THE ICEBERGS OF TWILLINGATE, PART 1.
Day 55 – It was 38 degrees this morning; it continued to rain all night. When we got up, it was still windy, but the rain had stopped. It was very cloudy out. There is a frost warning for tonight. It’s June, right?
Since it wasn’t raining, we thought we’d better take the opportunity to get out and look for icebergs. They call Twillingate & vicinity the “Iceberg Capital of the World” for a reason. We left at 9:15 a.m. It was quite cold, but we’d seen worse days recently. We didn’t get back to the RV until 4:15 p.m. We drove all over Twillingate and the surrounding small villages.
There were icebergs everywhere! The sun came out a little in the afternoon, bringing with it some warmth and better pictures. The high today was 42 degrees.
There were plenty of people out driving around, like us, gawking at the icebergs and the scenery. It was much less crowded than it will be soon when the summer crowds arrive and the tour busses come in full of people. Yesterday when the weather was awful, we did see a couple of tour busses driving around. Can you imagine – you have one day on your Newfoundland tour to visit Twillingate and the icebergs – and you can’t see a thing and it’s freezing cold when the tour bus stops to let you out for your 15 minute look-around. You’ve planned the vacation for a long time. How disappointing! We felt bad for the people on the busses.
The little villages were charming, but their proximity to Twillingate, a popular tourist destination, made them susceptible to lots of vehicles driving thru their towns, checking them out. Many of the roads were basically one lane. Some of them were dirt roads. And almost everyone of these villages sat on little bays or inlets with views of islands, the rocky coastline, and an iceberg or two. It was amazing.
We stopped for lunch at Doyle W. Sansome & Sons, Live Lobster Pool in Hillgrade below Twillingate. They are a fresh fish market selling fresh lobster and crab. They have a small restaurant (with only 8 tables) in a drafty, windowed room overlooking the harbor, the fishing boats, and the dock. During the short warm season, outdoor eating on the dock is available. They opened at noon; by 12:15 p.m. the restaurant was full and there was a wait. They are open all day and also serve dinner. The server said that if you get there for dinner by 5 p.m., you might get a table without waiting. After splitting an excellent lunch of a Lobster Sandwich & a Crab Sandwich (their version of a Lobster/Crab Roll), we checked out the lobster pound. I asked the young man working there if this was the place they sold fresh fish. He said, “We don’t sell fish.” I said, “Oh, isn’t this the lobster pound?” And he said, “Yes, it is.” We stood there looking at each other for a minute, then he said for me to wait while he got someone, and he got a woman from the back to come out to talk to me. I asked her if this was where they sold the fresh fish. She said, “We sell lobster & crab.” I’m thinking, hmmm…….what am I missing here? Then I remembered that I’d read in one of the guide books that if you ask for fish, you mean Cod. Aha, lightbulb moment! I asked if they had any lobster or crab already out of the shell. She said, “No, only in the shell.” I asked if either was ever sold already out of the shell. She said, “No, never. That’s not the way it’s meant to be eaten.” These damn tourists. They just don’t get it. LOL. We went on our way without any lobster or crab to go.
It’s 7:55 p.m. right now and the wind has died down. The sun is shining. Tomorrow is another day. I wonder how many more icebergs we can find.