Conche, Continues
Two more days in Conche gives us time to meet more of the locals, update the blog and perform light boat maintenance. We are waiting for the fog and the rain to lift so we can head to our next destination in comfort.
Sitting in the grocery store’s cafe (the only wifi in town) gives us lots of opportunity to meet people as they come in for groceries, ice cream or coffee. “Where do you belong?” Is the usual question. We, of course, are happy to share our story of where we live, where we have boated from and where we are headed to next. (We usually get some desired local knowledge!) We have lunch and coffee while we make good use of the internet.
Daisy takes time to chat, when she isn’t serving customers. She tells us about the turkey dinner she prepared before coming to work that day, for her family and dinner guests, totalling 10 people. Turkey, salt beef, potatoes, carrots, beet greens, pease pudding and bread pudding (like our traditional stuffing, but not quite). The cloudberry cheesecake really has me hoping she has room for two more!
We settle for the fresh cod gifted to us today.
Saturday night brings the sounds of accordion and guitar across the bay. We can see the gentlemen sitting on the deck of a home, playing and singing, a small campfire going near the shore. We consider wandering closer to take in the little concert, but it is over and they have disappeared into the house. This was a lovely treat, unlike the fireworks that woke us at 4:00 am the same night
Tuesday brings sunshine, late in the morning, but the fog continues to linger around the harbour. We pack our backpack with all of the usual supplies and head for the hills.
The walk takes us past the Outport Garden where potatoes were grown until 1972. These gardens were important to the food sustainability for outport residents during the longer winter months but often the flat, fertile terrain was difficult to find as the homes were built along the rocky shores near to the fishing grounds.
Root vegetables were the easiest to grow and, ultimately, keep over the winter months: potatoes, turnip, carrots and cabbage. Capelin was used for fertilizer as soon as the first sprouts appeared.
The crash site of the plane from 1942 is easy to spot, so we wonder over for a closer look.
The trail is mostly gravel but also long, wet grass. Our pant legs and boots are quite wet but we carry on in search of the lookout. We find it and of course immediately go into whale look-out mode. The view of the Atlantic Ocean, Groais and Bell Islands is breathtaking….and so very vast.
The fog has left the harbour as we start our descent so we stop in at the store to say our good-byes and head to the boat to begin our departure routine. Warm clothes, InReach in place, radio and instruments activated, lines and fenders off.
Englee, here we come!
