Pirates, ship wrecks and treasures.

Ahoy Matey!

We had planned to go to Brigus and Cupids for the day, but traveled all the way to Freshwater, as every little village seemed lovelier than the one before. The drive is mostly along the coastline; one can see Bell Island far off in Conception bay. This part is called the Baccalieu trail, probably from Spanish or Basque for Codfish

At Holyrood’s Marina, we saw a train carriage one of only three I have seen in Newfoundland so far, if you can call a Caboose, which is not on a rail a carriage. The other is in St. John’s waterfront. The “trailway” is where the railway tracks used to be, used mostly by off road vehicles today, as Newfoundland doesn’t have a railway anymore.

At Brigus (Derived from Brick-house an old town in England) there are many stone walls and buildings, we saw a stream with stone walls. We walked through “The Tunnel”, An early engineering feat which took four months in1860, by the Cornish miner John Hoskins in order to provide easy access to Abram Bartlett's wharf. He used gunpowder, which resulted in a passageway measuring ~80 feet long, 8 feet high and 8 feet wide. AYE!

Cupids is a beautiful little place, there are archeological diggings being done during the week. “Originally known as "Cupers Cove" or "Cuperts Cove". Cupids became the first chartered settlement in Newfoundland when it was established by The London and Bristol Company in 1610 with John Guy (Guie) as Governor. In 1616, John Mason arrived and assumed the position of Governor. At that time less than 60 people lived at Cupid's. Guy and Mason were both harassed by pirates”.

Many of Newfoundland’s seaside towns have fishing stages, some off which are quite old and falling apart, but very quaint. Along the drive are lakes, ponds, peninsulas, many islands, bays and sea everywhere you look. There are relaxing gift shops in every town along the road. We bought some scented candles, which smell like Baked Apple Pie, etc.

The houses are quite expensive here, as it is popular for retirement and snowbirds. In Conception Harbor we saw some scuba divers, we saw one protruding wreck, but there are a few scuttled whalers and schooners.

At Harbor Grace Riverhead is a stranded ship the S. S. Kyle, built in 1913. There stands an airplane; “The spirit of Harbor Grace” to commemorate H. G’s rich past in aviation. The starting point of Amelia Earhart’s first successful solo transatlantic flight.

We noticed people selling filled plastic buckets along the road; these turned out to be freshly picked Blue berries. They were aboot 3 Doubloons each, we decided to buy some on our way back with pieces of eight. Further along the road were parked cars, with people picking Blue berries, we stopped to take some photographs and picked a few berries, to make sure what the plants looked like. They are like small peas the color of dark grapes and delicious. What a booty. The annual Blueberry festival is held here.

We sat on the rocks and saw some whale spouts on the horizon. “Scurvy Dog” enjoyed herself with some children jumping from a pier into the water, we had our bathing suits, but the water was too cold for us. ARGH! Other towns we drove through were Port De Grave, Spaniard’s Bay (named for it’s early Spanish Settlers), Salmon Cove, Carbonear (from where you can see Carbonear island), Bryant’s Cove, Bishop’s Cove and Bristol’s Hope.

At Freshwater, I imagined the few houses removed with digital effects and pirate ships sailing in the islands and coves.

We have since picked Blue berries on our way to Greyman’s beard and have some frozen.

We can see the islands at Freshwater, past Bell Island from Greyman’s Beard with a “bring them near”. One can buy frozen and tinned Blue Berries here all year round, we can also get Blue Berry Bagels, Muffins, pies etc.

Shiver me timbers, it’s time to go,

Captain Bluebeard.