Iceberg Alley

July 16, 2015 – Day 31

They call this area Iceberg Alley because the cold currents bring the icebergs from Greenland and they float along the coastline.  Iceberg watching is a great sport, and each iceberg is named and tracked.  They are tagged by size and shape:  Tabular, Blocky, Wedge or Dome. You can find the location of the icebergs on a website: http://icebergfinder.com/  How interesting!  We Yankees might call this iceberg Alley because we feel like an iceberg.  After the nice warm day yesterday, it is 54 degrees today and it’s the middle of July!  Unfortunately, we didn’t see icebergs today.  The locals say it hasn’t been much of a year for icebergs…that last year was much better.  The fact that it was foggy didn’t help either, because if the icebergs were there, we would not have been able to see them because of the fog!

Twillingate is an old fishing village where the residents have made their living from the sea for two centuries.  We visited a local Fishing Heritage Museum where Dave, the owner told about growing up a few miles away in a fishing family, and he demonstrated how they cut and prepared the cod.  We were in the fish shack his grandfather worked in.  The cutting table is over 100 years old!  We got to see how they take out the cod tongue, the cod ears (small bony structures that make great earrings!) the cod cheeks, and the cod fillet.  Dave has been fishing since he was 6 years old (he’s 68 now), so he was quite a master at preparing the fish! 

This afternoon we visited the Long Point Lighthouse. Built in 1876, it is one of the few lighthouses left in Newfoundland that is manned (most are automated).  It’s a bit different than other lighthouses we’ve seen-- kind of square block-like looking, and it sits 330 feet above sea level.  There were high cliffs and rocky areas around the lighthouse. 

Just after we arrived, a fog came in and covered the area.  The fog horns sounded every few minutes and became annoying.  Just as quickly as the fog came in, it lifted and things cleared a bit.  You can see the difference in these pictures taken  just 10 minutes apart.

We drove around the village and saw different areas of the coastline.  We thought we saw a school of whales, but figured out they were porpoises, because of the way they rose and dove through the water. 

As we were hiking around the lighthouse, we got close to some of the white flowers that we have been warned about.  They told us this flowering plant that looks so pretty is actually very poisonous.  It acts a lot like poison ivy--your skin blisters and you never get rid of the rash.  I think they call it Devils Tongue…it grows wild, and is all over the side of the roads…now we know to stay away from it! 

The weather got warmer, and we stopped at another local fish market and bought more cod which we ended up having for dinner…it was delicious! 

 

We had a quick rain which brought out another beautiful sunset.  In spite of not seeing icebergs, we have enjoyed our stay in Twillingate.