Yesterday's weather
forecast of a dry and sunny day today was ill founded and we woke to
dark skies and rain. Aubrey is using the quiet season to make
improvements to the campsite and his team that were due to be
outside today were instead inside doing work on the the shower
blocks we were shown last night. The alternative showers were
probably better and for the first time in weeks I had a shower with
no mossies, spiders, daddy long legs or woodlice - luxury!
Stunning autumn colours
Heading back down from Twillingate we stopped at Boyd's Cove where
there is a Beothuk Interpretation Centre. The Beothuk were one of
the indigenous Indian tribes. Small, they numbered between five and
seven hundred, and were in this area circa 1650 - 1720. A historian
uncovered this site and the resulting finds from the archeological
dig has now resulted in this interpretation centre.
There
is a short walk through a forest to take you down to the site, which
is based in a small clearing on the sea shore and next to a fresh
water river. Along the way there are signs telling you the names of
the flowers, plants and trees you pass. You can get down to the
beach but as it has been raining pretty hard it was a bit boggy and
we opted not to go for a walk along the shore line. The beach is
shallow so it made a good landing stage for their fishing boats.
The
path them winds on and over the stream which has very dark water and
then on and down to the village site. From the eleven buildings they
have found on the site they estimate that this village never had a
population of more than ninety people. The Beothuk people were short
lived though, their extinction being due to a combination of
starvation, disease (tuberculosis) and warfare (although they were
generally a peaceful people).
Before
the tribe became extinct, documenters of the time were able to
record details of their way of life and customs. This was mainly due
to two Beothuk women, Shanadithit who was the last Beothuk,
and her aunt Mary March. At separate times, they were both taken to
live in St John's and sadly both died within a year of reaching that
city. There is information at the centre about their lifestyle,
hunting techniques and dress but the key part of their culture that
is covered is a practice that is responsible for all American
Indians being called Red Indians.
The
Beothuks mixed ground red ochre with seal grease to form a paste
which they then spread all over their bodies. This was partly for
ceremonial purposes but also acted as insect repellent and sun
block. Obviously it also changed their skin colour, hence the term
"red Indian". Each year in May they would have an Ochring ceremony
to apply a new layer and this was also a rite of passage for young
children who were ochred for the first time.
The
Interpretation Centre was busy when we got there with three bus
loads of school children. Learning about the Beothuk culture is part
of the school curriculum for children aged around ten so schools
come up to this centre so the children can see and learn first hand.
They run a short video with some basic background and also laid on a
flint napping demonstration by one of the local archeologists. It
took about half an hour for him to produce an arrow head. This was
the first time in Canada that we have had a positive experience of
people passing on the history of the native Indian people. Normally
our questions have been met with a very dismissive response.
It was
an interesting place to stop off and I now wish that we had found
the time in Twillingate and Grand-Falls Windsor to visit their
Beothuk museums. The Interpretation Centre had books for sale but
they were pretty heavy looking tomes so this has now been added onto
my "look up on the internet" list.
It had
been raining off and on all morning, not good for us as we had a
long drive ahead of us. Our plan for today was to head back across
Newfoundland ending up in the Gros Morne National Park tonight,
about a 400km drive. We made it but it did not rate as one of our
more pleasant drives. It seems that most of the time we have spent
in Newfoundland it has been very wet and windy. Every time we ask
someone local if this is the normal state of play we get one of two
answers. Its either the tail end of the US hurricane season or
normal for this time of year.
Half
way across we stopped for petrol and the lady who served us was in
the former camp saying that they normally get crisp, clear and sunny
autumn days at this time of year. It is hard for us to believe
because we were continually driving into thick low handing cloud.
You could see that there was no prospect of the situation improving.
Any slight clearing in the cloud was quickly dispelled and the
thickness soon came back. We drove through some pretty bad
conditions but we fared better than the people of Stephenville,
about 100km further south from where we turned off the Trans Canada
Highway. The wind and rain had been so heavy there that people were
flooded out of their homes and some of the roads were also blocked.
Many of the people in these places are elderly so it must hit them
even harder than most.
I was
really glad when we made it to Deer Lake (our turn off the TCH). It
meant the end was in sight but we still had about 60km to go to get
to Rocky Harbour and our campsite for the night. Even though Stef
was driving I was focused on the road as moose and caribou are added
potential hazards, although sightings of these so far have been
moose 1, caribou 0. Of what I did see, the Gros Morne National Park
has stunning scenery. With the heavy rain you could see water
cascading down the sides of the mountains, still very brown looking.
The road followed the mountains round and down some very steep
inclines. We had swapped driving by this stage and I was secretly
glad that Stef was driving this bit and not me.
At
Rocky Harbour we found our campsite easily (Gros Morne RV park) and
were met by a very friendly chap. Unlike last night there were other
people here but still not many. I think probably five of his ninety-ish
sites were occupied. Having had such a long and tiring drive neither
of us felt like cooking so we asked about options for eating out in
the village. We were sent in the direction of the Fishermans'
Landing Inn on the sea front. It was simple but effective. We both
had pea soup to start which was more like carrot, swede and turnip
than pea but still very tasty. I played safe and had cod, Stef tried
another Newfoundland speciality, Cod Tongues, and was not really
very impressed. They were gelatinous and not very nice so he
compensated with a chocolate fudge pudding which was very tasty.
Tired
out we headed back to the campsite only to find that they had a very
fast wireless internet connection. We spent a while checking mail
and looking up really useful (or useless?) stuff on the internet
before crashing out.
