Bonavista and Elliston
Another day, another scenic drive. I was a little leery about driving all the way up the Bonavista Peninsula because I was thinking that coastline is coastline, and I wasn’t sure what we could see that would be much different. Plus, Paul is fighting a cold and I wasn’t sure he wanted to spend another day driving. (yeah, I could have offered to drive, but I didn’t think that would make him feel better!) As it turned out, I really enjoyed our day. We spent the morning in the town of Bonavista, touring the Ryan Family Premises- a collection of buildings from the 1800s that give both a history of the town of Bonavista, and of the island of Newfoundland.
Cod fishing had been the largest industry on Newfoundland since Europeans first settled here. Part of the museum showed how the small communities survived in the early days. Most of the cod was salted to preserve it, so it could be shipped to Europe. It was quite a process to salt the fish and dry them out on the flakes, so they could be shipped.
Much like the mining industry, the cod fisherman became indebted to the merchant who sold them the supplies that they needed to fish. The merchant would then “own” the fisherman’s catch. It was a vicious cycle-for the fisherman. Pre World War II this area was run almost completely on a barter system. If a family needed something, they either made it, or traded for it. In fact, Cod became known as the Newfoundland currency. Money served no real purpose for them.
During World War II, jobs were created nearby that provided a paycheck, and that barter system began to change.
Over the years, this area was so overfished that Cod began to disappear, and in 1992, with the number of Cod at a critically low level, Canada closed the area from Grand Bank to Labrador to Cod fishing. The result was the largest industrial layoff of personnel in Canadian history.
After touring the museum to our heart's content, we ate at a restaurant on the water. Our timing was great- just after one bus full of people, and right before the next.
We continued driving the coastline after lunch, and enjoyed the rugged look of the coast. They don’t call this island “the Rock” for nothing!
It was a long day, with a long ride home but definitely worth the drive.
Trinity
On the other side of the peninsula lies Trinity. This town has reinvented itself by restoring many of its old buildings, and catering to the tourist industry.
There are 5 buildings that you can tour, but after having just done Bonavista yesterday, and looking at the price tag of $15 per person, we decided to admire the buildings from the outside.
Still, we walked around the town and enjoyed the atmosphere. We were supposed to be hiking, but the weather didn’t cooperate in the morning. It seems that it rains almost every day here on Newfoundland, then clears up (usually) in the afternoon.
Sure enough, the weather cleared enough in the afternoon for us to do our hike. The Skerwink Trail is rated one of the top trails in North America by numerous magazines and organizations, including National Geographic, so we were really anxious to see it for ourselves. Its only about 3.5 miles long, and not very difficult, so many people can enjoy it. After the morning rain, it was a bit muddy though.
This is another place to see whales from shore, and I admit I was disappointed that we didn’t see any. Seeing an Eagle was a nice consolation prize, but I really would have loved to have seen a whale burst out of the water!
We watched the eagle until he flew off to the opposite shoreline.
The trail led us to one great view after another.
This is one of those places where pictures just do not do it justice. The views were amazing and the sounds and smells of the ocean, combined with the fragrant pine trees added to the overall experience.
As we rounded the final bend, we could see the town of Trinity off in the distance.
That’s all the time we had for central Newfoundland this time around. We needed to head to St. John’s, the only large city on the island.
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