Hazel Agami visits Newfoundland

Laid-back and its citizens are happy and hospitable

Newfoundland was discovered by Captain Cabot, a contemporary of Christopher Columbus, in 1497. He landed in Buonovista ('Oh, Happy Sight'). His ship, The Matthew, a 15^th Century Caravel, has been recreated as a tribute to the vessel which brought the first settlers from Devonshire and Somerset in England. It is a very elegant replica.

We found ourselves in St. John's, Newfoundland, on June 27. My first impression was of the size of everybody at the airport- tall burly men and large women. We were fetched from the windy airport by the owner of the bed & breakfast in a large car, and driven to her very large house on 150 acres of land in St. John's. The size of the rooms was staggering, they were beautifully furnished and full of floral decorations. Her husband was a farmer and they had five grown children all measuring at least 6ft tall. The eldest was 6.7ft. We had a delicious breakfast with homemade rhubarb and exotic berry jam.

Newfoundland is a large island with much wilderness. We went mainly for the whale-watching, one of the many attractions. The whales came right into the shore in great numbers, after the small fish. However, over-fishing by various countries outside the 200 mile limit has decreased the number of their prey and therefore the humpbacks were late in, and in much fewer numbers. Likewise the icebergs we had hoped to see coming down from the Arctic failed to appear due to the climatic changes.

Newfoundland has some of the largest bird colonies in the world, accessible to viewers by land or by sea. It is a mecca for nature lovers. Moose and caribou wander around various areas. Moose are not native to Newfoundland, but since being introduced have increased to great numbers, and many are shot for their meat. Warning notices are put up on heavily wooded roads, “Beware of Moose” as they can cause bad accidents in colliding with cars. We wanted to see them in the wild, but one dark night, returning from a late whale-watch across a peninsular, we barely averted such a collision, after our driver suddenly put the brakes on as one loomed in front of the car. I missed seeing the form as I was sitting at the back of the car, but I smelt it!

We had decided to see in detail the province of Avalon, the south-east corner of Newfoundland, rather than travel long distances to the western wilderness of Gros Morne Natural Park.

The people of Newfoundland are among the friendliest and most hospitable people I have ever come across. Most of our B & B hosts and hostesses were university-educated, very proud of their diplomas on their walls and very good conversationalists. The young people after finishing school do community work in Interpretation Centers or do nature research at beaver ponds, helping interested visitors before going on to university. The painted houses are made of wood, large and impressive, including their grounds. We saw a young couple having an old church converted into a house by the sea.

There is water everywhere, bays, coves, inlets and lakes, which are called ‘ponds’ if smaller than 35km in length. The main shopping centers are situated outside the communities, even in the capital, St. John's, which is very spread out. The villages, or rather the communities, it would seem, are dotted haphazardly around the bays and hillsides as if they have just been dropped down from above. Each of the communities is very close-knit and the people have great interest in their history and ancestry. Many of their Canadian accents are overlaid by the Irish or Western English accents of their forebears. Small museums abound, and every place offers a guest book to sign. My name and Israel are written all over Avalon.

St. John's is a lovely small town with its old houses painted every color of the spectrum. The harbor is nearly closed in with precipitous cliffs across the water, with Signal Hill dominating the view, its tower being the scene of Marconi’s first radio message sent to England. Historic places abound. There is a small Jewish community in St. John's, but the one synagogue was in the throes of alterations. We saw Magen David windows on two churches in our travels, but they may just be symbolic. We spent our last three nights at St. John's University. The accommodation was fine albeit a bit basic (no plug in the bath) but the canteen was scrumptious, cheap and there was a huge variety of food including as much ice cream as desired. Meals were large and homemade muffins and ice creams were irresistible everywhere we went. Cod fishing is carried on somewhat surreptitiously since the moratorium on fishing, but cod was available everywhere. There was rather too much fried food and a dearth of fresh vegetables.

We visited the bird colonies in a small harbor called Witless Bay. 

There are such lovely names in Newfoundland - Harbor Grace, Heart's Delight, Heart's Content, Angel Cove, Gooseberry Cove, to name a few. The two young boat owners took out their small boat about four times a day. The largest whales we saw were three fin whales, the next largest in size to the blue whale - up to 26 meters in length and weighing 80 tons. We were lucky to see them. One came up not far from the side of the boat where I was sitting and spouted ‘swoosh’ sounding like a steam engine. A mother humpback and calf turned up their tails, but I was disappointed not to see one breach, by heaving its huge body and white flukes out of the water. The bird colonies were a delight. Each type had its own ledge on the rocks, ranging from kittiwakes, mayor bills, puffins and guillemots. The puffins also make burrows on the grass where, each one is a proud householder guarding his or her eggs or babies, whilst hungry gulls stand close by waiting to snatch one. The guillemots are delightful - black and white with small wings that serve as fins. They dive under the water around the boat, swim to catch fish and shoot up at a distance in a flurry of bubbles. Their eggs are shaped so that they don’t roll off the ledges. Young Max, my nephew, stood in front of the ‘mike’ on the boat after we had done this trip a few times, and described the birds and their habits to the passengers.

On the Buonovista peninsular there is a lovely place called Trinity, very scenic and historic. Again we had a charming landlady who became our friend. I had my first really interesting conversation about Israel with a very pleasant, elegant lady, in the small museum she ran. On the following day we watched a theater group doing an historical pageant around the bay and hillside, in costume.

Another day we walked several kilometers through Salmoniere, a nature park in a beautiful forest for rehabilitating wounded animals, and saw snowy owls, bald eagles, a snow rabbit, an arctic fox and a moose, amongst others.

One evening, after a street festival in St. John's, we had been invited to a barbecue birthday party by a young university woman, owner of a pastry shop in St. John's, who shared a house with her flat-mate. We were greatly entertained by a group of 30 young people, and the young woman sat with me in the kitchen most of the time, whilst we exchanged information about our lives and spoke about Israel. She would like to come to Israel next year, after running a second marathon in Ireland!

After the last sail in the boat at Witless Bay, the crew presented me with a birthday cake, a bottle of French wine and home-smoked succulent slices of salmon. The weather was mainly wintry with a few warm days that produced nasty biting black fly. There followed a day’s driving 100km back to St. John's, in torrential rain.

In conclusion, Newfoundland is very laid-back, no traffic congestion or heat to fray the nerves, nor the problems we have here. The people are happy, relaxed and love their country and their fellow men.