Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MORE SURPRISES
•
The
Titanic
sank 375 miles southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, where it
still lies 12,900 feet below sea level. Robert Ballard discovered her remains
in 1985.
•
There are more moose than people in Newfoundland.
•
Geologists from around the world come to study the unusual formations in
Gros Morne National Park. Millions of years of tectonic plate movement
have created an otherworldly landscape that includes the bizarre and barren
Tablelands. The park also has exotic rare orchids.
•
Besides its capital St. John's, established on the island's east coast in 1583,
Newfoundland is made up of tiny far-flung fishing villages. Two of the in-
terestingly named ones are Heart's Desire and Heart's Content.
•
Newfies like to host “kitchen parties.” And the quintessential
scoff
(that's
Newfie for meal) is a Jigg's Dinner. Whether the name comes from the
lively dance or the method used to catch the local cod (i.e., to “jigg” by
jerking up quickly on a line), the feast involves salted beef that has been
soaked overnight, yellow split peas in a muslin bag, potatoes, turnips, and
carrots, all cooked in a big pot.
•
The Vikings named Newfoundland “Vinland” because they observed it was
covered with “little grapes.” It turns out the “grapes” were actually ber-
ries—blueberries, cranberries, partridgeberries, bakeapples, currants, dew-
berries, and brambleberries usually ripen to perfection here in August.
Even though the resort offers plush accommodations, the people at the Humber Valley
Resort, like most Newfies, as they call themselves, are friendly and down-to-earth, not to
mention fiercely independent and proud. The Newfoundlanders were the last to join Canada
(in 1949), have their own time zone (1.5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time), and even
have their own dialectical dictionary with 5,000 entries, mostly related to fishing, scenery,
and weather. And they're charmingly insistent about the correct pronunciation of their be-
loved homeland. “Newfoundland rhymes with understand,” they're quick to point out.
Rates at the Humber Valley Resort start at $175 per person ($206 Canadian) off-season,
with four-person occupancy in a three-bedroom chalet per night; and go up to $875 ($1,010
Canadian) for the six-bedroom version.
