(More Pictures to follow... check back later!)
What a wonderful day! We woke up to sunny skies and, actually, what woke us up was the sudden jump in temperature inside the tent as the early morning sun landed on it. What a novel experience! Ha ha ha...
We jumped up. OK. Actually, we creaked out of bed and, while Lynn put our camp to sorts, I spent some time on the blog. After that, we headed into Long Point to the lighthouse again, to see if any icebergs had come in, in the night. As it happens, the big one that has been looming off the coast for the past few days DID come in close enough to see it better but it was still probably 10 miles off. We ogled it a bit and then headed back into Crow’s Head to the Crow’s Head Cafe where we had a fantastic coffee and probably the best peanut butter, chocolate sticky square I’ve ever had. We had the choicest seats on the deck overlooking the bay and the sun was shining. It was a moment of perfection which, according to the locals, is a rare occurrence so we savoured it and sat, drinking coffee and watching the water for about an hour.
From there, we headed down the hill about .5 km to a little bluff that juts out into the bay. You can drive to the head of it and then walk up the bluff to the height of land. The view of the bay and the village is lovely and we spent some time just taking it all in, taking some photos and talking to some of the other folks who came by to see it as well.
We drove back into Twillingate and headed straight to the Wooden Boat Builder Museum which is next to the Anglican Church. In fact, it used to be the Anglican school and where they taught Sunday School back in the day. Now, it’s the boat building museum and, when we went there, we were just expecting a series of displays that depicted the evolution of wooden boat building. Little did we know that we had lucked out and arrived just in time for a tour of a working boat building shop where one of the local boat builders is making a traditional punt using a pattern from the Twillingate area from about 100 years ago.
I’m very sorry I didn’t catch the boat builder’s name but, upon writing this blog, realized it was a detail I didn’t note. But - he is the grandson of a local master boat builder from Twillingate and he, himself, is a carpenter so he has all the skills. He also has an apprentice so he’s passing on the craft to a future generation as well.
He showed us the half models which people may have seen but didn’t realize what they are. They are small scale models of boats mounted on a board and are made up of a half of a boat (split down the keel) and then split into slices like a loaf of bread horizontally. Now I don’t know the first thing about boat building so I was amazed and fascinated to learn that everything you need to build a boat is contained in the “keys” of these tiny little half models, right up to big boats like a schooner well over 150 ft long.
From these scaled model pieces, they “loft out” larger scale drawings on lofting tables or, for very large boats, on the floor of the boat shop. From there, they make 4 templates from which everything else is made to fit. It’s remarkable and we were gobsmacked at both the simplicity and the complexity of it all.
The punt that is being made today will be up for raffle to raise funds for the museum as they don’t get any funding from the government so, of course, we bought tickets and fully expect we’ll have to return to Twillingate next Spring to pick up our Punt!
After our boat making tour, we headed next door to the Twillingate Museum and Craft Store. The museum houses a large collection of historical items donated or on loan by local folks. It’s by donation to get in and, at the back, there is a craft store that sells a lot of local products, made by local people, largely during the winter months. Beautiful hand knit mitts, socks, touques and sweaters are stacked amongst gorgeous homemade quilts, Bakeapple jams, local jewelry and an excellent selection of books that relate to Newfoundland in general and Twillingate specifically. The prices were excellent and we purchased quite a few home made gifts to bring back home with us.
From the Museum, we headed into town to Annie’s on the waterfront because we were STARVING so we sat on the deck, in the sun, this time overlooking the harbour of Twillingate and the marina. We had a small late lunch and Lynn said he wanted to go back to the Twillingate Dinner Theater for dinner and the show again. It was so much fun last night, we had to take the opportunity to see it again. So, I called and booked tickets.
We wandered through a few shops on the waterfront including the fine art gallery of Ted Stuckless who was born and raised in this area. He had a wonderful print there of a painting he did of his grandparent’s house which was moved in the 1940s and was pulled across the bay on the ice by about 150 men. I didn’t want to ask to take a picture of it but I expect it’s on his website if you look it up. www.tedstuckless.com
Leaving there, we did a quick run about South Twillingate which is actually it’s own island, joined to North Twillingate by a small bridge. Like North Twillingate, it is chock a block with lovely homes tucked into rock bluffs and small coves and, around every corner awaits a postcard worthy photo. We didn’t make it up to the Auk Winery but we understand it’s a unique winery that uses mostly local berries.
We swung into the Dinner Theatre around 5:30 in time to enjoy an Iceberg beer which is made by the local Quidi Vidi brewery and is made from 20,000 year old iceberg water. I have to say, it was delicious and, in true tacky tourist style, I made off with one of their pretty blue beer bottles to bring home as I don’t think you can buy it in BC.
After another thoroughly enjoyable show and lobster dinner (Lynn had the cod) we headed to the Anchor Pub because we heard there was a talented local musician playing there tonight. We weren’t disappointed. Mike Sixonate has a regular gig there and, in his own words, he describes himself as a semi- functional, alcoholic Newfoundland Pirate Musician which, although I can’t attest to his drinking habits, I can say the rest is a fairly apt description. He’s hilarious and tells some great and very funny local stories, some of which are true and some of which are suspect which I suppose is about exactly right in the local tradition. He is also an incredible guitarist and his repertoire extended from raunchy pirate songs to moving renditions of old Stan Rogers tunes. What a great way to finish off the evening and our visit to Twillingate.
Twillingate, itself, is an old fishing village that goes back a very long time. It encompasses both sides of a bay which is really a narrow passage of ocean between two islands. In and amongst rocky crags and thick treed hillsides, little houses dot the land, many of which are on the water with small fishing sheds (home to many traditional shed parties no doubt!) and wharves that poke out into the bays, laden with stacks of lobster traps, crab traps, nets and other fishing paraphernalia.
The people here are as friendly and open as you hear about and everyone is curious about where we’re from, what we’re doing and where we’re going. They’re quick to share a story or two and they always have something humorous to add. While we are identifiably “from away”, we always felt warmly welcomed by the people we’ve met here.
We absolutely loved Twillingate and would come back in a heartbeat - next time for at least a week!
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