Last we left off, Alizee and Victor had joined our motley crew, having had the (mis?)fortune of having Charlotte stop to pick them up.
Given that they had a few days before picking up their hire car (the outrageous cost of which I can only shudder at still), and given both Charlotte’s and Vanastasia’s propensities for dawdling, we made our leisurely way along Newfoundland’s main highway, before Heidi suggested a detour North-West to check out the views near Cape Saint George.
By way of context, Heidi and Alex are old school travellers – paper maps, guidebooks etc, and a little more organised than my seat of the pants impulse exploring. In this case Heidi had already read about some of the views around the area so her suggestion was not resisted at all by the three of us who had no idea waht was in the area.
The Coastal drive was amazing – stunning views, beautiful weather (for the main). Somehow none of us took too many photos – maybe we were simply too mesmerised.
We stopped at one harbour where Alizee (who always carries a fishing rod with her) tried her hand at making her determined dream of catching a fish here come to fruition, to no avail, before one of the locals started chatting to us and suggested a spot a little further down the road – a pier that stretch a couple of hundred metres out into the bay and that we could drive the vans out on.
We duly took that advice, where Alizee once again tried her hand. Again no luck, though to be fair none of the locals fishing off the same pier outdid her. Well with one exception (of sorts). The local guy who we met earlier and who had suggested this pier to us, duly turned up himself with small family in tow. He managed to keep catching some very small undersized fishies, which of itself does not put Alizee to shame. However the method of returning them, whilst a little disturbing on reflection, was hilarious at the time.
His daughter, who was perhaps 4, quickly claimed the responsibility of returning the marine creatures to their home. She did this by (a) unhooking them – clearly she’d seen a rod and hook or two in her time, (b) taking said fish, (c) ratcheting back her right arm and (finally) propelling the fish a good 10- 15 metres off the pier and back to safety in a technique that gave more than a nod to both the javelin and discus movements.
The result was a flat spin by each poor little Nemo, somewhat like a helicopter rotor, before it hit the water with a thwop that should have been reserved for a shot put landing. Our little swimmer would then slowly sink, stunned for a few seconds, before ultimately shaking itself back to its senses and swimming away.
I’d love to see Pixar animate the story of when one of these little guys got home to mum and dad -“you’ll never believe what happened today – the gods picked me up today on their magic zipline and then sent me home on a helicopter!” Sure son!
With the weather starting to turn, and the clock heading from afternoon to evening it was time to find a spot for the night. With the Frenchies along, there was not enough space for all of us in the vans, so we found a campsite instead. Alizee and Victor had brought a tent, expecting to sleep in it at least a couple of nights so they were sorted.
Or at least potentially so. Further discussion revealed that the tent was last used 10 years ago, Alizee had just pulled it out of the garage and given it to Victor to bring over when he joined her (she had spent a little while in Canada before hand and didn’t want to carry it everywhere). Neither Alizee or Victor had opened the tent to check it’s condition, or simply to see if all the rods and pieces were there! Ah the blissful ignorance of youth.
So when we arrived at our campsite we enquired about a cabin for the two of them, which was only $10 (or maybe $20) on top of the charge for our sites. With the choice of pitching a dubious tent first night out in the semi-darkness, or shelling out for a cabin, well you can guess which way that decision fell.
Alex set to building the fire, Heidi and I started dinner (chilli from me and pasta from Heidi), whilst we all grabbed a drink and started chatting.
Dinner was served to much acclaim, with everyone telling me the chilli was the best that they had ever had (including Victor, which is kudos a plenty) and we fell into natural groups for after dinner chat – Victor and I gas-bagging about cooking and food, Alizee (the architecture student) and Alex (a builder) showing pictures of buildings, designs and generally lost in engineering/builder/design land, with Heidi as the earth mother type overseeing us all and joining in at her leisure.
it was a brilliant night and start to our shared time together. Eventually the wine ran low and we all headed off to sleep. What will tomorrow bring?
