The Dungeon

Before heading to Newfoundland we had watched the movie, The Shipping News, which has Newfoundland as its setting.  We learned today that the movie was filmed in and around Trinity (July 19 blog) and Port Rexton (July 18 blog).  Since we came to Newfoundland we have been hearing about a new film with a Newfoundland setting, The Grand Seduction. Today, on our way up to Bonavista we took a side road to Tickle Cove where The Grand Seduction was filmed. (The movie, we have been told, is about a small fishing village that needs to have a doctor in residence before they can hope to have a fish processing plant built that will provide jobs.)

Tickle Cove, like every other little fishing village along the peninsulas, is scenic, quaint and thoroughly charming.  Also along the east coast of the Boavista Peninsula, we were treated to more, and larger, icebergs.

A little hike out along the Tickle Cove Bight. They had to build this walkway to get the trail around the rocks.

An iceberg out in Southern Bay that we were able to see from Tickle Cove.

We had to take a side road to go out to Tickle Cove. On the way we passed through Red Cliff.  These little miniatures of a lighthouse, fishing boat and fishing shed and flakes were right on the side of the road. It must be what people do during the long winter months.

This painted rock was by the side of the road just as we were entering Red Cliff.

This is Ray; he was born and raised in Bonavista but then went away for the next 55 years.  He is 75 and has decided to return to his home and family in Boonavista.

Bonavista was our target destination today.  John Cabot is thought to have first sighted the New World at Cape Bonavista on June 24, 1497. The Cape was unoccupied until the 1600's when it became a French fishing station and later a permanent English settlement. Although the British fortified the point in 1696 to deter French aggression, Bonavista was the site of a notable battle in the 18th century.  Outfitted with only a few armed ships, a British fishing master and local residents defended the coast from French raiders.

Cabot, like Columbus, was searching for a route to the east but the news that he took back to Europe was about cod.  Cod is king in Newfoundland.  All the French and English battles in Newfoundland, all the migrations and settlements in Newfoundland, all the wealth and culture of Newfoundland is centered on cod. Situated on the headland, jutting out into the North Atlantic, Bonavista is the most easterly community on the continent. Because of the turbulent waters around the headland, the waters of Bonavista contain some of the riches stocks of cod to be found in Newfoundland. 

The Ryan Premises National Historic Site of Canada commemorates five centuries of commercial fishing on Canada's east coast. A 19th century salt fish mercantile complex (premises), the site was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 and consists of five buildings. These five buildings are filled with exhibits on cod and seal industries and the fishers and their families. I think we now have a good understanding of the importance and role that cod has played in Newfoundland.  

Fishing skiff at the Ryan Premises National Historic Site. 

A panoramic view of the Boanvista Harbour just outside the Ryan Premises.

Four of the five buildings at the Ryan Premises National Historic Site.

A scale model of the Ryan Premises circa 1900.

Natasha, a Parks Canada employee, answered our questions about lobster, crab and shrimp fishing and the meaning of outports and inshore fishing.

Historic lighthouse at Cape Bonavista.

The dramatic coastline at Cape Bonavista.

Statue of John Cabot. (Like Christopher Columbus, Cabot was an Italian, from Venice. His name was Giovanni Caboto but he sailed for the English King Henry VII.)

About two miles south of Cape Bonavista on the Trinity Bay side there is this very unusual rock formation known as The Dungeon which is in a Provincial Park. Essentially a twin-entranced sea cave with a collapsed roof which has been carved into the cliff face by the incessant action of the sea on the Precambrian sedimentary deposits that form much of the Bonavista Peninsula.

Mr. Spock finds it fascinating.

These children, cousins Shane and Cary, find Mr. Spock fascinating, but Shane didn't really know who Spock was.  His Mom Lee and Dad Rory did.