A Newfoundland Tradition

November 5, Guy Fawkes Night, aka Bonfire Night, is a long standing tradition in Newfoundland that seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. When I was a kid, my friends and I would spend weeks preparing for Bonfire Night, collecting tires, trees, and if we were lucky, and old dory or speedboat.....anything that would burn, for Bonfire Night. Nowadays it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, but me and my neighbours are trying to keep the tradition alive. Although we don't burn tires anymore :-)

Dark Evenings

Day light savings time has come and gone, so now when I get home from work in the evening at 5pm, darkness has set in. So this past friday, to celebrate my last evening of daylight I went for a short paddle around the pond behind my house. Now I'm left to paddling on the weekends, and given the Newfoundland weather, those will probably be few and far between until spring, especially given my limited skill set.

Two Rivers, One Day

On Saturday myself, Trent and his black Lab, Rooster paddled two small rivers on the Avalon. In the morning we paddled part of the Salmonier River and in the afternoon we paddled part of the Hodge River, near Whitbourne. Its been constantly raining for the past 3 weeks, so these small rivers, which are normally too shallow to go down in a canoe, had plenty of water for a fun ride.

On the Salmonier River, we departed from behind The Wilds golf course, and paddled as far as the first bridge in St Catherines, about 7-8kms. This took us about 2 hrs, with a short break to stretch our legs and play fetch with Rooster.

Class "-1" rapids :-)

Rooster play fetch

Condemned bridge in St Catherines

On the Hodge River, we left from the bridge in Markland and paddled to the second bridge that crosses the river, about 5.5 kms, which took us about 2.5 hrs, including a lunch stop and a 1/2 km portage back to the car from the bridge.

Its amazing what dogs can haul out of a river

Me and Rooster

Rooster fetches a big stick

Juniper looks beautiful in the fall

Getting ready to portage

En Route to the Jeep

White Water Rafting, Exploits River

Back in August, my wife and I did a whitewater rafting trip on the Exploits River in central Newfoundland. Joining us were two other couples Steve and Tara, and Chad and Kathy.

We spent the weekend at Riverfront Chalets owned by Paul and Joy Rose (www.riverfrontchalets.com), who also run the rafting tours (www.raftingnewfoundland.com) The chalets are beautiful, and also have an outdoor hot tub. What an amazing time we had! Below are some of the pictures, and there are also some videos on my youtube channel, if anyone is interested in taking a look.

Our group

Swimming in the Badger Chute. You can jump in the rapid, and let the eddy give you a free right right back to where you jumped in. It was a lot of fun

Me jumping in

Angie goes for a ride

Big Splash!!!!

Almost tipping over

Whoops, looks like we lost Steve

Angie and Chad loving it

Angie and Tara riding the bull

"which way should we go?"

A great healthy lunch!

Team Blue-Young

When we tipped our raft over, I think I got Chad's shoulder in the face!

Badger Chute

Paul and Mike size up the chute

One of our guides, Mike did a great fire-spinning performance that night

Riverfront Chalets

Moose in Gros Morne National Park

A few pics of a cow and a calf on the side of the highway in Gros Morne a few weeks ago. The little guy seemed to be very annoyed from the flies and was splashing around in the water.

Avalon Wilderness Reserve

On Saturday I hiked from the TCH overland to the edge of the wilderness reserve, had a lunch, picked some blue berries and partridge berries, then hiked back. Altogether it was about 5.5 hrs of walking. I saw two moose, but before I could get my camera out, they were gone out of sight. The landscape reminds me of where I grew up, on the southwest coast of the island.

Here is a pic of me looking out from the top of Inside Hawkes Hill, overlooking the Avalon Wilderness Reserve. You can really see how the glaciers carved out Newfoundland in this area.



Rock over London, Rock on Chicago

Paddling in Venice, Italy

(Rialto Bridge and gondola. Photo: René Seindal)

Ok, so it took me a while to get these pics up, but here they are.

During our honeymoon, we visited Venice, Italy, where we took a kayaking tour of the canals with René Seindal of Venice Kayak (www.venicekayak.com).

René was a fantastic guide, that really knows the history of the region, and hearing these stories was fascinating. It was also nice to know that he knew the rules of the "road" in the busy waterways. I was amazed at the amount of boat traffic. Coming from a small fishing village in Newfoundland, where there is next to no boat traffic, only the scatter fishing boat, it was crazy to see all these ferries, gondolas, personal boats, water taxis, etc.... It seemed like chaos, but when i thought about it, they were much like any city street; busy with traffic, but somewhat organized if the drivers know what they are doing.

If you ever end up in this part of the world, it is well worth your while to do this. It is truly a unique way to see the city. It gets you away from the crowded piazza's and streets, and is something different than the traditional gondolas.

Piazza San Marco, Campanile (bell tower) and Doges Palace. (photo: René Seindal)

This one really shows the amount of traffic (photo: René Seindal)

Parking in Venice :-)

Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

On the Grand Canal

"It was a fine day for hanging clothes"

Me and Rene

Parking the kayaks for a coffee break

The shade here was really nice

Behind Angie is the Venice Cemetary. We learned that even the hearses are boats here!

It was an interesting setup to get into and out of our kayaks, but Rene came up with a workable solution, a floating beach and a ladder. It seemed a bit dodgy at first, but it works quite effectively.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago