on the ferry

We are now  rocking and rolling in our berth (room) on the 14 hour ferry ride from Argentia, NL to North Sydney, NS.  We have loved our time in Newfoundland and are leaving much to explore on The Rock.  We may have to come back some day, preferably in June or July to see the icebergs and more of the seabirds.  At this time of year, many of the young seabirds have fledged and the whole family has headed out to sea for the winter. Only the gannets fly south for the winter and they will remain in their colonies here until early October to give their young enough time to gain the skills and strength for the migration.  This morning, we drove south to Cape St. Mary to see a gannet colony on sea cliffs and sea stacks there.  It was awesome – very windy and it was cool to watch the gannets managing the wind by using their tails as rudders.  It was also neat to see the young ones at a much more mature stage than when we were at a gannet colony on the Gaspe Peninsula three or four weeks ago.

Once again, photos won't load.  I will try to create a photo website and put the link on the blog in the next few days.

Other comments on our newest province:

-their history of white exploration and settlement is old, starting of course with the Norse, then French and English and Basque.  There were disputes over fishing grounds but the big battles were caused by wars between France and England that spilled over to the colonies.  England was awarded Newfoundland in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1763 (I think).  There are still pockets where French heritage and culture are strong, especially near Stephenville on the east coast.   Many, many French place names exist in NL

-Horses that are no longer useful (most of them) are called ‘pits’ because they are bottomless pits into which good money is thrown to keep them alive. Not so many years ago, horses were still useful in fishing communities and for travel to the next village.

-Berries are the main source of fruit on the island although we saw a few random apple trees,  There are at least 7 or 8 types of berries commonly picked and preserved for the winter – blueberries, raspberries, cloudberries (bakeapple), lingonberries (partridgeberry here), elderberries, crowberries, mountain ash (dogberry here), chokecherry (squash berry here).  Old and young go out picking each berry as it is in season.

-Cod is stil king in the diet here and some say the cod stocks have returned and would like the DFO to up their quotas again.  Meanwhile, shrimping, crabbing and lobster fishing return better profits and stocks have increased without the voracious cod devouring the stocks.   We ate cod for many meals while we were here – in chowder, au gratin, deep fried, pan fried – cod fillets and cod tongues. 

-There are many ecosystems here, just like in most  Canadian provinces.  The barrens we saw yesterday reminded us of tundra landscapes.   Caribou live on the barrens but we didn’t see any – nor did we see any moose during our time here.  The barrens have lake/ponds which seem to float on the flat land with no discernible depression in the land to keep the water from running out.

-The NL police are called the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

-Because NL was not a province at the time of WWII, they were considered a separate ally.  There were 5 or 6 American armed force bases set up here and some were open as late as 1966.  The two we saw are now empty places of large buildings and massive paved areas, another kind of barrens!

Note: we are now back in Nova Scotia, at an rv park near the ferry - chatted to people from Victoria, Kamloops and Nanaimo here tonight, some on their way to NL, some just returned.