Day 14

Waking to an early morning fog, I lay in bed at the Wheel House Inn and let the peace of the stillness fill my soul. As I’m sure I’ve already mentioned, Burin has much fog and while I, like the locals, would miss the sun after days of the stuff, there is something about a foggy day that causes me to take a deep breath, and enjoy the cool, peaceful comfort of the mist.

Before long the smells of breakfast cooking had us up, showered and sharing a breakfast table with Glen and Carol from Nova Scotia and Mas and Ruby from Alberta. Following breakfast we checked with Hal, our host, to see if there was anything that fell in the “not to be missed” category. He offered a map of Burin, told us where to find the local heritage buildings and we set out deciding that was enough of a start.

Wheel House Inn

Yet again … what a day – filled with surprises and adventures that the most careful of planning could not orchestrate. I think I’ve come to the conclusions (with some help from Liz) that the best vacations are offered when you’re open to whatever might happen. Newfoundland is a wonderland for that sort of fun.

On our first stop we discovered that the heritage building didn’t open until noon. The area boasted a gift shop, art gallery, Scotia Bank museum, a café, and heritage homestead. Like the rest of Newfoundland, these were all nestled at the edge of the sea. This particular section of shoreline hosted a boardwalk over the water, a cold storage facility and the Canadian Coastguard. Little did we know at first discovery that these would all play a major role as another magnificent day unfolded on The Rock! Now I should mention that someone did drive by as we were in front of the art gallery. He stopped and offered to go get us a key since it was not to be missed – only in Newfoundland! We assured him it wasn’t necessary and we would return.

Given that everything was closed we decided to walk along the boardwalk and appreciate the beautiful scenery. And beautiful it is indeed. The fog was alive by the time we ventured out, shifting and changing to reveal new vistas from moment to moment. The water in the bay was still and crystal clear, meaning the beauty of the landscape was reflected in the sea – doubly beautiful and thrilling David and Liz as they happily snapped and Cliff and I strolled.

Sea Rocks

It wasn’t long before we happened on a momma and her nine newly hatched ducklings wandering along the bank. We watched with delight. As every mother knows, every brood has one little critter just marching to his own drum. Next thing we knew one little chickie fell over the bank into the ocean! The next 20 minutes or so was immensely entertaining as momma worked to reunite her offspring. She very quickly abandoned the others and dropped down to the water to be with her wanderer. In short order another chick, curious as to what was happening below, ventured too close to the edge and reunited with a splash. Poor momma went back and forth between the ones on the bank and the ones in the water. After some time, help arrived in the form of an elderly gentleman. He had brought bread for the ducks but once he discovered their dilemma promptly abandoned the bread and mounted a rescue mission. Now all that sounds like a lovely thing except the man was in his 80s!!! Perching at the edge of the moss covered rocks; he slipped and shuffled along shooing the ducklings into the sea. The drama quickly switched to my fear that he would join momma in the water and I would be following him into the frigid water to mount my own rescue mission! Silly really since I should have remembered that Newfoundlanders are a hardy lot and this man had surely spent his life balancing at the edge of the sea. Ducks unharmed, returned to their mother’s side, bread crumbs dispensed and all humans safe and sound on shore; we finished our stroll by the sea.

Heading back to the car we were stopped by a skipper happening by in his dory. He stopped just to say good day, welcome us to Burin and wish us a grand stay – not the end of that story. We also met a couple of men working at the Coast Guard vessel docked at the wharf. They also offered a good morning and invited us back to tour the Coast Guard vessel. They suggested if we came back around 2:30 and told any of the men in the office that we would like a tour in the vessel they would be happy to accommodate. Curious, but this is Newfoundland so we agreed to return – not the end of that story. The man in the doorway of the cold storage, a large bunker like building built into the side of the hill, told us we should come back at 7:00 since there was a time planned – and that is certainly not the end of that story!

The old man and the sea...

We spent mid day just wandering. Playing, searching for beach glass, exploring, taking pictures … as you can see managed to amuse ourselves quite nicely.

Reflections on Burin

Returning to the harbor centre in Burin we discovered that the W. Jackman, the coast guard vessel, had sailed. It was only 2:40 and he’d said about so I was very disappointed. Now I might have done well to remember that this was the first time on this while holiday that something hadn’t turned to gold at our touch. Nonetheless, easily spoiled, we were disappointed.

We went back up to the heritage buildings that were now open and found that they were indeed charming and worth the return trip. By the time we were ready to head back to the car just over an hour later, the Jackman had returned and we drifted down to the dock. Now Phonse Murphy, first seamen on the vessel assured us that we had been misled. As we had first suspected, the Jackman is a working vessel and doesn’t do “tours”. He seemed to find it amusing that someone had tried to fool us but offered, since we were there, to “give us a look around ‘er”. As it happens, Phonse Murphy was from Stephenville Crossing, a little town near where we once lived. He and I hit it off and we had a tour and boarded the busiest vessel in the coast guard fleet! Due to Burin’s proximity to the Grand Banks and the Hibernia Oil Field, the Jackman sees a lot of action. Phonse likened their job to that of a fireman. If there is no emergency there is nothing much to do and the job is great but they are the ones called when no one else will go. A Newfoundlander to the core, he greatly amused Cliff and Liz with his tales – when they could understand him! They told me after that they let me do the talking since they understood what I said they could piece together most of what Phonse regaled. Cliff’s favourite story was Phonse telling of the high seas since most of their work is done in stormy weather. The bridge of the vessel is quite small and the four men on board are in pretty close quarters. He says when the other seamen make a sandwich he reminds them to be sure to make it as he likes it. “By da time dey gets it made and ready to eat, it’s over in front a me mout.” We never did discover who had tried to pull one over on us but it led to a great adventure so we had the last laugh.

Phonse and me

Following supper at the heritage café we again drifted down to the sea, this time to the cold storage facility. Burin boasted the first cold storage facility on the island so for years it has been a significant port for fishermen from all over the world as they come to Burin to collect bait. The original cold storage bunker has been converted to a community hall of sorts and on Wednesday evenings the town gathers. Someone volunteers to get out a guitar, accordion, fiddle, etc. and the town has a scuff! Wouldn’t you know it – these charmed travelers just happen to be visiting Burin on a Wednesday. As we ventured in the woman at the door asked if I was from around here. When she spoke I knew immediately that I knew her. Since we were both completely out of the context of where we knew one another, it took just a few seconds of staring at one another for recognition to arrive. Georgina Abbot was like another of Dad’s sisters – since they only had 22 children naturally! She spent much time with the family, even always present at family reunions and I remembered her well. She too recognized me and a delightfully happy reunion ensued. Chairs were promptly moved to the front and centre of the room and the rest is a blur of happy memories as we were embraced by Burin. From the 87 year old woman who danced all night… to CharlieEdwardsfromBurin – said as all one word, who seemed to take a fancy to me… to the woman who took a liking to Liz and repeatedly asked her to dance… to Georgina who continually supplied the background story to all we experienced and punctuated the evening with warm embraces and reminders of how happy she was that we were there – the evening was pure Newfie magic!

Me and CharlieEdwardsFromBurin

Georgina Abbot and Cliff

Havin' a scuff

With Georgina

Night on the bay

We returned to the Wheel House Inn completely spent. We could not have asked for a better day to introduce Cliff and Liz to Newfoundland. Cliff enjoyed grabbing this last picture of the Mad Blogger and Co. at day’s end. Now if only he could keep his islands straight – he keeps confusing “ya mon” with “yes b’y”!

The Mad Blogger and Co.