We can't leave Newfoundland without talking about icebergs. Iceberg watching one big thing that sparked my desire to go to Newfoundland. I spent hours and hours online on various sites looking at the pictures of icebergs, checking out the iceberg maps, watching videos of aerial views of the majestic old old icebergs. I gathered up quite a group of friends who I also enlisted in iceberg passion. I was drawn to the beauty, to the ancient still existing formation, and was super aware that it was changing conditions in our world that was sending many more icebergs loose, floating around in the north Atlantic ocean and finding their way to "Iceberg Alley". Twillingate is in iceberg alley, but there were no icebergs on our trip.
Reluctantly, I let go of iceberg tours as the planning really did start to occur for my trip to Newfoundland. There is no need to belabor the reasons and how I let go of a trip to Newfoundland in early early spring when icebergs begin to make their way to the waters around the "big rock", summer solstice called for a first trip to this amazing and remote island.
On our way to King's Landing early early in our revised trip, we found our way to Meyer's Minerals. I had been loaned a labradorite stone heart from my friend Ira which I had kept in my pocket everyday since the beginning of the trip, it is a protective stone and both Ira and I thought I would be taking a stone from Labrador (remember that the Province is Newfoundland Labrador). It was because of the stone heart I was carrying that a trip to Meyer's Minerals seemed like a good idea.
We could hardly believe we were at the store when we drove up into what looked like a strip of offices, but yes, we were there. What a store it was! The gems, rocks, crystals, jewelry, displays were all amazing. I took out my heart and showed it to the woman at the counter. It took her about 3 seconds to say, this is a stone from Madagascar not labradorite, most of the stones from Madagascar are processed in china. She showed me the difference in the stone I was holding and a Labrador stone which is highly regulated for collecting and much more expensive, and much more different in color. The link above is from the CBC talking about the "scamming" of people with this Madagascar stone. I left the store with a tiny vial of Labrador labradorite!
But back to icebergs! As we were getting close to leaving, I saw that Marcia was making a purchase, she had found a stone iceberg, somehow I had completely missed that display. I went over to the table and yes, there were icebergs and I found the one in the picture above and knew that I would take it home. It is made from "extremely white marble" collected in the Northern Peninsula. With the iceberg came a little information sheet, the region where the marble was collected was the eastern edge of the North American continent 500 to 600 million years ago, the climate was tropical. This marble started out as lime-stone, but millions of years later, during the "closure of proto-Atlantic Ocean, this limesone was transformed into marble by heat and pressure associated with the building of the Appalachian Mountains. So here I was, having spent the first part of the day, feeling the connection of this Appalachian Mountain range and knowing that Maine and Newfoundland also have some of the same marble, that I was now holding in my hand. My iceberg, Marcia had an iceberg, and we correctly joked that this would be the only icebergs that we would see!
Everytime I look at my iceberg, I smile. I am so glad that Marcia found the icebergs, I would have left without one, and I so glad that is not the case.
As I remember about those first days in Newfoundland, I am also remembering our last drive down the western coast to Port Aux Basque. Stay tuned. Enjoy imagining your iceberg! I am sure that I will return to see the real ones someday soon!
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