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July 12–14, 2001
It took almost an entire day to drive down from
the northern reaches of Newfoundland's western peninsula. We
pulled into Deer Lake around 5 p.m. We had planned Deer Lake
as just an overnight stopover, but we did want to visit the
Insectarium while there. It sounded interesting. It was
interesting. The Insectarium is a fairly new exhibit of (mostly
dead) insects and butterflies. One "live" exhibit
was an active bee colony. The owner of the place gave us an
informal lecture on bee colonies and how they work.
We had dinner at a local joint called Jungle Jim's
— I think it's a chain in Canada, similar to TGI Fridays
in the U.S. The food was pretty good. We then headed for our
room at the Humberview
— a 4.5 star B&B. It was a newish  house,
located in a subdivision, that looked much like a castle from
the outside. It was lovely both inside and out. The story was
that it had been built for a well-to-do family with several
children ready to leave the nest. Once they did, it was too
much house, and it was converted to a B&B. Beautiful and
luxurious as it was, we found it a bit sterile after the folksy
hospitality we had experienced thus far in Newfoundland. It
felt more like staying in a hotel than a B&B since there
was no interaction between the guests except at breakfast the
next morning. The owners made an appearance only briefly in
the morning when their guests were leaving.
 July
13 was another long driving day. It took us about four hours
to get to Twillingate, our next stop. We did finally see a moose,
but sadly it was a dead one on the side of the road, the victim
of a hit and run. It was the first really sunny, warm day we'd
had since we'd been in Newfoundland, which was a good thing
as Twillingate, a small village that looks out over the ocean,
is like a sparkling jewel in the sunshine.
As had become our habit, we first checked into
our B&B, Crewes
Heritage, a house built in the early 1900s by a sea captain.
After so much riding, we were ready for a hike, so off we trotted
up a 3 k trail to the highest point overlooking Twillingate
and surrounding area. Two families of ducks (pictured above)
captured our attention for an entire roll of film at a small
pond along the way. While I snapped happily away, George chatted
with a local woman who had also stopped to visit the ducks during
her daily walk to the pond. She explained that her husband lives
on the "mainland" most of the time, being forced to
leave Newfoundland due to lack of work, a common tale in the
province.
After a decent supper (and great desserts) at
the Anchor Motel, which overlooked the harbor, we headed for
a local
winery that plied its trade in locally gathered fruits.
We, along with a couple of Japanese girls also touring Newfoundland,
tasted nearly every wine they had, settling on and purchasing
some delicious, dry, plum wine as our favorite. The two girls
were visiting from Toronto, where one was a student planning
on going back to Japan  soon.
The other was a travel agent.
I wanted to photograph a sunset since Twillingate
is famous for its sunsets, so we drove up to Long Pointe Lighthouse
where there was an observation deck and a trail leading down
to the bluffs above the rocky shore. Again the locals proved
friendly, and we ended up going down the trail with them. One
chatty fellow was from another town nearby, visiting his brother
in Twillingate. The view from the bluffs was great, so I set
up my tripod & waited for the show to begin.
The only problem with going down a long, steep,
unfamiliar trail at dusk is that you need to go back up again
when its getting dark. Our camera-less friends had not stayed
to wait for the sunset, so we were faced with having to make
a quick ascent up a trail upon which we had been lead through
a series of shortcuts on the way down. It looked different in
the failing light! You never saw two people move so quickly
or so frantically through the brush! After a couple of wrong
zigzags, we miraculously made it back to the top, to find that
the chatty fellow had come back to see if we had made it back
up okay!
Not yet finished socializing, we met another couple
from Vancouver on the observation deck who were just finishing
up a year of travel. Apparently, they both worked worked for
organizations that allowed them to collect 80% of their pay
for four years and take the fifth off! They had been to Ireland,
Greece, Nepal (trekking), Thailand, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
Really interesting people.
When we finally straggled back to our B&B
at 10 PM, we found the two Japanese girls pulling in at the
same time, also guests at Crewes' Heritage.
Breakfast the next morning was another social
affair that included the two Japanese girls and another couple
who had traveled around the world a couple of times on the same
type of 80%, one year off deal as the people we had met the
night before. One more reason to become Canadian!
 We
had been planning on driving straight through to St. John's
that morning, but we were making such good driving time that
we decided to take a side trip to Trinity, a place that had
been highly recommended to us. It turned out to be a good decision.
Trinity is a charming 18th century fishing village, restored
to its earlier times. We got there just in time to catch the
biweekly pageant, a "walking" play, in which the actors
wander from location to location around town, playing out local
history as the audience follows them. It was a wonderful two
and a half hour production we thoroughly enjoyed.
By the time the play ended, it was 5 PM and starting
to rain. We continued on our way to St. John's through mountainous
regions in heavy fog and frequent downpours. It was in these
types of conditions that we came upon a serious accident that
must have just happened — cars pulled over, emergency vehicles
arriving, etc. As we drove slowly past, I thought I recognized
the two Japanese girls in the mêlée. One looked
seriously injured. Because there were so many people helping
there already, we decided  we
would cause more problems by stopping, so we kept going...but
it's an image imprinted on my mind I'll never forget, and I
still think about those two girls and hope they were okay.
We arrived at the McCaubrey
Manor, our B&B for the next several days, around 8 PM.
We ate dinner very late that night, at a place called Zachary's.
The food was good, but the service was slow. It was 10 PM by
the time we ate.
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