Amélie hikes the East Coast Trail – DAY 34 – Doin’ Stuff Makin’ Stuff

CALVERT WHARF TO CASTLE HILL

Since we had a few hours to kill this afternoon, we decided to do a bit of the community link between the Cape Broyle Head Path and the Caplin Bay Path. Lucky for us, two fellow gammybirds (people from Witless Bay) were also sightseeing in Calvert, so we got a ride all the way to the wharf – this meant that we wouldn’t have to walk back to the car (thanks, guys!!!).

Amélie was in top form, which meant we were able to walk all the way from the Calvert wharf to Castle Hill.

FROM SÉB: When Amélie started to get a little bored, we played at inventing words. She laughed at the weirdest-sounding ones, and I quickly came to realize that certain real words sounded much funnier to her than the ones I was able to make up. Even funnier to her were ridiculous sentences:

“Des sales salopettes de saperlipopette dans la maisonette!”

Amélie was utterly delighted by the insults, expletives and picturesque vocables I could remember from Tintin’s Capitain Haddock. A few of the classics:

“Bande de Bachi-bouzouks!”
“Mille millions de mille sabords!”
“Jus de poubelle!”
“Espèce de mérinos mal peignés!”
“Tonnerre de Brest!”
“Espèce de porc-épic mal embouché!”
“Amiral de bateau-lavoir!”
“Astronaute d’eau douce!”

Essentially, Haddock’s technique involves selecting a target and identifying a trait that’s common (but only very tangentially so) to both this target and to some other thing. Some of these are worth looking up. Interestingly enough, there’s an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to Captain Haddock’s “picturesque vocables”! I can’t wait until our girls are old enough to read and appreciate Hergé’s Tintin!

Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries were welcome finds – especially for Évangéline, who kept asking for more.

The views from Calvert and Castle Hill are definitely amongst the best on the trail – beautiful rolling hills, cliffs, rocky islands, and coves.