Although it had only been a few days since we began our car ride to Cape Breton and our ferry ride to Newfoundland, it seemed much longer. There had been a lot more driving than originally planned and there was a now a new set of arrangements to be made because we were not going to sail from Argentia, we were not going to be on the new vessel, Ala'suinu. I once again was moving into travel planner mode, the good news - I was in Twillingate. There is a part of me that wants to share every phone call, conversation, every time I disregarded someone at Marine Atlantic saying to call back later, but I will spare myself and you. Obviously it all worked out, I am home, sitting in a comfortable chair, it is grey outside and any moment the skies will open with what might be one heck of a lot of rain. It was a drizzly afternoon, looking out over the water, watching the water birds and tapping away on this very same laptop, sorting out the changes we would need to make on our return home. We would leave a day later than planned, we would stay in Corner Brook, a town that we had just passed by on the way to King's Point, and we would end our last night in Canada at the Marshlands Inn in Sackville, New Brunswick. Putting down the phone and closing the laptop felt great, the porch waited and we were going to have supper at the R & J Family restaurant, highly recommended by the locals. Twillingate was the busiest place we had been, it is a small spot of land and and it doesn't take very many "come from away" folks to create a bustle around town. Before our early supper we took a drive to the Back Harbour. Remember the lady we met at the motel bar in Kings Point? Her family was from Back Harbour, she talked about it's beauty and we saw it for ourselves. No bustle on there. It was a cloudy kind of drizzly the water was powerful and there were no boats that we could see. We found a few places to stop and just take it all in before heading back into the town center. You will have to imagine the expansiveness, clouds breaking up, barely a patch of blue in the sky, the water grey and constantly in motion, rocky, craggy ground with very little being flat. The smell of saltwater, a breeze cool but not cold, and invitation to take deep deep breaths. We didn't take a picture that day, except from the house. But there are more days and more pictures to come.
Supper was good, we sat by the window and watched all the activity on the docks. People when we arrived there was literally no one, and I was a little worried that I might have been steered wrong about the food. Somehow we had forgot that we were two old ladies eating supper really really early, it was just right, the service was fine, the view was both beautiful and entertaining, and before we left the place was starting to fill up! We left happy, full and ready to sit on our porch.
After a good sleep, we woke up to clouds in the sky and the sun trying to burn off the clouds, after a few hours the sun was shining brightly and the sky was deep blue and the water was sparkling and had calmed down considerably. We headed to Crow's Head at the very northern tip of the island. We stopped along the way, following back roads and finding little walking paths enjoying it all. I found on one of my little treks a wonderful bench, memorializing a loved Mother and Grandmother. I sat on the sweet bench, imagining that beloved woman as she sat on this very bench and what she saw, what she noticed, how it felt. I could feel my own shoulders loosening, letting down my breaths fuller, longer watching it all with my eyes opened wide and sometimes with my eyes closed still being transported by it all.
After time in Back Harbour we moved north and west to the Long Point Lighthouse. We did not see many cars as we headed out, the land was dotted with little houses and sky just kept turning bluer and bluer and the sun flitted in and out behind a few clouds in the sky. It smelled great, the air so fresh and all around the mixing of the water and the land. We saw one little cafe along the way, we didn't stop just moved ahead, destination the tip of Twillingate! As we made the final few turns into the Provincial Park there were a few more cars, and we were amazed when we made our way to the parking lot how many cars were there. There were people, what seemed like lots of people. And there high on an outcrop the Long Point Lighthouse. This was the only stop where we saw people from the United States, there were a group of travelers from Pennsylvania, this was not their first trip to Newfoundland a return and they took our picture as we took in the beauty. There were hiking trails and most of them were quite steep and very very rocky, we found the easiest of trails and some good bench spots to take it all in. I once again felt this sense of arrival of being at the very edge of it all. There were no spottings of icebergs or whales and it didn't matter at all it was majestic just as it was. We watched the people, enjoyed seeing folks wave from the top of the lighthouse, saw and heard the waves crashing endlessly across the rocks. We did take pictures. No more words for the day. There will be more and that will have to wait. Enjoy.
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