Trinity Bight, Newfoundland

We have settled into a motel tonight as it is raining very lightly. Seemed a little overwhelming to orchestrate the sleep in the van thing when everything is wet.
What a great few days we have had! We reluctantly left St John's on Sunday morning as we had enjoyed so much of the city and the people. We had met a police officer and his wife on Signal Hill enjoying an early morning coffee. He gave us all sort of ideas about what to see, as well as telling us how things had changed for him in his work. From policing in the 80's what seemed like an old folks home, to the issuance of guns in '97, to the drugs and crime problems found in modern cities today. He also told us when he saw tourists trying to read a map and drive, he would pull them over, get them sorted out, set their radio to Newfie music and send them on their way. My kind of cop! The city is certainly not set out on a grid pattern, and we were finally able to get from downtown to our campsite without looking at a map...so time to move on.
We headed toward Trinity...an historic restored town on Trinity Bight. The scenery has been spectacular, just like on the ads. Small outports, winding roads, beautiful ocean views and great people. Every once in a while, you see the flag of the Republic of Newfoundland...pink, white and green. In Trinity, we went on a tour with a man who spends his summer telling tourists about the history of the place...fabulously interesting dialogue. He also gave the us the views of Newfoundlanders about some of the decisions related to the fishery and other issues...we could understand why there might be some move to be independent! politics and all that...
We drove very early this morning out to New Bonaventure and Old Bonaventure. These former fishing towns are reduced to about 20 to 30 people mostly over 70. Their time is limited for sure and major thinking needs to be done to figure out how to maintain some sort of presence in outlying areas. Seasonal tourism is not enough to keep even a few of these communities alive. There are lots of defunct towns on islands and outports already...They were abandoned in the 60's under a resettlement program and nature has already claimed them for its own. There were over 1000 outports in NFLD when fishing was done from rowboats and the fishers had to be close to the source.
Saw a great play last night at Trinity...Donna Butt, a famous newfie actor, did a one woman show set in the 50's kitchen of a widow doing her laundry in a ringer washer...sounds odd, but it was fabulous. Such insight into the old folks here whose families all have to move away.
Tomorrow Bonavista, hope to see more whales from the shore...it is amazing to be surrounded by such wildlife here.