Wednesday, - August 15, 2007

Today was a gorgeous day, what a bonus. We headed out for Fortune Harbour this morning for our Mussel Bound Tour and gave ourselves plenty of time to get there. We toured around Botwood on the way. It is a pretty little town on the Bay of Exploits and then to Fortune Harbour. There were a couple of small villages, some nice scenery, but not much else and the road was a bit rough in spots, but otherwise, not bad. We got to Fortune Harbour and drove around looking for some place to have lunch, and not finding anything we went to where the tour was and lo and behold it was a B & B and when we walked in it smelled wonderful – homemade soup. It turns out that not only is it a B & B but the woman who runs it also caters to tour groups coming for the Mussel Tour, so we were able to get a lunch of really good homemade beef soup and a raisin tea biscuit.

It turned out that we were the only people there for the tour today so we got wonderful attention and could ask lots of questions – hope we didn’t drive Captain Ed and First Mate Chris crazy! We toured the bay then went out over Little Tickle into the Atlantic. Because it was so calm we went out in the ocean a bit and got a chance to try jigging for cod – unfortunately the cod weren’t as co-operative as we would have liked and we didn’t even get a bite!

We then returned to the harbour and toured the area where they harvest the mussels, and got a lesson on mussel aquaculture. We were told that because the water is so cold there it takes about 2-1/2 years from the time they start the mussels growing on the ropes until the time they can be harvested. Chris said that around P.E.I. it only takes about 1-1/2 years, the reason being that the water is much warmer and they grow faster. However, because of the warmer water, the mussels are not as clean and require a cleaning process before they can be sold.

We docked at Fairy Hill and walked up the hill (approx. 130 steps to the top) for a wonderful view of the bay. Chris walked up with us, and when we got back to the boat Ed had a pot of mussels steamed and ready to eat. Man, were they good!!! John and I then got ‘screeched in’ (an age-old ritual complete with tests and, finally, a libation that makes us honourary ‘Newfies’) after which Ed played a couple of tunes on the accordion and then on the way back to the main dock Ed played some real nice Newfoundland songs on the guitar as well as singing them – wonderful.

This tour is not very well advertised, we only found it by reading itineraries for a few caravans and seeing that they were doing it, which is a real shame as it is a great tour and very interesting. Anyone coming this way should check out www.musselbound.com and if at all possible take the tour – it leaves from Fortune Harbour daily at 2 p.m. and the cost is $40/person. Many thanks Ed and Chris for a wonderful afternoon!