Twillingate - the Islands

We are just leaving Twillingate after spending 2 nights here. It is one of our favourite villages so far. Our B&B was very nice. Wavey and Wins, our hosts at Hillside B&B, were most gracious and helpful. The scenery here is beautiful. The area is made up of a series of islands that were isolated from one another until the 60’s and 70’s when causeways and bridges connected them. They are fishing villages and used to depend on cod until the moratorium in 1992. Now they fish for snow crab and shrimp and tourists! Prime Berth is a tourist attraction that we really enjoyed and found so interesting. The owner, David Boyd and his partner Bill spent hours with us demonstrating how to split cod and discussed the way fishing has changed. They are from the area and David moved century old buildings to the site and has filled them with artifacts from the past. It was all entertaining and so informative.

We hiked up near the lighthouse and had a chance to see some whales out in the ocean. It was pretty amazing. We had not taken another tour boat ride but when we saw the whales we kind of wished we had. There are restaurants, art galleries and museums that are very worthwhile. There was a dinner theatre we attended, called All Around the Circle, the first night we arrived. It was very hokey but fun. It is put on 6 nights a week in the summer and the performers cook and serve the meal and then put on skits and play music and sing. They have been doing this for 28 years! The community centre is packed almost every night. There were other performances available in the town but we didn’t attend any others.

Before we arrived in Twillingate, we visited the Beothuk Interpretation Centre in Boyd's Cove. After reading River Thieves by Michael Crummey last year with my book club I became acquainted with the Beothuk Natives of Newfoundland, or the Red Indians. The small centre is located at one of the Beothuk settlements. The last known Beothuk tribeswoman died in 1829. It is tragic little known group of native people. It was well worth the stop.

We are on our way to Witless Bay on the Avalon Peninsula.