#45 Bellevue Beach
Wed/Thur. Aug. 21-22
Again we are parked
facing a beach on Tickle Bay which is part of the bigger Trinity Bay. The
Bellevue Beach RV is pretty rustic.
Their security gate is a rope with caution streamers on it. You stop in
front of it and someone in the office lowers to allow enter or exit. Apparently too many people were trying to use
their beach without paying.
This is the house
where the owners live.
The guys used this
trail to walk. They went way around the
point and saw houses and churches on the other side of the bay that we will see
later.
Our first adventure
took us up Highway 80, one of the northern peninsulas of the Avalon Peninsula.
We have completed visiting 4 out of the 5 main regions. Avalon is our last area
to explore.
As we rounded a
corner, an unusual boat caught our attention.
Derrille did the only sensible thing and made his way to the dock. The
Atlantic Titan fishing vessel was commissioned June 12, 2019. It was built in
Vietnam for the Piercy family of Newfoundland.
Its modern 90 foot design allows it to fish for crab and demersal fish. It carries traditional ports for crabbing and
has two 50,000 L refrigerated salt water tanks to keep the crab in prime condition. Somehow the main deck can close over the crab
facilities and convert to a full fish processing deck. They can process the fish on board and have
freezers for it. Google can give you the
specifics of this vessel. One photo I
saw looked like the galley is as modern as the ship design.
Dildo (pop. 1198) the
town just north of the Atlantic Titan captured our interest. We visited a coffee/gift shop.
Apparently Jimmy Kimmel mentioned Dildo on his
TV show. Now the town wants him to visit and to elect him as mayor.
The Dildo Brewery
didn’t open until 11 am, so we went on and returned on our way home.
From Dildo in the
morning, we traveled through lots of little “cove” named town. Then there were these three: Hearts Delight (pop. 674), Hearts Desire
(pop.213) and Hearts Content (pop. 300).
Transatlantic Park
sits on the actual site of where the cable landed. The old rusted cable ends protrude from the
bank by the sea.
This nice memorial stands right where the
cable came ashore. This path leads from
the sea to the cable station. The bricks
indicate where it was buried. The
telegraph message is engraved in the brick with words and Morse code. I may
have missed a word….” Our shore end has just been laid and a most perfect cable
under God’s Blessing has telegraphic communication between England and the
continent of America”.
The SS Great Eastern
was built as a luxury ocean liner. She
was six times larger than any other ship, could host 4000 passengers, she was
fast and a failure. The Great Eastern was
not only costly, but too big to dock in most ports. However she was the only ship that could hold
4300 km of cable and hold steady in rough seas.
Hearts Content was chosen for its deep harbor that could accommodate the
huge ship that moved the cable across the Atlantic.
Do remember the
little rocks that are left all over the island?
Here is another one on the entry to the Cable Station.
The entry to the
Cable Station is covered with this map.
I found it interesting. Of course, I forgot what the lines represent. I can only guess cable connections.
Inside the Historic
Cable Station we watched and interesting video and read the reader boards throughout
the exhibit.
What amazed us is
that someone knew not only how to get the cable across the Atlantic, but what
kind of machinery would be needed to make the communication station work! These photos are just a part of the whole operations center.
When WWI broke out,
the Anglo American Telegraph Company, later Western Union began hiring women to
work as telegraph operators. The
company offered local women to come in on an equal footing with the males. From 1917-1930 as many as 60 women accepted
the challenge to prove their equality with sometime hostile male staff.
Florence Kathleen Richards, age 15 was among the first hired. By 17, she had
been promoted to Supervisor. Not only
was she the first woman to do so, but the youngest male or female to achieve
this position. Of course women had to
quit when they married, but this gave many women a trade that they could use in
other cities. I was impressed.
The company provided
employee housing, food, leisure time activities. They were considered very
progressive for the time. Since the
women they hired were 15-16 years old, they provided supervision at work, and suitable housing with a matron. They controlled almost
every aspect of the workers lives. They build leisure activity fields. However it did cause some strive with the
local fishermen and lumberjacks since they didn’t the money provided by the
company.
We decide to use this
little park next to the memorial for lunch.
These Tidy Town awards are all over Newfoundland. Each community is very happy to be the
recipient.
The Hearts Content
Lighthouse looks like a barber pole. We
decided to drive out.
This little marina
sits by the road to the lighthouse.
The guys climbed the
big rock and then hiked part of the trail.
This particular
peninsula is called the Baccalieu Trail.
We learned that the museum in Bay de Verde (pop. 392) told the Baccalieu
story, so we headed there. Besides the
usual potholed highway we came upon a stretch that was newly paved with red
shoulders. What a treat!
We visited the
Blundon House.
The tour starts in the attic! They had guides on every floor. Up there we found a well-built model of the
stages and flakes used in cod fishing.
Other things represented the fishing trade too.
The second floor had
a fisherman’s bedroom, a servant’s room, an office, etc.
On the first floor a
room told the Baccalieu story. We
thought the photo of the man on the sign was Baccalieu. We were wrong! The name Baccalieu describes an island 3 km from here.
I believe its name comes from Portuguese meaning cod. It is also the scene of many ship wrecks.
Here are some of
other rooms on the first floor.
A stairway led up the
hillside behind the house. A little
garden area sat at the base of the stairs.
From the front decks
the town of Bay de Verde looked wonderful on this sunshine filled day. You might notice the lack of vegetation. Not only does the town sit at the end of the
peninsula, but also quite high up in elevation.
As amazing as always
two large churches serve this little village.
Loved the sign post!
The Washington on here is D.C. When asked where we are from I always say "Washington State" and explain where it is. Otherwise they assume D.C.
I was planning on
taking a photo of the town’s municipal offices.
Most little towns have their offices and then the emergency services:
ambulance, fire and police attached. Missed the shot, but did manage to get the
school bus hanging off the hill.
…..As we drove out of
town.
We had talked about
what happens when you miss the driveways here. This was somewhere further south on the peninsula and on our way home.
Gotta love a small
town! Notice the baby shower sign! These colorful building decorated the beach
here.
We then drove back to
the Dildo Brewery to get Jay really wanted a tee shirt. The brewery was open, but
they were completely sold out of tee shirts. We also didn’t expect the brewery
to be packed with people at about 4 pm on a Wednesday night! Standing room only! Someone coming out said to try the Blue Eyed
Boy, it was the best!
No wonder they need
an overflow parking lot!
The brewery also
houses a museum, so we checked that out. The Beothuck show up here too. By now we are quite familiar with the history and people of Newfoundland. I did ask the docent about the name Dildo. One versions says it is Portuguese for two islands, that were here. One says the French may have called it Bilbo, and over time the word changed. He gave me two more but I can't remember them. The bottom line is no one knows where the town originated.
So we left and went
down the road to eat dinner at the Dildo Dory Grill after which we went home.
To our surprise the Dory didn’t serve any Dildo beer! Jay had hoped to try some.
Thursday August 22,
2019
Today we explored the
town of Bellevue, not that there was much of a town. The best part of that
drive was this rock moose standing by a driveway.
Then we returned to
Dildo and Jay got himself a Dildo Brewery Shirt! We arrived about 1 pm and had trouble finding
a place to park. People were arriving
and going into the brewery in groups of 10 or more. What a sight! No wonder they need additional parking! All of these people are coming from the
overflow parking! We were in the overflow parking!
Next we made the decision to go to Harbour Grace. Amelia Earhart flew one of her trans-Atlantic flights from here.
The Spirit of Harbour
Grace a CF-QB1 fills a little park by the bay to remind the residents here of
the contributions Harbour Grace has made to early aviation.
The official register of planes at the Harbour
Grace airport shows Amelia’s name. (Also
a plane named “Dorothy” is in the books.
140439 140454
The statue of Amelia
Earhart also stands in this park with a plaque.
A small visitor
center showed ships from this area. I
asked the girls about a grocery store, and there is none here. We would have to drive to the next town for
that.
The 10th
Alphabet Mail boat the Kyle was purchased by the town, but now sits rusting in
the bay.
Then we drove to the
1927 airstrip from which Earhart flew. At the time it was gravel. Today is full of lovely green grass.
This church caught our attention. A Roman Catholic Immaculate Conception
Cathedral c. 1899 with its spires could hardly be missed. The first church burnt down. A photo in the museum showed how it looked
before 1899.
The Conception Bay
Museum hardly looked open on this rainy day, but it was.
One of the rooms
honored Amelia Earhart.
One talked about the pirate Peter Easton who
terrorized, looted and took what he wanted from the local area.
We learned later that
he made his home here in Harbour Grace. A series of these panels described his life here. I only put a couple in here.
This house sits
across the street from the museum.
The Rose Manor makes
a very inviting B and B that looks out onto the bay.
We did drive to
Carbonear, a town with grocery stores and services to pick up some groceries.
We looked around a bit and then we headed
home.
This is how mail is
often delivered. Sometimes they have
covered areas like bus stops.
On to Holyrood next.
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