Newfoundland and Labrador is well known as a place to escape from the hectic pace of modern life, a place where you can rejuvenate and go back home refreshed and revitalized. Now you can indulge yourself completely at Found Spa, an accredited Aveda spa at Humber Valley Resort. Located near the forest on Deer Lake, Found Spa offers a menu of treatments and services for men and women amid tranquility and clean air. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect match of environment and experience. The services include facials, massage, waxing, body treatments, hands and feet, and a variety of combination experiences. The four treatment rooms – Earth, Air, Fire, and Water – are decorated to create a mood appropriate to the activity. There’s a deck, gardens, shop, hot tub, and professional staff. For more information, please consult the resort’s website at www.humbervalley.com.
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Gros Morne National Park inspires all who visit, but artists really get off here. Gros Morne Theatre Festival features local plays, stories and music performed by a professional troupe. Writers at Woody Point allow festival-goers to chat with authors in an informal setting. And Gros Morne Summer Music is a classical music festival. All are happening during the summer of 2007. For a packaged tour that includes music, visits to national historic sites and seminars on ecological issues, go to Horizon Holidays – http://www.horizon-co.com/Enrichment%20Journeys.ashx – for details on their unique Earth to Human tour.
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Battle Harbour, on the coast of Labrador, was bypassed by modern times, and many of its charming rustic buildings, some two centuries old, retain their original form and function, making this the only community in the province that retains the look and feel of an entire traditional fishing outport. It’s also the only National Historic District in Canada where you can bed down for the night – without electricity, if that’s your thing. Learn more at http://www.battleharbour.com/.
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Newfoundland and Labrador is an edgy place. Just ask the Flat Earth Society which says one of the four corners of the world can be found here. Located on the eastern edge of North America, it’s where birds, bergs and whales share space in the ocean. Whales migrate north as bergs drift south, their paths crossing beneath the gaze of millions of seabirds. Sometimes you can see all three at once, either from shore or from a tour boat. Ever smelled the air from a 10,000-year-old berg? It’s so old, it’s fresh.
Bald eagles might be the most sought-after raptor, and you’ll find them nesting in Terra Nova National Park, among other places. Because of its location on migration flyways, Newfoundland and Labrador is a good place to spot rarities, especially on headlands, those edges of the earth.
This place is edgy in another way. Both land and sea straddle the boundaries of plant colonies. In some places is the southernmost edge of northern alpine plants, and in other the northernmost reach of underwater species.
There are rare orchids, including one that grows nowhere else, the Burnt Cape Cinquefoil.
And because Newfoundland and Labrador is only a few hours by air from major centres, it’s easy to get here. When you do, Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, with its puffins and humpbacks, is half an hour from St. John’s and is patrolled by half a dozen tour boats. The most accessible seabird colony in eastern Canada is Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve where thousands of golden-headed Northern Gannets nest atop a sea stack 50 feet from a clifftop viewing point.
Gros Morne National Park, on the west coast of the Island of Newfoundland, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s one of the great natural wonders of the world, with its fjords, rare rocks, ancient mountains and inspiring landscapes. It will change you.
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But it’s not for the faint of heart. Located at the northern tip of Labrador – above the tree line – this magnificent wilderness has zero amenities. No roads, no accommodations. Just wilderness. Up here, you’re not quite on your own – you must be accompanied by a park guide – but you should be prepared and experienced in wilderness travel. This is a where the Inuit have lived for thousands of years, among fjords, mountains and river valleys that will change the way you think about nature and the planet. Hike, sea kayak and enjoy.
Contact the folks at Parks Canada for more information - email torngatsinfo@pc.gc.ca. Cruise ships visits to northern Labrador offer an alternate access. Adventure Canada – www.adventurecanada.com – Arctic Odysseys – www.arcticodysseys.com – and Cruise North – www.cruisenorthexpeditions.com - are offering packages in 2007. The adventure tour company Explore Newfoundland is developing a tour to the Torngats. Details at www.explorenewfoundland.com.
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Tuckamore Lodge in Newfoundland and Labrador offers a six-day wilderness skills training package just for women. Learn wilderness survival and fly fishing, orienteering and sea kayaking. But it’s not all go-go-go. There’s plenty of time to see the natural and cultural attractions, like the 1000-year-old restored Viking village at L’Anse aux Meadows, and a boat tour to a seabird ecological reserve. The French fished along this section of coast for centuries, and there’s a visit to the French Shore Heritage Site in Conche to learn about this little-known era. Tuckamore Lodge is an award-winning company in northern Newfoundland that offers a pristine setting, quality accommodations and scrumptious food. Led by owner Barb Genge, it’s a gem for nature/culture expeditions. Check it out at www.tuckamorelodge.com
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Vacation packages that cater to everyone from 7 to 77 are available this summer in Newfoundland and Labrador. There are new learning vacations offered by Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, a campus of Memorial University, in western Newfoundland. There are kids’ packages, adventures for the whole family including Grandma, adult packages, and women’s only offerings. Kids can study rockets or theatre. The whole family can go crazy taking photos. Mom can book her own time to de-stress just before schools starts. And there are “ology” adventures – in biology, geology and ecopsychology – plus painting, sea kayaking and more. Details are on the college website at www.swgc.mun.ca/learningvacations/
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Hundreds of kilometres of refurbished coastal trails between fishing villages recreate the traditional means of locomotion in olden days. See whales, icebergs and seabirds. Meet the descendants of the Irish who settled here and retain a strong brogue, a quick wit and lively music along the East Coast Trail between St. John’s and the Colony of Avalon at Ferryland. Baggage transfers can be arranged. Or take a hike in Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its fjords, scenery and, well, trails. Let expert guides take you to the best locations, or go on your own. And if shorter trails are better for you, lace up your boots and hike a segment of the Discovery Trail on the Bonavista Peninsula, or a scenic trail at Twillingate. Our trail experiences range from a stroll around a quiet pond to a multi-day wilderness expedition. Choose yours, go at your own pace and live the adventure.
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What do we feel like today? Hiking? Scuba? Whale watching? Maybe a day on the bay sea kayaking? Let’s consider each. Hiking: we could do part of the East Coast Trail, which can be quite strenuous, or take it a bit easier along an abandoned railway line or through an alpine meadow. Next up – scuba. We could dive to one of the few accessible sites in North America where German U-Boats sank Allied shipping, just off Bell Island, and then go looking for icebergs. Sea kayaking is another good way to see whales, or to explore the coast and maybe have a picnic on a pebble beach overseen by several million seabirds, and not another solitary human in sight. And you’re wondering where all this happens? Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province. We have 29,000 km of coastline, thousands of kilometres of hiking trails and snowmobile trails, and the northwest Atlantic Ocean that brings a triple treat of birds, bergs and whales to our shores. Check us out at http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/.
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The humble wild blueberry can stir the passions - and appetites - of the low-bush cognoscenti when it comes to defending their turf. True, they will say, the cultivated high-bush blueberry may be fatter and even easier to pick, but have you ever done a taste comparison? The low-bush is no low-life, that’s for sure. There’s no way its fat, watery cousin can match the low-bush for sheer, concentrated tastebud-popping power. It’s definitely a case where smaller is better, and better for you, too. But don’t take our word for it: ask your favourite nutriceutical scientist which has the most healthy stuff per berry, and the low bush wins, hands down.
And down is where scores of generations have reached to pluck the wild blue, either for an off-the-bush treat while walking on the barrens, or seriously piling them into tins and buckets in an all-day, all hands harvest on a cool September Saturday. When visiting the province, just about every store that carries jams and preserves will have a selection of jellies. And berries are so popular they even have their own festivals (see list). There are also speciality shops, like Bidgoods (http://www.bidgoods.ca/) on Route 10 in St. John’s and producers, like the Dark Tickle Company (http://www.darktickle.com/) in St. Lunaire-Griquet on Route 430, that carry preserves made from blue and other local wild berries. Several wineries produce beverages made from local berries. The best known is probably Rodrigues Markland Cottage Winery (http://www.rodrigueswinery.com/) who have expanded from their original blueberry wine to lingonberry (patridgeberry), cloudberry (bakeapple), strawberry and other exotic wines. Notre Dame Wines (http://www.weilwinery.com/) also offers a good selection of berry wines, including such exotics are Black Crowberry, Rhubarb and Dogberry.
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Woe the man who couldn’t build a proper root cellar. This basic adaptation to winter preserved food and was crucial in fending off scurvy or starvation for generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. A root cellar, quite simply, was underground storage that protected food from frost in winter and heat in summer. Root crops - potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, and beets - a few leafy vegetables like hardy cabbage, plus cooked eggs, flour, molasses, tea, smoked meat and fish, salted beef in brine, salt fish, sea birds and anything else the family caught or bought could be stored for several months or longer.
Some people dug them under their houses, but more effective were those dug or built away from the dwelling where the temperature was constant, and close enough to keep an eye on. The side of a small hill or a man-made mound covering an excavated hole was typical. In a good root cellar you could see the frost line on the walls, and know that everything stored below that line wouldn’t freeze. Anything that required cool temperatures to preserve it could be stored here, often in sawdust, sand or barrels - including home-made cider or wine. In summer, the walls kept the heat out and preserved milk, cheese, eggs and butter.
The cellar had to be waterproof, animal proof, and people proof. Typically, the mound-type cellars were accessed by a small hatch, protected by a small wooden cover or house, while a door was used for the hillside style. Stone, large timbers - and even in some cases steel rails - provided structural support, and some later models had concrete walls. The floors were usually left bare so that humidity from the soil would prevent crops from shrivelling. Probably the best place to see root cellars in the province is Elliston (www.rootcellars.com), which has 135 root cellars, some of them 200 years old, and a population of only about 400 people.
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BRIGUS BLUEBERRY FESTIVAL: Aug 9 - 12
A fun-filled weekend for all ages. Folk festival, cash bar, parade, pie eating contest,Missed Pageant, craft tables, baked goods, traditional food, moose burgers, games of chance, adult dances. 3-foot blueberry pie on display. Fireworks Sunday night. Newfie night, walking tours of Brigus and Ecumenical Service. Location: Brigus, Route 60 Tel: (709) 528 3201 / (709) 528 4521 Fax: (709) 528 3201 Web: www.brigus.net/blue.htm
EXPLOITS VALLEY SALMON FESTIVAL: Jul 19 – 23
Newfoundland's premier outdoor concert, a craft fair, stadium dances, salmon dinner, and Newfie Night. One of the Top 100 events in North America, Salmon Festival is truly a "Small Wonder." Continues to be a "Must See" for tourists and locals alike. Location: Centennial Field, Grand Falls-Windsor, Route 1 Tel: (709) 489 0407 / (709) 489 0483 Fax: (709) 489 0465 Web: www.salmonfestival.com
HUMBER VALLEY STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL: Jul 20-22
Ever seen a 63-foot-long strawberry shortcake? The folks of Deer Lake, Steady Brook, Pasadena, Cormack and Howley go ga-ga for strawberries every summer. And who can blame them? After all the other activities, games and contests, there’s nothing quit like a strawberry eating contest to tide you over until supper. Location: Humber Valley, Routes 1, 401, 422, Tel: 709-635-4436, Fax: 709-635-5103 Email: glced@nf.aibn.com Web: http://www.town.deerlake.nf.ca/
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Crafts often conjure up an image of granny sitting by the fire knitting mitts for the youngsters. But that’s just one image, and the crafts of Newfoundland and Labrador offer a much broader and deeper look into the culture, often with a modern twist.
Some of the most traditional and popular craft attractions are tea dolls made by the native peoples of Labrador. The ancestors of present-day aboriginals moved with the seasons, and children were expected to help carry the family’s possessions. A tea doll was both a toy and a carrying space for light-weight dried herbs. You’ll find them at many Labrador craft stores, and also at stores that carry native crafts.
A more modern aboriginal craft favourite is soapstone carving. Depicting many historical and cultural motifs, with an emphasis on animals in many cases, these carvings have wowed collectors from around the world. Again, they are found mainly in Labrador craft outlets, and in some stores on the Island of Newfoundland
St. John’s, the provincial capital, has many fine craft shops, and here you’ll find everything from the proverbial mittens to pottery, clothing, photography, teddy bears, sculpture and things best described as installations - decorative artistic pieces for the home, ranging from pewter to batik to found objects.
But it’s in the smaller communities - the outports - where you’ll find hand-made traditional furniture, candles, soaps, knitwear, woodwork, brooms and what have you, mainly made using traditional materials with designs handed down the generations.
2007 is Year of the Craft
This is Year of the Craft in Canada, and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador is staging a series of special events as our contribution to Canada’s craft mosaic.
The Craft Council Shop on Duckworth Street in St. John’s will, of course, be a central focus throughout the year, hosting a number of exhibitions.
Three exhibits from May 6 – June 15 offer displays on three very different – and unusual – topics. Small Skirmishes and Outright War explores the notions of both real and imagined battles fought in Newfoundland gardens. Dragons of the Avalon is a display of clay works inspired by dragon mythology. And ARTifacts is an exhibit of craft inspired by archaeology.
The Skerwink Quilters Exhibition featuring the works of quilters from Port Rexton and Trinity East will be held at Lester Garland House in Trinity over the summer. Trinity hosts a summer theatre festival and is one of the top tourist attractions in the province. Quilts like those in the exhibit are featured on the cover of Lost and Found – 2007 Traveller’s Guide to Newfoundland & Labrador.
For more information on craft events being held in 2007, consult the Craft Council’s website at http://www.craftcouncil.nl.ca/.
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Newfoundland and Labrador has a lot of different things that families like to see and do, everything from viewing insects to meeting Vikings to sitting in a pilot’s seat. And if you’re looking for a sandy beach to build sand castles or just relax, there are plenty of those, too.
Newfoundland Insectarium, in Reidville on Route 430, just outside Deer Lake, features live and preserved insects, and a butterfly house, so this could be either a Yuck, gross place or Hey, cool. If it’s a rainy day, why not head for the pool? It’s a great break and a refresher for the whole family, and a sure favourite is the pool at Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO Wold Heritage Site. The parents can soak in the huge hot tub while the kids swim.
Vikings have a scary reputation, but they were also great explorers, sailors and adventurers. Learn about them, and stand where they founded the first European settlement in North America 1,000 years ago at L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, our second World Heritage Site. After that, hop over to Norstead, an imaginary 11th-century Viking port of trade 2 km away. Both are on Route 436 near the northern tip of the Island of Newfoundland
The North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander, on Route 1 is where you’ll find a DC3. Climb in and grab the controls of this classic airplane. Let the kids wait their turn! From the skies, you can move back in time to the 19th century at the Green Family Forge in Trinity on Route 239. This place has all the tools the local blacksmith used to make everything from horseshoes to boat hooks. All it needs to get going is a fire and someone to work the bellows. Nearby in New Bonaventure is the set used in filming the TV miniseries Random Passagefeature film The Shipping News were also filmed in this area of the province.
And what family vacation would be complete without a trip to the zoo? In this case, it’s Salmonier Nature Park on Route 90 where animals and birds usually found only in the wilderness are housed in remarkably natural surroundings. Moose, caribou, beaver, hares - even bats - are found here.
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People looking for sandy beaches in Newfoundland and Labrador should be sent to Bellevue. Not the famous hospital, but the park and beach in Trinity Bay. A quiet, shallow inner pool where toddlers can splash around drains off through the main beach on the windward side where visitors should keep an eye out for Semi-Palminated Plovers and other shorebirds.
Canada’s easternmost province is blessed with sandy beaches, and pebble beaches that are much more common. So, when you come upon a place like Windmill Bight near Lumsden take the time to get out and beach-comb. This is a quarter-mile wide strip of brown-sugar sand, and when the warm wind blows off the back-shore dunes to the sea, there’s no place you’d rather be.
Eastport has some of the best beaches in the province. There are two - at Eastport North and Sandy Cove - that are a little less well-known, and a bit more secluded than the main beach. This is sand-castle land. Just bring your own bucket. There’s lots of space to spread your blanket. Gros Morne National Park has two excellent sandy beaches, one at the mouth of the fjord at Western Brook Pond, and the other a bit further north at Cow Head, where the beach is right next to the campground.
On the south coast of Newfoundland, Sandbanks Provincial Park is an undiscovered gem. Keep an eye out for migrating birds.
In Conception Bay, two sandy beaches are great favourites: Salmon Cove Sands and Northern Bay Sands. Back in the 1980s Northern Bay Sands was judged - only somewhat tongue in cheek - the best beach in Canada in a televised beach-off. There are no crowds to disturb your day.
On the Burin Peninsula, Golden Sands Park just west of Marystown is the spot to go. It has a water slide and other water-based recreation. Unlike the others, Golden Sands is a freshwater beach.
In Labrador the Wonderstrands is a 20-mile long beach near Sandwich Bay. It was named by the Vikings a thousand years ago, and no one’s come up with a better one. The beach at North West River, just 34 km from Happy Valley-Goose Bay is much easier to access, and is the site of the annual Beach Festival held the last weekend in July.
Belleuve Beach Park Route 201, Avalon Peninsula.
Windmill Bight, 5 km west of Lumsden, Route 330.
Eastport Beaches, Route 310 at Eastport and Sandy Cove.
Broom Point, Gros Morne National Park, Route 430, Where the famous Western Brook Pond fjord flows to the sea.
Shallow Bay, Gros Morne National Park at Cow Head, Route 430.
Sandbanks Provincial Park, Route 480, at Burgeo.
Salmon Cove Sands, Route 70, north of Carbonear, Avalon Peninsula.
Northern Bay Sands, Route 70, north of Carbonear, Avalon Peninsula.
Golden Sands Amusement Park, Route 222, just west of Marystown, Burin Peninsula.
North West River Beach, Labrador, Route 520 at North West River.
Wonderstrands, Sandwich Bay, Labrador, accessible by boat from Cartwright, Route 510.
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The Wilds Golf Course is appropriately named, as anyone who’s played it can attest. Located on Route 90 about 40 minutes drive west of St. John’s, the course is wonderfully situated amongst typical Newfoundland habitat: lots of trees, a few rivers, a few places where the rare plants are out of bounds, lots of birds and even the occasional moose. Ask at the clubhouse about course rules for this mobile hazard. The Wilds has a hotel and cottages on site, so it’s a great place to spend the weekend.
A course with two salmon rivers? That would be Terra Nova Golf Resort on the doorstep of Terra Nova National Park. If you hit you ball into the drink and can’t find it, you can always claim a salmon took it! There’s a challenging 9-hole course, as well as the traditional 18 holer. There’s a hotel on site, and with the park nearby, there are lots of active things to do every day.
The province has 20 golf courses, with more under construction. Among the more unusual is Brookside at Hatchet Cove, where a retired fisherman cleared the site by hand. Now that’s a dedicated golfer.
One of the prettiest courses is St. Andrews Na Creige in the Codroy Valley of Western Newfoundland, where mountains provide the backdrop.
The courses usually open in May - maybe a bit later in Labrador - and go till the snow flies.
For more information on our courses, check out www.golfnewfoundland.ca or www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/OutdoorAdventures/Golfing.aspx.
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Black humour is the silver lining of Newfoundland and Labrador’s colonial history. Those early European settlers were the original survivors. Pirates, unpredictable weather, buccaneers disguised as governors, hard labour, wars, privation - all easy targets for the wits and wags who laughed and struggled onward through the fog of mercantile exploitation and inept colonial administration. Laughing in the face of danger may seem unseemly, but when the alternative is tears, you might as well laugh. And that’s been our motto ever since.
That tradition lives on in the narrow lanes of Trinity, Trinity Bay, where each summer actors with Rising Tide Theatre take history to the people with the New Founde Lande Trinity Pageant. It’s really a walking tour of the historic village, but it’s also a trip through time, with skits depicting various eras performed on a wharf, in a meeting house, on the beach, and in a church, among other locales. Tag along for an hour and meet some of the colourful characters from our history, and join in the grande finale - the singing of the Ode to Newfoundland in St. Paul’s Church.
The pageant is performed several times a week from mid-June to mid-October. If you arrive on an off day, there are indoor performances of the current season’s crop of plays at the new theatre. Many of these works have sprung from the hearts and minds of local playwrights. There are also dinner theatre productions, plays for kids, and maybe a premiere of a new work.
But the biggest star of all is the town. Only 300 people live here, but they have more than their fair share of excellently preserved and restored traditional architecture, historic sites, outstanding scenery and that indescribable feel of being in the centre of something magical. The surrounding area, Trinity Bight, has been the pretty backdrop for the feature film The Shipping News and the TV mini-series Random Passage.
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