Cupids

We just spent two nights in Cupids and it was super. Everything went great: our camping location, the hospitable people we met and even the weather. We camped on a tiny spit of land between a protected harbour and the large bay. On our first night we visited with some people who live in St. John’s and have a summer home in Cupids. Don’t you just love the town names. We spent the evening sitting around a fireplace, had a few drinks and talked with a great group of folks. It is cod season at the moment and they offered to take Mike out in the early morning while I slept. This didn’t work out so well as instead of showing up between 7:30 and 8am they didn’t arrive until around 11am. At about 10am another couple from the town of Brigus nearby asked Mike if he wanted to join them. He did and spent three hours on their boat. It was the best weather day we have had in ages and the Atlantic was calm. Mike caught the first fish and Tony filleted it for him and Mike cooked it for our dinner. It was the first time he had ever caught, cooked and eaten a fish. While they were fishing I went for a glorious walk clambering up to a point at the very top of the tallest hill around. What a great view. Another gentleman that we met came by and brought us some flash frozen, vacuum packed cod fillets that he had caught one week ago. I talked to a man very heavily involved with the wild mushroom trade. If we had been staying another day he was going to pick and bring us a bowl full of golden chanterelle mushrooms but we left too soon. People here are just great. Our location was super also. Not only did we have water in front and behind us, we were in a small marina with boats and since it was a Sunday morning they were all being used. The boat launching ramp was right next to our RV and we could watch it from our chairs inside. Anyone involved with boating knows how much fun it is to watch people launch boats and even better, get them back on the trailers. It is also a great time to stop and talk to people. I have to say that we loved our couple of days in this area.
While Mike was out fishing I also spent time coming up with a plan which isn’t something we have done so far. I am very much afraid that my plan requires us to leave the island of Newfoundland a little earlier than we had intended. When we leave Newfoundland the ferry takes us to Cape Breton. I found out that Cape Breton has their annual Celtic Colours International Festival the entire second week of October. I would be really upset if we arrived a day or two after it ended which could easily happen. Many of the events for this festival are all sold out. There are concerts being held in churches and fire halls and various community centres around the island. There was also a free whale watching boat trip, step dancing lessons and a lot more. They might not have been our first choices but we have booked about 4 events around the southern portion of the island. Hopefully we will find time after the festival ends on October 15 to get to the north end and spend some time on the Cabot Trail. Weather might have some say in that.
This cuts our visit to the Avalon and St. John’s a little shorter than we had thought we would have. Leaving St. John’s for the ferry we have to double back past a large part of the island that we have already seen. This means that we will probably do our first few days of multiple hours of highway driving at that time. I am very glad that I have a desk and electricity that I can use while Mike is driving.
We will probably arrive in St. John’s either Monday night or Tuesday. I don’t know where we will be staying yet. I somehow doubt that we will be able to park just anywhere on the waterfront in the city like we have been doing across the island. Who knows, it might be Walmart time again.