Dungeon Provincial Park

These two caves were part of a larger cave that eventually got so big, the roof collapsed, leaving a sinkhole with two picturesque outlets to the sea.

Sunday bird blogging

It turns out I can always stand to have more pictures of puffins in my life.

Another red building

I don't know what this building was -- the state of the fence makes it look abandoned. It was down a steep path to one side of the lighthouse.

Why they needed a lighthouse, part 2

More of the beautiful coastline. 

Cape Bonavista is where John Cabot is believed to have landed in 1497, the first European to visit mainland North America since the Vikings. I'm in awe of the courage of early seafarers, setting out in tiny boats with only the stars to guide them and no real idea of where they were going or how long it might take to get there.

The 1497 voyage made Cabot famous, and he quickly planned a followup. He left Bristol with five ships in 1498 and never returned.

Why they needed a lighthouse

Some of the beautiful, but rocky, coast below the Bonavista lighthouse.

Bonavista lighthouse

Before all the lighthouses were automated, lighthouse keeper was a much sought-after career in Newfoundland. For one thing, it paid cash in what was mostly a barter economy.

It wasn't an easy job. At this particular lighthouse, the mechanism turning the wheel of lights was controlled by a counterweight. It took fifteen minutes to crank the counterweight all the way up, and it had to be done every two hours, all night long, 365 days a year.

Two last pictures from Trinity

St. Paul's

The Anglican church in Trinity, with another of those picturesque graveyards by the sea.

So much depends upon a red building by the water

When you just can't decide which ones to go with, post all of them -- more from Trinity Bay.

Saturday reflections

On the water in Trinity Bay.

It's a short drive from Port Union, but a very different kind of community -- much more affluent, with a lot of summer homes owned by Americans and Europeans.

Random things I saw in Port Union

Unfortunately, I don't have any shareable pictures from the potluck dinner at the community center in Port Union, the best night on the trip.

That was the night we were “screeched in” as honorary Newfoundlanders, and though I do have a few pictures of the sacred ceremony, obviously I can't publish them. We had to don yellow rain slickers, recite phrases in Newfoundlandese, eat hardtack, drink a shot of the vile rum known as screech and, oh yeah, kiss a very large (frozen) cod.

Every occasion in Newfoundland seems to involve music and huge amounts of food, and we also got to dance and play tambourines and ugly sticks along with the band, and talk with some of the people who live in Port Union. It was so much fun. And at the end of the evening when we all stood in a circle and sang O Canada and The Star-Spangled Banner I was so moved by the great kindness we'd been shown by the people who let us join their community for the evening I got a lump in my throat.

It was an experience I will always remember.

The Fishermen's Advocate

I loved browsing through the old issues of The Fishermen's Advocate. Here in as issue from 1938, a report on Coaker's funeral appeared between ads for Windsor Patent flour and Dodd's Kidney Pills:

Lovingly, simply and beautifully the mortal remains of Sir William Coaker were carried to their last resting-place at Port Union on Friday afternoon.