Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Twillingate


This is Twillingate, where each spring a procession of thousands of sparkling icebergs carved from the northern glaciers of Greenland make their annual pilgrimage down the Labrador Current to a narrow stretch of water known as Iceberg Alley.

   Here you can get close and personal to these 10,000 year old frosty mammoths.  Twillingate Island is one of a series of islands that were connected to each other and the mainland by causeways in the 1960’s.

  This isolation has helped preserve old words and speech patterns that have eroded elsewhere.   Here, a drung is still a lane.


               It takes almost two years for these icebergs to get here from Greenland.




In another week the annual Twillingate Folk Festival will begin.  This year they are having a special event as part of it.

                                            It is called a “House Haul”.

Years ago houses were moved over the ice from one island to another and then hauled on land to a new location.

This old house was floated here from another island and will be hauled next to the town museum during the festival.

 It will be pulled on a rope over a hill to it’s new site by anyone who wants to help.

  It’s similar to a tug-O-war with a house on one end. Everyone repeats a chant and when they get to the word “Haul” they all pull on the rope.


                                   We visited their very pretty church.


This is one of the oldest wooden churches still in existence in Newfoundland.

 And found a wonderful night spot in a little bay with wild flowers and a nice iceberg view.

                                                This seal came for a visit.

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