Day 47- Thursday August 8th-Twillingate

Day 47, Thursday August 8^th

Kevin's house with his truck and lake in background

On our way out of Millertown we stop at Kevin’s house to grab a few groceries that we stashed there.  Kevin has a great little place with roommate Mark who also works at the mine and graduated from Queen’s the same time Kevin did in engineering.  The house has a view of the lake and is just around the corner from the fire dept. and town hall and the B&B we stayed at where he has friends that basically live there on a 3 week in 3 week out rotation out of Vancouver.

View of staging (fish filleting) area along coast

Twillingate

Today’s destination is Twillingate on the Northeast part of the island.  Twillingate is known for having iceberg tours but this year has been particularly void of icebergs and it is too late in the season also.  There are a few around FOGO island, but they are too far to access by boat from Twillingate.  We basically drive the 3 hours directly with no stops.  We 
 
 
 
 
 
have a picnic lunch with us, but no appealing spots to stop and we got to Twillingate around 2:00 and checked into our accommodations. 

They call it a B&B, but really it is a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apt. that has continental breakfast food.  We are thrilled with the facilities so have our picnic lunch and plan our afternoon jaunt.  Twillingate looks excellent as far as a quaint outport fishing village.  The location of Echoes of the Ocean is perfect.  We head out walking, but soon realize that the winery we are heading to is farther than we thought so Dawson runs back for our wheels, while Roma and Julie continue to walk.  First stop is Auk Winery.  We opt for the tour, which is interesting.  The winery buys local fruits and berries to add to their wines.  Grapes they import from Quebec.  They also add some fruit to screech.  The winery is located in the old school and the production occurs in the gymnasium.  The old science lab is still a lab, lunch room is a lunch room, office an office…..After the tour we get to taste the wines.  They have about 25 and we try lots of them.  Dawson buys a cloudberry dessert wine.  They also call cloudberries “baked apples” for some reason.  Cloudberries are local and expensive and only grow in about 4 countries around the world.  Julie is not fussed on any of the product, nor is Roma, but it was fun trying them all.  We cruise the crafts/souvenirs for sale, but don’t buy anything.

Durrell museum



Roma and Julie hiking in French Bay

Next stop the Durrell museum.  We take a bunch of pictures from the vantage point as the museum is on top of a hill.  After goofing around taking photos for 15 minutes outside we realize the staff is locking up the museum.  Oops it is 5:00.  We will have to come back tomorrow.  That’s ok, as we are on a recon mission.    Back in the car we drive down a whole bunch of roads, each one going out onto a peninsula with lots of picture taking opportunities, views, boats etc.  We decide to head over to French beach that we can see across the peninsula.  Here we park and walk through hill and dale and bog to get to the beach that ends up being gravel and larger rocks.  Roma is wondering what she is getting into.  Dawson and Julie are famous for hiking through less than favourable area, a few soakers for everyone.



Fishers jigging by the crowsnest lighthouse

Coast guard ship

Back in the van and now we are going to head up to Crow’s Head, which is on a peninsula 5kms NW of Twillingate.  There is a titanic museum and a good lookout and lighthouse.  Again the drive is only about 15 minutes, but just beautiful, with winding roads, and coastline.  We watch a large Canadian coastguard ship coming in and take a bunch more photos.  At the lighthouse we watch the fishermen far below jigging on the reefs.  Dawson chats up some locals and finds out the recreational fishing season is about to end and the commercial season starts in 4 days.  We also keep our eyes out for whales.  There are lots around but we need to spot them, easier said than done.



After the lighthouse we head back to our B&B for a rest and happy hour.  We decide dinner at JJ’s which we think is only about 600 meters away so we walk.  Wrong… it is about a mile.  We get there and they tell us they are closed and the only other restaurant open is another kilometer.  Again we send Dawson back for the van and Roma and Julie carry on walking.  Some locals offer us a ride but we decline as the exercise is good.  Roma is a bit sore still from her “trip” in Trout River on Monday.  Thank goodness it is only muscle sore.  We find the restaurant and know it is not going to be a nutritional meal.  Fish and chips which is excellent all around.  It is difficult getting green veggies and salads in this province.  Large grocers are few and far between.  Shelves are sometime sparse.  By the time we are done dinner which of course the restaurant overlooked the bay, it is 10 so we decide to head “home” for bed.  It has been a full day.

Cheers Julie and Dawson