Blogs

Who would have guessed that an event in Greenland a little over a year ago would bring tourists flooding to the St. Anthony area this summer? On August 5, 2010, a large piece of the Petermann Glacier broke off and became an “ice island” measuring 280 square km in size.  A year later it has worked its way south and is now off of St. Anthony at the tip of the Northern Peninsula. 

This week, the hikers from TrailPeak.com saw 10,000-year-old icebergs, and visited historic Battle Harbour, a restored fishing village that thrived over the last three centuries.

From waterfalls to ancient coastlines, the hikers from TrailPeak.com have seen it all over the past three days, while trekking through southern Labrador.

Well, it can’t be denied. The Folk Festival this year was a damp one. But it also can’t be denied that the performances were as amazing, and surprising as ever – and the vibe of the audience was gun ho and game for anything.

Check out the latest blog from Kurt at TrailPeak.com to read about the scenery, history and culture they’ve discovered along the south coast of Labrador.

Fleur de Lys is located at the very northern tip of the Baie Verte Peninsula in Central Newfoundland and we were impressed with the hiking that it had to offer as well as the unique Dorset Paleoeskimo Soapstone quarry that has been discovered there.

The hikers from TrailPeak.com have started their trek from western Newfoundland to the south coast of Labrador. Read about their journey through Gros Morne in the first blog.

We were finishing our pea soup and dumplings when we could hear some accordion and guitar music coming from the “kitchen” of The Outport Museum and Tea Room in La Scie. The cook and waitress, Valerie Whalen said they were going to play some music in the “kitchen” of the museum and would we like to join them. “Sounds perfect to us” we chimed in, so we joined a handful of other visitors for an impromptu kitchen party.

“Winter” is a new play for Theatre Newfoundland Labrador for the 2011 season and was written by Nell Leyshon, who has the reputation of being the first female playwright to be commissioned and produced by the Globe Theatre in London, England.

Windswept and wild, friendly yet forlorn:  the island of Newfoundland is a corner of Canada steeped in beauty and sadness...

"Remember, give'r till ya shiver," says the man responsible for my safety just before I jump off a boat into freezing water. I've come to the most easterly point in North America in the hope of having an up close and personal experience with whales.

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, is in its annual prime. The city is on creative wheels. There are so many events, festivals and theatrics going on it’s quite a panic trying to figure out what things you can possibly bear to miss in order to see the things you absolutely can’t.

“Yesterday we had 6 women from the Corner Brook area come out for a fishing tour—they were in their 60-70’s and they had a great time. Not only did they catch a lot of cod but we saw an eagle for each person.” Darren told me over the phone on Tuesday night (August 2)

When I recently mentioned to Gaylene Buckle that we were heading to Cow Head to see some plays for the weekend, she suggested we try out the hiking trail that traverses the “Head”. As Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s (TNL) general manager, she has spent many days in Cow Head and knows the area’s nooks and crannies.

Some plays suit a location because they mimic what is happening in real life. Cow Head, at the northern tip of Gros Morne National Park, is pretty quiet during the winter but every spring and summer they get invaded by Theatre Newfoundland Labrador (TNL) who put on plays that are often about life in Newfoundland.

On July 26 – give or take a day or two, depending on weather conditions – about a dozen two-person teams will take the helms of small wooden boats called punts and row 10 miles across open ocean off Newfoundland, Canada.

Nurse Bennett was a true Newfoundland hero who was dedicated to serving the health care needs along Newfoundland’s rugged Northern Peninsula for over 50 years beginning in 1921. She was known as the “Florence Nightingale of the North”, delivered more than 700 babies and amazingly reattached logger’s foot that had been severed in an accident!

We recently had a chance to visit the excellent Conne River powwow over the July 1 long weekend in the Coast of Bays region of Newfoundland. This area is accessed by highway 360 which is near Grand Falls in Central Newfoundland. We had never been to this part of the province before so we were keen to see as much as we could in the couple of days that we had available....

We had never been to the Coast of Bays along the south coast of Newfoundland so when we heard about the Conne River Powwow we thought that we should make a point of visiting this year....

This past Saturday, Ronan, Cormac my Dad and I went to Sandy Cove on the Eastport Peninsula to see if the capelin were rolling. We were in luck!