The Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland is not a perfectly formed peninsula. It has arms and legs sticking out all over the place. We've been spending our time exploring the various roads leading out to the various points, heads and coves. On Tuesday, June 26, 2018, we set out sights on Cape Onion, the furthest point on Highway 437. As we reached the end of the road, we found a couple of homesteads.
This modest cottage comes with its own iceberg. We were hoping to do a little hiking around Cape Onion over to Ship Cove. However, the weather turned cold (37F) and misty. We decided to forego the hike and drove over to Ship Cove.
This area was first occupied by the French; however, they only used the area for summer fishing purposes. The first recorded settlement of Cape Onion and Ship Cove was in 1857. The main reason for settlement was fishing and marriage. Along Treena's Trail, the locals constructed a mini-village.
The houses are so realistic, when I first saw this photo I thought it was one from the actual village, not the mini-village.
Here Dave stands in for Lemuel Gulliver to give scale to Lilliput.
Back in town, the locals have their winter wood supply all stacked up.
We came across this cemetery across from the beach. All the crosses are the same, but have not names or dates. We speculated that the poor folks may have come from a ship wreck, but we could find no information to support our supposition.
Life on the cape centers around the church.
Up in the Northern Peninsula, fresh veggies are hard to come by. The soil near the coastline is almost non-existent. What soil there is, can be very acidic. As road constructed started to make its way north, great swaths of land was cleared. After the roads were constructed, locals began marking out the best plots for vegetable gardens. Root vegetables work best - potato and turnip. If you are willing to put up a fence to keep the moose out, you can also grow carrots and cabbage. This gardener also added a new "scare crows" in the form of a small stuffed dog and an owl!
Most folks up here heat their homes with wood. For $25.00, a local can get a license to cut enough wood for the winter. Once the snow comes, they head out into the woods on their snowmobiles to cut and carry wood to the roadside. When the weather gets nice, they stack it up to dry. Just before the snow comes, they will haul it all home. And the process starts all over again.
We decided to end our outing early. The clouds started thinking up. One last look at the bay on a gray day!
We later learned that just south of us in Gander, they received 4 inches of snow! Here in Newfoundland, one man's drizzle is another man's snow!
We were intrigued too by the gardens and wood piles too. They experience no troubles with theft. The fences are to keep out the moose. Enjoying your blog. It has brought back many fond memories of our visit.
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