Baby steps...

Okay, a few days have passed, so I'm going to keep things simple just to get them down...

Afet ehe crabbibg we found out about an Ashley MacIsaac concert happening right near where we were, so we got some advance tickets (i hour in advance, yay saving $7) and got a ride in with the owner of the campground we stayed in. Sweet deal. It ended up being the coolest, there were 2 fiddlers there, a guy on guitar and someone on keyvboards and they were tearing up the stage. By the end of it the other fiddler (not Ashley) was wearing a shower cap and playing totally drunk, yet totally fabulously...so much fun! It's such a high energy music and there were a bunch of step dancers from the area who put on a show for us too. I managed to dance with Hector from the vrab boat, which kicked high falutin' butt AND a guy called Dan who wore a hawaiin shirt and had a kick butt handlebar mustache...someday I'll figure out pictures, but I have to say I sure had crushes on those two by the end or it ;-) Sweet times.

The next morning we concentrated on getting to North Sydney to vat the the ferry to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland (NF). We met some nice people who gave a us a ride to Ingonish,m where we met these other great people who gavce us a ride to North Sydney (roughly an hourish away..). His name was Jon, and his dad was there, and a dude named Gunther. So we crammed into the car and Jon said, well , we're going to North Sydney, but we plan to go swimming first,...which wa amgic beacause we were so hot.

And. Then.

Magic.

Jon and Gunther took us to their cabin just off the Cabot trail overlooking the most beautiful scewne on the trail, and he took us to their secret swimming hole which was STOLEN from a Disney movie...it was a waterfall fed swimming hole, fifteen feet deep and surrounded by luch green covered cliffs. It was cold and sweet and out of the way and still 10 minutes walk from the highway. Just, gorgeous. And then we got a ride to North Sydney (with stops at eh Clucking Hen bakery...beautiful)!

At north sydney, we reserved our spot on the 9 am ferry the next morning. We looked around for a place to pitch our tent, and had the local park recommended to us, which was cool except for the fact that ther was little concert going on.

Get this.

There's three people in this little bandstand playing full on country music, and everyone in the town is parked around them with the windows rolled down. This is a drive in bandstand. And, when the song ends, everyone lays on the horn as applause! It was hilarious, efinitely the first time I've ever seen that. After the show, everyone filed out and we discreetly pitched our tent within view of the boat, got up and we were off the Newfoundland!!! Wheeee!

The boat ride was sunny and gorgeous and beautiful Tanis made friends with a guy on the boat who worked for the ktchen area called Killer, who sorted us out with a deal for lunch, niiice. I saw Paul from work!@ Whatever the hell, he was over for a holiday with the fdamily which was the coolest thing to see. He's the first full on random m eeting of someone I know so far. Cool.

We arrived n Port Aux Basques and learned two things: The bus leaves in the morning at 8 am from the boat area, and the frigging tourist area is 2 kilometers away! Blah! Anyways, we sorted outselves out and get info on Newfoundland, and got back to the boat area. We got some infor from a local and once agan pitched right necxt to the boat, likeenormous ferry/paringlot'ourtent...we were still on ferry grounds. Which was fine untill the night ferries decided to lay on the horn which is THE LOUDEST HORN I HAVE EVER HEARD HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!

We just about lost or pants on that one. Phew. Anyways, other than those intermittent disturbances during ghe night, we had a nice sleep?

We caught the bus to Corner brook, where we met a lovely older couple from Georgia (Phyllis and Peter) who gave up their plans and offered to drive us around to do our errands before we caught the shuttle to the south coast. We went to Burgeo next and on the way met a lovely guy called Mel who lives in one of the outport villages on the south coast. Out port means a village that can only be reached by boat. On the way he told us stories of the area and NF in general, which wa cool. We asked where we could pitch our tent, but when we got to Burgeo, the friend Mel was staying with till the ferry goes to Francois invited us into his home and gave us a bed! THIS is NF hospitality!

So, now we're staying with Mel, Harvey and his wife Darlene...and the dog Penney, who I swear can smell the Ontario on us because it took her forever to stop barking at us!

Anyways, they took us on a tour of the Sandbanks Provincial Park which is just about the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, and just gorgeous terrain. It's so like Scotlans, with few trees clinging to rocks, lots of ground cover and huge rocks sprinkled over the terrain all over the way. Very cool. DSo that ws great. The next day (we're almost at today, now!) was rainy and we slept till 11 am!~ I guess we needed a nice sleep with no ferry blasts for once ;-) It had been over a week since we'd been ourt of the tent, too, so that was a nice treat. We walked around Burgeo and did some errands around town. Harvey and Darlene and Mel sorted us out with some beautiful same day cod and perch, cooked to perfection in the classic NF way, with pork Scruncheons (little pieces of pork fat, fried in oil. Yeah, you heard me, fat fried in oil. mm, together at last.). It was really good!

The next day (yesterday) we caught the ferry to Francois (pronounces France-way by the locals) where I had to spend the trip outside because, yet again , I was totally nauseated. I suppose I just don't have my sea stomach yet. I asked one of the crab fisherman if he ever got sick, and he said, not anymore but the first 5 or 6 years I did. Like being pregnant for 6 years, blaurgh!

The was a medical emerency in Grey River, another outport vilage between Burgeo and Francois, so the ferry dropped us off there for an unscheduled break as the ferry took the medical emergency, 2 hours back to burgeo, two hours back to grey river plus loading an unloading. We ended up hooking up with a local (Clarence) who took us out on his boat for a few hours for a tour of the Grey river and lakes system. It was just gorgous area. Grey river has a population of under 100, by the way, Burgeo is a metropolis because they have a road and have 1300 people. Francois has a little over 100 people. These little communitites are nestles at the base of cliffs surrounding a bay, practically on top of each other, with nowhere to go without a boat..incredible. beautiful, but isolated!

Anyways, we went on the boat ride and then this local lady took us in and gave us fresh homemeade bread (yay!) moose meat, cheese and tea. We made friends with a little girl called Sherry, and so we blew bubbles with her till the ferry came back for us all. We got back on and once again I couldn't go sit below due to my apparently intense hurl factor. I'm diggin out the gravol I think I have or I swear I'll never make it back to Burgeo!

These outports depend on the ferries to get people around, but also to bring in supplies, fues, and so on. When the fog isn't too bad, Francois has a heli-pad for medical evacuations, but I think fog is pretty common.

So, we made it to Francois last night! Mel let us crash on his floor and this morning we went out and pitched our tent on the only flat ground in the place...touching the side of the local Anglican church...so either we're in really good shape, or really bad shape, depending on your convictions of a vengeful or a benevolent God... ;-)

Shery found us with her friends April and Megan followed us around as Mel introduced us to the post office lady/mayor, Kim. Mel writes for the NF magazine called the Downhomer, which is really great publiction. He's very active in this community (Francois) even thoguh he just has a summer home here. He's East Indian, but grew up in east Africa and lives mostly in Ontario...definitely an interesting guy! He's all about the promotion of Francois and the villages here, and he's a very successful artist, so he uses that to make postcrds, posters and so-on all to benefit people in the area. Some of his projects paid for the fire hall here, and raise money for tewo people who ned to travel for cancer treatments. Definitely very cool. He's promised to show us how to make some real Indian food tonight, so we'll bring him some beer and maybe I'll earn something...potluck when I get home!

Phew, so I guess that brings us up to now, sort ot. I hate to miss days becasue it always seems like there's something more to say...I guess when I get my pictures back I'll be in full fl;sh with stories.

Thanks again for stopping by. Sorry about the extra long and extra annoying installments. Next time I'll break it up into different posts, I promise!

Thanks for dropping in. Talk to ya soon!!
xoxoxo