Deep Bay, Island Harbour, Tilting and Oliver's Cove

 Sunday, July 2, 2023

Hi Blog!

We survived our Canada Day Celebrations! Truth be told, we were actually so tired from our hiking, that we left the party early and were in bed by 10:00. After a good night's sleep, we were ready to venture forth again. As this was our last full day on Fogo Island, we wanted to explore a few places we hadn't seen yet. However, before we could get out and about, Miss Ruby Cat needed her walk. With coffee mugs in hand, we followed her up the hillside next to our rig. Once on top of the rocky head, Ruby discovered a sun bleached crab. Being so high up, we could only speculate that a seagull must have dropped it and never found it again.

After Ruby's walk, we pulled out our camp chairs and watched iceberg TV. The morning light is the best time to watch.

With a hearty breakfast in our bellies, we took off for parts unknown. We drove through Deep Bay, but were not able to get a picture of the iceberg nearby. It was hiding behind an island. We continued on to Island Harbour. Most of the fishing activity on the island has been consolidated at Fogo and Joe Batt's Arm. Island Harbour was one of the 11 communities that joined to become the Town of Fogo Island.

We stopped at a gravel beach and Kathy scooped up some more seaglass, while Dave captured photos of this lonely old fish station.

On Thursday, we had gone out to Titling for a folk music jam. We did not get a chance to explore the area, so we decided to go back again find a good hike. The Oliver's Cove Footpath comes highly recommended. In fact, the Newfoundland Tour book recommends taking Al's Walking Tour of Titling and Oliver's Cove (Al is a well-known local musician and historian). Since we didn't know our timing, we decided we would just hike the trail on our own rather than try to schedule a tour or join one already planned.

It's not every trailhead selfie that includes a shamrock!

Titling was designated a National Historic Site and a Cultural Landscape District. The town has managed to preserve many of the historic houses and out buildings. Irish settlers began to shape the landscape from about the 1730s, building houses and fishing rooms around the harbor to support the inshore fishery.

As we made our way around to the cove, we could see another of the Shorefast art studios. The Squish Studio, like most of its other counterparts, is equipped with a compost toilet, a small kitchenette and wood-burning stove. Power is supplied by stand- alone solar panels, mounted on an adjacent hilltop. Both the interior and exterior of the studio, including the roof, is clad with spruce planks that are painted white. It is called Squish because of the squished front entrance. We thought it was because the boggy, peaty ground in this area goes "squish" when you walk on it.

The folks who settled Tilting adapted the Irish tradition of keeping gardens, with those near home more intensively cultivated and those farther away used mainly for hay or crops for winter storage. Like other Newfoundlanders, they enclosed their fields with wooden fences and pastured livestock on the open commons. Many of Tilting's landscape components, including the harbor, the extensive gardens near Sandy Cove and Oliver's Cove, and the summer and winter paths, are used in much the same way today as in the past. 

We followed the well worn path out to the rocky coast of the North Atlantic Ocean. Somewhere out there is the southern tip of Greenland.

After a series of hikes up and down massive stairs, it was pleasant to wander the grass plains.

As we hiked along, we noticed a group of hikers coming toward us. It definitely looked like two couples with a guide. We wondered if this was Al leading one of his walking tours. As the group approached, we recognized Al -- the selfsame man that led our music jam last Thursday night! He remembered that Kathy had brought an ugly stick to play percussion for the jamming artists. We thanked him for a great jam and we continued on our way. 

Glacial tarns dotted the landscape. With all the recent warm weather, Kathy was tempted to take a dip.

Newfoundland is known affectionately as "The Rock." Nowhere is that more evident than along the coast near Tilting. We crossed old lava beds and granite outcroppings -- grey and pink and salt-and-pepper colored. We marveled at weathered sandstone and glacial erratics. Our grandson loves to strike a heroic pose, so Kathy did her best explorer pose as she surveys a giant rock field.

It's official! Summer has finally arrived in Newfoundland. As the saying goes, make hay while the sun shines!

Rocky beaches like this were once a hub of fishing activity.

The folks who live on Fogo Island believe in ghosts. You can imagine what a long cold winter can do to the imagination. Wicked witches in Joe Batt’s Arm, the ghost of a dead man in Glovertown, a mysterious Norsemen in L'Anse aux Meadows, voices on the Labrador shore in Red Bay and Emily Harbour, the smell of death in Spaniard’s Bay and Carbonear – these are just some of the stories. If you are interested, Dale Jarvis wrote a book “Haunted Ground – Ghost Stories From the Rock” (Flanker Press 2017).

Ancient trees like dwarf spruce and creeping juniper keep a low profile. The roots extend into the trail.  As flat as this foliage looks, it is a real, fully grown, OLD spruce tree!

Our trail turned from the North Atlantic and began to follow Oliver's Cove back toward town.

Large community gardens once filled the hillside leading down to Oliver's Cove. For the most part, the old fences have been maintain, but just a few plots are being cultivated.

The Dwyer Premises in Tilting has a full range of buildings associated with the historic family-based in-shore fishery, consisting of a house, store, flakes and stage.

We finished our tour of Fogo Island with a stop at Cod Jiggers Restaurant for some Newfie fishcakes, mussels and Fried Cod and chips. Tomorrow, we take the ferry back to the big island. Despite the logistics of taking the ferry, we loved our time on Fogo Island.