Out Around the Bay.

We pack a large picnic and try to get away early as we’re driving around part of both Conception and Trinity Bays to the little outport towns where Barry’s ancestors and relatives came from. Leaving St. John’s we follow Route 60, also called the Admiral’s Coast Route from Manuels to Colliers. Barry is outnumbered by would-be photographers so is pulling over whenever David or Marlene request a picture stop (and there are many as Marlene is particularly enjoying the novelty of car travel)!
Barry’s parents owned a tavern in Kelligrews when he was a boy so that is our first stop. We are amazed at all the development in these shoreline communities close to St. John’s, that are now collectively referred to as Conception Bay South. Although the tavern has long been demolished the stories remain, as does the circular drive around the former premises. Barry finds the brook where he spent many carefree summer days, swimming, trouting, and skipping the smooth shale stones so common here. We hike up the brook a ways as Barry reminisces. It is a lovely peaceful natural spot and we reflect that everyone should have a childhood place like this that they can revisit, even if only in memories.
At Colliers we head north on the Baccalieu trail, Hwy 70 to Brigus, a perfect pearl of an outport village that retains much of its 19th century charm. Brigus’ Hawthorne Cottage, a National Historic site, preserves the birthplace of its most famous son, Captain Bob Bartlett, the ice pilot who guided Peary to within striking distance of the North Pole. After a stroll through some of the historic building we head to Country Corner café for lunch. This small restaurant and gift shop is justly famous for its great food especially blueberry delectables. We salivate over the moose stew and pea soup being served to others before ordering huge bowls of fish chowder with hot tender scones. The highlight of the meal is generous pieces of hot blueberry crumble, slathered with blueberry ice cream, and topped with warm blueberry sauce. It’s a hot meal for such a warm day but not to be missed!
A short walk over the rocky headland from Brigus is Cupids, the site of the first official English colony in Canada founded by John Guy in 1610. There is an archaeological dig in progress and a big celebration planned for the 400th anniversary next year. The first child born in English Canada was born here in 1613. Many outport towns, such as Brigus and Cupids, are an easy walk from one another but a much longer drive as roads for automobiles came centuries after walking paths and boat transportation.
We continue up the east side of Conception Bay stopping at the boardwalk in Harbour Grace where a statue of Amelia Earhart commemorates her solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932. At Victoria village, the childhood home of Barry’s Grandmother, we head across the barrens on Hwy 74 to Winterton, the ancestral home of the Hiscocks since 1753. The barrens refer to vast spaces of Newfoundland that are covered with scrubby windswept trees, berry bushes, ponds, and often fog. They are barren of much settlement but a favourite haunt of trout fishermen. Barry’s Mom and Grandmother, who lived together in Winterton for the 6 years Barry’s Dad was overseas during WW2, walked the 35kms across the barrens from Winterton to Victoria with Barry’s two older brothers on their backs to visit relatives and friends. They were remarkable women! Grandmother Hiscock, whose origin remains a mystery, was Innu but adopted and raised as a white child. Barry’s Mom, motherless from an early age, was a maid in Government House (pre-1949 when Newfoundland was still a British colony), before she married.
Until 1912, Winterton was known as Scilly Cove, and before that as Sugar Loaf Cove. It is a typical outport town albeit one of the oldest with headstones dating to 1700. There are many graveyards in Newfoundland, almost all on hillsides with awesome views of the sea, some carefully tended by family in the area and some gradually being overrun with blueberry and partridgeberry bushes. One can spend days exploring tombstones and their interesting inscriptions all over Newfoundland and we will visit many while we are on the rock. We search but do not find Barry’s Grandfather Ira’s tombstone. Ira, a giant of a man at 6’8”, is still remembered by some of the villagers for his hot temper. He once caught a man stealing his nets so Ira wrapped him in the net and threw him off the stage (wharf). The culprit survived the dunking and never messed with Ira again!
We spend some hours in Winterton walking the lanes and photographing all the Hiscock signs - a store, a lane, a root cellar, and many houses bear the moniker. Winterton is also the home of the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland, which celebrates the skill and ingenuity of the town’s boat builders. The facility has full-size boats, constructed and used in the town, plus all the tools so it can offer boat building workshops like the “Build a Rodney” session in progress today. Living on the edge of the earth, the way of the water meant survival for the people of Newfoundland. So it is heart-warming to observe the wooden boat building traditions and skills revived and flourishing here.
There is wedding party coming out of the United Church and the bells are pealing joyfully. It is one of three weddings we will see on this sun-filled Saturday around the bay. We slowly motor down Hwy 80 through Heart’s Content, Heart’s Desire, and Heart’s Delight before stopping in New Harbour, the childhood home of Barry’s Mom and where he spent many happy summers. Barry recounts a grim memory from his childhood when he watched Pot head whales beings herded into the small bay, harpooned and slaughtered, then towed to the whaling station in Dildo, just around the headland. New Harbour is the site of one of the first cod fish farms in Newfoundland, this is a new chapter in the cod fishery - how things change me b’ye!
Dildo, despite its odd name, is a tidy town on beautiful Dildo Arm, with bustling government wharves, a 5 star B&B, and many attractions. We have enjoyed the fine accommodations provided by Inn By the Bay/George House B&B on previous trips. Most of the larger outport towns, like Dildo, have government wharves and the traditional pole stages, timbered slipways, and twine lofts are gradually rotting away, much to photographers’ dismay. Many of Barry’s maternal relatives continue to make their home here in Dildo and on a day such as this one we can understand why. Dildo has an Area Interpretation Centre that features Dorset Eskimo artifacts from Dildo Island, a Whaling and Sealing Museum, and Adventure Tours.