Newfoundland 1992

This was the year when a lot of icebergs drifted south in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This is where the St. Lawrence River flows into the North Atlantic Ocean. Ocean currents and wind pushed the massive ice masses close to the shore and into the small harbours. More about icebergs later.
On July 2nd 1992, the government announced a moratorium on cod fishing. Almost everybody in Newfoundland was affected in one way or another. Over 5% of the population lost their job. We saw the harbours with all the fishing boats. Some of the same boats today carry tourists out to get a closeup on icebergs, whales and islands where the puffins live.
We didn't see whales, the sea was too rough. When we started the trip, we had a few ideas where to go, but eventually ran out of time. We spent all the time on the west coast of the island, including a short trip to Red Bay, Labrador. We knew that we had to come back to visit St. John's. Now after 30 years, we will go back this summer.

Our car at the time was an Optima. The trailer was a necessity to fit all the camping gear. We brought the tent with us, but the bed & breakfast places were too inviting to ignore and we indulged in the hospitality.
There is good visitor information about Newfoundland available. Our story here is not a travel guide, it is about Newfoundland from 30 year ago.

Lighthouse
Time to start with the Point Riche Lighthouse. We didn't keep any records of the places we visited. Thanks mainly to Wikipedia, we can find and verify almost all the information and places. The lighthouse is maintained by the Port au Choix National Historic Site.

When the Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse was erected in 1889. The residents of Bonne Bay contributed a pint of oil each week to help fuel the light. As the story goes, the light was maintained with the promise 'You may be sure, it will always be burning, for I have my three boys on the banks.'

Exploring
It was time to hunt for treasures, shells, rocks and gold coins. We had no problems finding the shells and rocks, but failed with the valuable artifacts. The lobster trap did awaken some interest, the logistics did not.

Hiking in Newfoundland is where you find these special places. You may stop to take a picture, relax and have lunch or simply explore the place.

A vegetable garden along the road, an interesting shoreline or a harbour. No matter where we turned, we were captivated by Newfoundland. Reading on the tourism website, they say "There may be times when you want to get lost in this land". That happened so many times to us.

Towns on the west coast
We didn't keep a record of where we stopped and took pictures. The images from these towns are likely from the west coast of Newfoundland. We did however go to Labrador and one of the images may have snuck in there.
If anyone knows these towns, please let us know and click Contact Us
We will be back this summer (June 2022) and try to find the same places again.

Icebergs
We were in awe watching the sunlight sparkle on the ice. Parts of some icebergs lit up in an intense blue. This blue ice is formed from the compression of pure snow that turns into glacial ice.
Pieces of ice broke off and floated to shore. Our daily task included crushing some of these pieces and fill our cooler. We were reading that this ice also makes good cubes for your beverage. We were on the cautious side and only used the arctic ice with Screech, the Newfoundland rum. This rum is an important ingredient for the Newfie Screech-In ceremony. When we visited in 1992, we missed this crucial tradition. If the beauty of the island doesn't call us back, becoming Honorary Newfoundlanders is second on the list.

Now 30 years later, we will revisit Newfoundland. Our old pictures will bring us back to the places we remember so fondly.

Scanning old slides
These images were shot with a Minolta SLR from the late 1970. My second Minolta camera. The slides have been stored for 30 years and they didn't age well. Unless the exposure was exactly right and the contrast range was within a limited range, the dark features of the image were lost.

The scanner is an HP flatbed scanner with a film/slide option in the lid. The software runs on Windows XT. This combination of old pictures, old scanner and old software took a lot of work to get some acceptable pictures.
The scanner at 600 dpi produced a ~2400 by ~1500 pixel image which was fixed with Corel Photo Shop Pro X9. Most of them were resized by 20% or 25% and the results are the pictures you see here.
To finish this project, we had to accept some flawed results. But keep in mind, our goal was to publish pictures of Newfoundland the way we enjoyed the island in 1992.