t wait to see. When mine are good, I know his will be spectacular! By late afternoon we were heading south once again when David wanted to detour to Elliston Point. We have seen signs for a Puffin Festival, and also information on a bird sanctuary. Puffins are crazy little sea birds that are very cute and colourful. We have seen them on boat tours and when we have gone whale watching here but that often makes them difficult to photograph. David wanted to see how close he could get and while I suspected he was to be disappointed, I’m always up for a road less travelled so Elliston it was. We weren’t overly interested in the “festival” part but when we hit the road we doubted there would be many people there. We thought the highway was bad, that was only because we hadn’t yet visited Elliston! I suggested David brace his tongue against his loose crown if there was to be any hope of it still being there for the trip out!

Elliston was a sealing community way-back-when and a stop at the local visitors centre and a pretty walk out along the bluffs paid tribute to the local men who lost their lives in that treacherous industry. At the end of the bluffs we discovered three young girls sitting in the long grass watching the shorebirds. One was taking pictures of the birds as they dipped and dived in their noise dance, one was weaving crowns of wildflowers, and one wearing one of those crowns of wildflowers was singing and accompanying herself on a mandolin! I stayed it this idyllic spot savoring the moment while David snapped pictures of the incredible coastline here.

The boy was on a puffin quest though! I masked my annoyance (mostly!) of having to leave on what I thought would be a fruitless pursuit, by suggesting we ask someone if there was any chance of getting up close and personal with a puffin. Without the bat of an eye, a young girl in the visitor centre pulled a hand drawn map and gave us instructions for walking to the local puffin colony!!

Oh my!! A short hike along another bluff, just down the road from where we were, and we were surrounded by hundreds of puffins! Even with the small group of people who shared the spot with us, one flew and landed about 10 feet from us! David later said, “How freaking amazing was that place? Puffins land 10 feet away and then stay and pose for you!” Good thing I decided to stay quiet about my thoughts of our chances of seeing a puffin!

Rising Tide Theatre in the early morning fog.

Bonavista

Bonavista harbour

Bonavista harbour with the town in the background

Museum dedicated to John Cabot`s voyage

The mast of The Matthew. A beautiful ship but honestly, sailing in this from Bristol It`s a wonder he ever found us!!

David taking advantage of Wi-Fi while waiting for lunch at Neil`s Yard. Notice the Newfoundland tartan tablecloths!

Neil`s Yard Café

Typical saltbox and barn design

Pretty walk around Old Day`s Pond

Still colourful washing flapping from a clothesline in every yard!

Memorial to the men who died in the seal hunt. This is a man holding his dying son on an ice flow.

Across Elliston harbour

The shore here has countless sea caves

The little islands full of sea birds

The 3 young girls we happened upon - taking pictures, weaving crowns of wildflowers and singing and playing the mandolin

Fog danced around the islands all afternoon - something very calming about fog!

Puffin lawn chairs

Elliston is apparently the `root cellar`` capital of the world???

Islands maggoty with puffins!!

Puffins constantly taking off and landing

This was the best picture I could get but David's should be incredible

The colours are just beautiful, and because these are my pictures, there is no enhancement or colour adjustment (because I don't know how!!)
 

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