Mistaken Point and Festivals Weekend

This past weekend we went to a couple of festivals, and made a trip to Mistaken Point with Elizabeth's parents and aunt (who is visiting from Toronto), among other things! We had an eventful weekend and had the opportunity to take in a variety of activities. 

Walking back from Mistaken Point

Before we talk about the things we did over the weekend, we thought we'd mention that Regatta Day was held earlier on last week and we took part in the festivities. The Royal St. John's Regatta is the oldest organized sporting event in North America and is a holiday for most people who work in St. John's. It's held on the first Wednesday in August, but, as the holiday is weather-dependent, if the wind is too high then the event gets moved to Thursday, and if it is too windy on Thursday, it moves to Friday etc. So it can be tough to plan for!

Last Wednesday the Regatta went ahead and we spent the afternoon (with Rebecca and Lauren) playing games of chance, having drinks and snacks, and watching a few races. It was Luke's first Regatta Day, and it was a great day for it.

Then on the weekend, we went to the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival. It was even Elizabeth's first time there (although it is the second oldest continuously run folk festival in Canada), and it did not disappoint. First, we heard a few different people playing traditional Newfoundland music and then we went to the Francophone tent and listened to a harmonica quartet called D'Harmo. They were amazing! It's one of those things that you need to see live to fully appreciate, but we did buy their CD too.

Afterwards we went back to the main stage area and saw some more traditional "folky" performers. All in all, a great time!

We also went to Mistaken Point which is a Provincial Ecological Reserve, 2.5 hours from St. John's along the Southern Shore. Here visitors can find the fossils of the oldest complex life forms found anywhere on Earth; they are called Ediacara biota and lived 565 million years ago. Similar fossils can be found in Russia and Australia, but Mistaken Point is special due to the variety and uniqueness of species found here. 

The rocks of Mistaken Point once made up the sea floor of a deep ocean and at that time, Newfoundland was south of the equator, located between latitudes 40° and 65°.

These creatures wouldn't have had bones or shells, so normally they wouldn't have been preserved as fossils. But the imprints of the soft tissue organisms at Mistaken Point were preserved on the sea floor when they were suddenly buried by repeated volcanic ash-falls. As the volcanic ash layers contain zircon, geologists can accurately date the fossils. 

This is what they imagine the creatures would have looked like at the time (also note that they aren't thought to be plant-like as they would have been too deep in the ocean to receive sunlight):

Unfortunately, due to theft, vandalism, and erosion, people are not permitted to walk on the site with the largest number of fossils. At the moment, you have to have a tour guide accompany you to a smaller site - which is a 30 minute drive, followed by a 20 minute hike from the interpretation centre in Portugal Cove South. 

Before the tour initially departed the centre, we watched a 12 minute video and saw part of a cast which was made of the large surface containing fossils. That part was interesting, so it was a bit disappointing to go further to see the fossils and only be able to see them using binoculars to look down on a rock. Hopefully in the future they will find a way to allow more access to the public, especially if it is accepted as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

After our trip to Mistaken Point, we all went to The Curious Case of the Colony, a production by Shakespeare by the Sea, and then made our way downtown to get a taste of the St. John's Buskers Festival.

Here are some more pictures from our weekend!