The Newfoundland Expedition, August 2011, Part lll

A hand made lobster trap made with spruce boughs

Okay, so, in Part lll of our Expedition blog, I have to explain a few things.   First of all, I have to say that our trip was not just a sight seeing adventure.   We were seeking something else, something deeper and powerful, a connection to the land where huge beasts roam, through thick, primordial green forests and crystal waters and ancient ice giants.   

We wanted to be affected by these places, and feel something, and see if something deep and ancient would awaken inside of us.   

At least, that was the feeling I had when we would all be packed in our car.   Everyone would be quiet and looking outside the windows, absorbing everything.  We would stop someplace amazing and fall out of the car and just gaze in every direction, each in our own way soaking it all in...

The rocks at Broom Point

Japhy, Ben, Abigail and myself are all Waldorf School graduates.   Japhy had attended the Aurora Waldorf School in East Aurora, NY (near Buffalo), Ben and Abigail had attended the Waldorf School of Baltimore, and I attended the Sacramento Waldorf School in California and Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School in the Hudson Valley of NY.   So that shared background helped provide fun stories, jokes and we had a lot of creativity in our adventures.   

And Nicole, well, she is pretty creative and expressive too.   In the past summer, she helped start a Farm/Garden Camp in the city of Atlanta, which is incredible, and has been involved in a lot of different initiatives and interests like mushrooms, plants, geology and gardening.   We had some interesting conversations!

The ropes are hung to dry in the barn

Hand carved native
 spruce net floats!

Louise gifts us with Newfoundland Tartan

There is something about a road trip that magnifies or compresses time.   On this trip, we never knew what was around the corner, or down the road, or where we were going next except in the most general sense, and each day, each hour seemed to bring us to a wonderful new world.    

On this day, our first in Gros Morne, we woke to rain.   Our tent was a little leaky but we were doing well.  One thing that we discovered was the Berryhill Campground Kitchen Shelter.   It was amazing!   There are two big sinks with hot and cold water, and a large modern lean to with lights and two woodstoves, where we could warm up, dry out our clothes, even cook on the top of the stove.   Some of the park rangers dropped off some wood for us, as we made breakfast of bagels, toast, eggs and cereal.  It was awesome!   We spent some time chatting with the rangers, who were happy to talk seeing as most of the rest of the campers had cleared out due to the rain.   

On the wall of the lean to was a calendar with the Gros Morne Park Interpretive Programs schedule, and their descriptions looked good, so we headed up the coast to Broom Point to see the cultural and historical interpretive presentation about fishing and the history of the coastal towns in the park.

Louise's fish cutting knife,
simple but highly effective!

This peg board helped her
keep track of the lobster traps

Louise Decker was just a young woman when she started fishing, and we learned all about how she built her first dory with her new husband and took to the seas to catch cod and lobster.   We learned about the newly built roads that connected these small communities by land for the first time in over three hundred years.   Her accent took a bit to get used to, but it was wonderful.   Her stories were full of emotion, with lots of humor, toughness, and grief from the loss of the fishery crash and friends lost at sea.   

We learned about lobsters, about how she cut and cleaned the fish, preparing it for salting and drying.   It was wonderful and she made small nets expertly and gave them to people in the audience.   She had small, handmade tools for just about every job, all hand crafted from native woods, and things found or salvaged from other items, demonstrating creativity and practicality.   

Louise Decker's
Fishcakes and Cod Nuggets!

Because she was one of the first women to fish, she had to make her own tools to fit her smaller hands and size, but you can tell that she pulled her own weight every day.   Each item was well worn, with years of use.   They reminded me of certain knives I have used for years at Hawk Circle, or hatchets, with handles worn smooth from strong hands, weather, and long hours of carving or chopping...   

After her stories, demonstrations, questions and answer period and showing us the boats, nets, tools and buildings, she invited us inside for tea, molasses cookies, home made cod cakes and cod nuggets that she had prepared and cooked for us earlier in the wood fired cookstove.   Her stories never stopped and she never stood still for a moment, passing out food and strips of cloth Newfoundland Tartan for us to take home. 

Lobster Cove Lighthouse

All of this was totally unexpected and greatly appreciated, and we had many warm conversations and good feelings with Louise as well as the other park visitors.   Then the sun came out and turned the water from a gray black to a brilliant blue, and we could even begin to see the shapes of the massive Long Range Mountains, (northern most tip of the Appalachian Mountains) behind the clouds.   We sat in the warmth, enjoying the fresh sea air, the scent of balsam fir and salt and took it all in.

Eventually we headed back, to explore other parts of the park.   It wasn't long before we saw our first group of moose in the daylight!   They were massive and strong, crushing small trees with their feet and their long legs easily stepping over logs and seedlings as they browsed along the lush plants near the roadway.   We watched them for a long time, taking pictures and talking in low whispers about everything we were seeing.

When the moose had gone into the deeper brush, we went further, stopping just before the campsite to check out the Lighthouse at Lobster Cove.   We hung out there for a while, enjoying the calls of a raven who sat upon the tower and croaked to us throughout the late afternoon.   We had a great view of Rocky Harbor, whose local pronunciation was something like "Roque 'arbor", with the H being silent and the whole name spoken as one word.   It never felt natural for me to say it like that, so I am glad there wasn't a test!   Rocky Harbor is a small town that had craft stores, food, supplies and a few restaurants, so we drove through it and then headed back to the camp to make dinner.

Looking South from the Lighthouse

If I didn't say our dinner of Burritos with Black Beans and Pinto Beans, cheese and all kinds of toppings, was awesome and delicious, I know our group would kill me!  We ate and then headed up to the top of Berry Hill to see if we could see any moose coming out in the meadows and bogs to feed in the growing dusk.   The trail winds around this little nub of a hill like a corkscrew, and at the top, continues around in a circle for views in every direction.  The sunset was orange and red and we did see several moose in the far distance, which was cool.   The sky had cleared and it was looking like a nice night with a nice day to follow.

To Be Continued...