"White" water rafting in Newfoundland

 

Grant "white" water rafting

For my last long week-end in Newfoundland, the May "2-4" week-end, I decided to join some of my friends on a kayaking retreat to learn more about the marvels of sea kayaking. Little did I know what the weather had in store for us that May week-end.

 

The boys in the trunk with their Go-Pro extreme sport cameras on their helmets filming the action.

 

 

Day 1 of the retreat week-end... a normal long week-end at Terra Nova Park

 

Day 2 of the week-end: it looked like we went back in time by a good 4-5 months after getting dumped with 15 cm of snow!

 

Even the snowman was psyched for kayaking

 

 

Though we couldn't go out on water the second day, we still had some interesting workshops on learning how to build and customize your own kayak and paddles.

 

Chris giving a presentation on building a Greenland style paddle. These paddles supposedly work as well as a recreational paddle, but are even better, because they put less strain on the back and shoulders.

 

Beautiful handmade kayaks! People are so talented!

I'm a city girl, so I really just know how to buy things.

 

Photos from day one out on water

 

Taking a snack break

 

Me outfitted by my wonderful caring kayaking community from Newfoundland central. I remind myself slightly of an astronaut- super protected in gear- dry top, wetsuit, neoprene booties and kayak spray skirt.

 

Guy Fawkes Day

Guy Fawkes Day, also known as bonfire day in Newfoundland, is originally a British celebration on November 5th for commemorating the fact that the plan to blow up King James I's home was successfully intervened and stopped when Guy Fawkes, a member of the "Gunpowder plan" was arrested. Since Newfoundland was a British Dominion until just the last half a century, they practice a lot of the same traditions as that of the British culture.

You can't tell from this photo, but this bonfire is actually about a storey high! People in the community take the chance to bring in all their old furniture and other junk to contribute to the fire. In the past, Guy Fawkes Day was also traditionally a day where young men and women would have the chance to all come together and find their own "spark". Now, it is more a day for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs and socializing as a community.

Stage

When I moved to Lewisporte, my route to work involved walking along the harbour. It was then I first noticed the various pretty looking mini-houses out on private homeowner's docks. I had never seen them before, so I asked my colleagues about them. I asked if it was a shed for storing boat tools, just like how I helped my dad build a shed in our backyard to store garden tools and bikes. It turns out, it is called a stage, and it is equivalent to a fisherman's shed, except it functions more than just to store fishing and boat tools. The stage was the place where fisherman would clean and gut their fish before bringing them home. Inside the middle of the stage, there would be a table for the fisherman to work, and under or at the side of the table would be an opening in the dock directly exposing the water under the dock. This will be the hole where all the unwanted parts of the fish would trickle through straight into the ocean. These openings would make a great banquet hall for sea gulls and other predators!

Stages are usually painted on one bright solid colour with white trims. Sometimes on the doors of the stage you may see a painted white circle the size of a dinner plate. These circles were said to help fishermen find their docks by reflecting the light of the head beams and allowing the fisherman so spot out the stage structure in the fog or dim early morning or late evening light.

Newfie food: Boil up

My first tailgate party ;)

What you see here with the big pot and a propane tank is a large scale boil up. Boil ups usually refer to a little winter picnic out in the woods. A fire is started, and water is put to boil to warm up the tired snowshoers, or snowmobilers. It is also common to roast wieners and eat a hearty serving of warm baked beans. 

Our boil up was a large scale one, so we deep fried fries and wieners as a treat. 

Gander II: Cobs Pond Trail

The Cobs Pond is a really cute short trail where the boardwalk winds around the pond. Here is a photo collection of wildlife and vegetation I encountered on my early morning walk. 

A grouse maybe?

See the fluffy green stuff on the tree? -Old Man's Beard, a type of moss

You can often find a boggy soil when you see bunches of dried grass. It's the oddest feeling when walking on it, because it feels a bit like walking on heads since its texture is a solid clump around the tuft all the while contrasting with the soft moist gluey texture of the surrounding bog.

Rich diversity of low ground vegetation

PEI III: Charlottetown- la ville d'origine de la Confédération

Une petite visite à Charlottetown.

Une église- je ne me souviens pas trop du nom, mais sa signifiance dans mon voyage des provinces maritimes est qu'elle était une des premières églises que j'ai vu qui n'était pas en bois. Ça se peut aussi que les églises en pierre se trouvent plutôt dans les milieux plus peuplés.

Le bus municipal

Le port

Voici Sir John A. MacDonald, le "père" de la Confédération du Canada.

Un avocat à l'âge de 15 ans!!!!!!!! Très mature.

Les délégués pour la conférence de la Confédération débarquent à Charlottetown du bateau Queen Victoria lequel les a aidé traverser le fleuve St. Laurent pour arriver sur l’île du Prince Édouard. 

J’ai eu beaucoup de plaisir en lisant les pancartes touristes sur l’histoire de la Confédération. D’habitude je ne m’intéresse pas trop à l’histoire, mais si je pouvais avoir appris l’histoire à travers les visites des lieux historiques, je pense que j’aurais beaucoup plus de motivation d’étudier l’histoire.

J’ai beaucoup apprécie l’information sur la Conférence de la Confédération de cette pancarte en particulier, car c’était intéressant, et elle explique bien les enjeux lesquels ont amené à la décision d’une Confédération.   

The Charlottetown Conference – 1864

The three Maritime colonies of Great Britain, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, had long considered the possibility of union. By the early 1860s, however, there was sufficient concern over an American attack after the conclusion of the American Civil War (1861-1865),that the colonies began to feel the need to draw closer together. At the same time, Britain was pressuring the colonies for union based on the premise that this would reduce their economic and military dependency on the mother country. As well, the ever-increasing public debt created by railway construction was placing tremendous burdens not only on the Maritime colonies, but also on Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec). It was not actually an overwhelming desire for a new nation, but a combination of mutually-threatening circumstances that opened the door to the creation of the Canadian Confederation.

By the summer of 1864, the Maritime colonies had agreed to meet to discuss union, although a time and place for the discussions had not been set. The Canadas, suffering from a political deadlock that was making effective government virtually impossible, asked to participate in the meetings. When the Maritimes agreed to allow the Canadas to present a proposal for a wider British North American union, the meeting was set for Thursday, September 1, 1864, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. On the day following the opening of the conference the Canadian delegation, led by John Alexander Macdonald and Georges Étienne Cartier, presented their plan. The main features of their proposal were continued loyalty to the British Crown through membership in the British Empire, a strong central government within a federal union with the provinces retaining control over their own affairs and other powers resting with the federal government, and representation in a central government through an appointed upper house and an elected lower house.

The debate over the Canadian propositions continued into the weekend. Late Saturday afternoon, September 3^rd, the conference retreated to the relative luxury of the Queen Victoria, the steamer which had brought the Canadian delegation to Charlottetown. In what was to be a sampling of the many parties, receptions, and dinners which punctuated the week-long conference, the Maritime delegates were entertained by their Canadian hosts.

Following four days of discussion, argument, and much debate, both within the official venue of Province House, and the “unofficial venue” of the social activities, the Canadian delegation had put forth such a convincing presentation that their proposals had carried the day. The Maritime colonies, which had all but abandoned their quest for union at their conference, pledged their support for the new plan for the British North American federation, - if the terms of the union could be made satisfactory. With agreement in principal for the new Canadian national union secured, the Charlottetown Conference was adjourned on September 1, 1864, to be reconvened in Quebec City on October 10, 1864, for the “ironing out” of the remaining details.

Here was the true significance of the Charlottetown Conference: the agreement reached on the concept of a federal union from sea to sea. Although billed as a conference on Maritime union, the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 actually created the framework for the establishment of the new  Canadian Confederation.

Following the Quebec Conference of 1864, delegates from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the united Canadas met in London, England, throughout the fall and winter of 1866 to prepare the passage of the British North America Act through the British Parliament. On March 29, 1867, the Act was signed into law and Canada became a nation. Although Canadian Confederation was officially proclaimed on July 1, 1867, Prince Edward Island did not join as a province until 1873. However, as the host for the all-important first conference at Charlottetown in 1864, Prince Edward Island can rightly claim its place as “The Cradle of Confederation.”

Source:

“Nation Building at Charlottetown” Canada’s Smallest Province Charlottetown: The Prince Edward Island 1973 Centennial Commission, 1973, 135-155. 

PEI II: Maisons à Charlottetown

Le style des maisons à Charlottetown est tellement chouette: de plusieurs couleurs, et des fois avec des détails élégants.

PEI I: Dans l'air

Mon vol de Halifax à Charlottetown était dans un avion le plus petit que j’ai jamais pris de ma vie!

Le début novembre, mon travail m’a envoyé à Charlottetown pour une formation de travail. Bien que la Terre-Neuve soit vraiment juste à côté de la province d’île du Prince Éduard, ce voyage m’a pris 1.5 jour pour me rendre jusqu’au là-bas. Le seul vol pour Charlottetown quittait à 6h00 le matin de Gander, mais comme j’habitais à Springdale en automne, la ville était deux heures de l’aéroport. Vu que je n’avais pas une auto, j’ai du prendre le bus et puis une chambre d’hôtel pour la nuit en attendant pour le vol du 6h00.  Cette formation pour moi de juste quelques jours était dispendieuse pour mon employeur!

De Gander, mon vol m’a déposé à Halifax pendant 5 heures avant de me rendre à l’ÎPE. C’était dommage que les deux fois j’étais à Halifax avec 5 heures entre connexion des vols, c’était toujours très tôt le matin ou très tard le soir, alors je ne pourrais rien visiter. 

Il y avait juste 20 siège de passagers et nous pouvons même voir la tête d’avion et nos pilots. 

Je n’aime pas trop les petits avions, car le vol n’était pas très confortable. La cabine est très bruyant – on entendre tout le bruit des moteurs; ils n’ont pas un bon moyen à régulier le climat à l’intérieur de la cabine, alors j’avais très froid, et finalement, j’avais l’impression que l’avion sois plus touché par la turbulence.  À mon insu, j’avais d’autres voyages en petit avion durant mon séjour à Terre-Neuve.

Malgré l’inconfort du 30 minute du vol, j’étais privilégié avec une vue magnifique de la Nouvelle-Écosse et de l’ÎPE en air. 

Le sol de l’ÎPE est effectivement rouge!

Des fermes

Easter Break Day 8: Tablelands, Pasadena

Barren land

The Tablelands is a mountain that is famous for its "red" rocks which according to scientist is thought to have originated from the Earth's mantle (the liquid layer under the Earth's crust). Since the mantle is rich in iron and nickle, it gives the rock its reddish-orange colour. All the documentary say the Tablelands is red, but on both the occasions I have hiked that trail- the first time at the beginning of April when it was still covered in snow, and the second time at the beginning of June- the rocks have always been yellow-brown to me. I wonder, maybe the Tableland rocks reveal a different colour in the summer and in the middle of the day and under the sun?

André-Anne's "shistaouk"

The Anna inukshuk, et non shistaouk (André-Anne mistaken the word shistaouk for an inukshuk).  After an hour of trekking in at times thigh-high snow, we arrive at the end of the Tableland trail to this view of the meeting of the mountains. I was very glad that I was not hiking this trail on my own in the middle of the "winter", because although the snow is beautiful as itself and preserves the pristine, non-disturbed state of the surroundings, it can feel a bit eerie when the wind whistles and when the clouds take over the sun.  It is then you really reminded that there is indeed not a soul around, not even visible signs of life from plants since there is little vegetation. .

Pasadena. I don't have a good photo from our stay in Pasadena, but I just wanted to comment it is a really quaint little community along the Humber River, and that we had a lovely stay with Gaëlle and Yoan our other Odyssée colleages. Out of the thirteen moniteurs assigned to Newfoundland for 2012-2013, I am happy to have the occasion to meet up with nine of them all scattered around the island, and in Labrador. It is true what they told us at training, that our colleagues in the room would be our "family" for the next year, people with whom we embark on adventures with, friends who we can visit, companions on this chapter of our Odyssey in Newfoundland.