53 title

Canada
Québec & New Brunswick
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland
Québec & Ontario
Manitoba to the Pacific

32 Off to Nova Scotia
33 Whales, Digby Neck
34 Yarmouth and beyond
35 Through to Lunenburg
36 Lunenburg
37 To Halifax
38 Halifax
39 Halifax and Bluenose II
40 Halifax
41 Halifax Citadel
42 Fixing Morty
43 Greenwich & Stanhope
44 Charlottetown
45 Canadian Confederation
46 Whisky and Ceilidh
47 On to Broad Cove
48 Glace Bay and Marconi
49 Arriving in Newfndlnd
50 To St John's
51 St John's
52 St John's
53 Avalon Peninsula
54 To Twillingate
55 Rain to Rocky Harbour
56 Gros Morne
57 Vikings up north
58 Wind and ferries
59 Labrador

Canada: Newfoundland & Labrador

Sunday 25 September 2005

Our route today took us around the south eastern part of Newfoundland on a tour of the Avalon peninsula. We stopped for cash and petrol before leaving St John's behind us and heading south on route 10. The central part of this peninsula is a Wilderness Reserve, home to a large herd of caribou and moose. I would love to say that we saw some but despite keeping a look out all day we had a caribou and moose free day.

The road winds along the coast with the vast expanse of the Atlantic to one side and a wall of green to the other. Small villages line the way, all looking sleepy and quiet, probably in part because it is Sunday. We stopped when we reached Ferryland, one of the oldest European settlements in North America.

It was founded in the 1620's by Sir George Calvert, who later became Lord Baltimore and whose family founded the American Colony of Maryland. Calvert came to this area and established his colony, which he called Avalon after the site near Glastonbury where Christianity was introduced to Britain, on a small outcrop of land. Perhaps not the best of choices as it means it gets battered by winds from both sides. It was too cold for him to stay the course so after a few years he moved on to warmer climes.

When Calvert moved south he left a representative at Ferryland to continue to oversee the settlement. This person was ousted by Sir David Kirke, governor of Newfoundland, who decided to take over the settlement even though it was privately owned. This decision ultimately led to his death as he was jailed on his return to England following a law suit from the Calverts. The battle for ownership of the Avalon area went on between the two families for more than forty years as Kirke's wife and sons had stayed behind and ran a very prosperous fishing fleet, earning Mrs Kirke the reputation of being north america's first female entrepreneur.

Still a living village, an archeological dig has been underway to uncover the history of the settlement in Calvert's times. This has unearthed an earlier Beothuk Indian settlement as well as uncovering the history of Avalon. They have a very informative website (www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon) giving loads of information about the site and its history.

At the visitors centre we watched a short video outlining some of the history and the details of the dig and read our way through the interpretation centre. They have some of the archeological finds on display ranging from coins, pipes, a headstone as well as various bits of pottery. One of the most interesting was a collection of bottle seals, the purpose of which is unclear but thought to be to identify ownership of the bottles and their contents. At the site they have found various different bottle seals and have been able to identify who they belonged to. Another seal, used for sealing wax on letters, was very ornate and delicate. No longer than a thumbnail, and made of what looks like gold, it was actually three separate seals that were hinged and nested into each other.

Newfie skies

Outside, they have recreated a small herb garden growing all sorts of mysterious plants some of which I had heard of before, many of them were new to me. There was also a gentleman's garden, now past its best due to the time of year but in summer it must be awash with colour. The garden is fenced in and has a small gazebo at one end. The fence is not to protect the plants from the wind but to allow the gentleman of the house, his family and friends, to enjoy the garden in privacy and seclusion.

You are then free to wander around the rest of the site and, if you time it right, can get a tour to give you more information as you go. They have uncovered a forge, kitchen garden, warehouses, Calvert's mansion house, a deep well and part of the original cobble-stoned street. They also claim to have found the first flushing toilet in North America. Two outlets were been built into the seawall enabling the high tides to flush them twice a day. The materials found in the privy has given the archaeologists a good insight into the diet of the day.

From Ferryland we continued south with the landscape changing the further we went. Gone were the forests, home to the invisible moose and caribou. Instead we found ourselves driving along an open plateau, similar to the altiplano we have seen in South America. We rounded the peninsula at Trepassy Bay, not as I had thought a Cornish name but a derivation of the French "trepassé" meaning dead body and then worked our way back up. In some of the villages we passed young children playing on the streets, the only sign that these communities are not totally populated by the retired generation. We pondered what people did for a living as there is no visible evidence of any form of industry or service sector.

Looping back onto the Trans Canada Highway we headed east and worked our way up to Arnolds Cove and the Putt'n'Paddle campsite. It was dark by the time we got there so we saw no evidence of either a golf course or a lake. Part of the campsite has already been closed for the winter and we were one of just three sites occupied for the night. I abandoned a night-time attempt to find the washrooms (toilets only, no showers on this campsite). They were meant to be at site 64, we we were at site 58 so they should not have been far away. I went up the track over the bridge, round the bend where it got so dark that even with my torch it was hard to see. By this time I wimped out, partly because I was uneasy being in the dark on my own and partly due to concern that if I went too much further I would lose my way back and get lost. It was also feeling pretty cold so I retreated inside and went to bed.

Prev | Up | Next

Top

Visitors:
Home \| Info \| Blog \| Travel \| Pictures \| Site map \| Search \| Guestbook	Copyright © 2001-2007 Stefan and Vanessa Aalten-Voogd