Trip to Bell Island

Grüezi!

I'll start this blog off where I left the last blog--discussing the teacher from international marketing class that makes people cry during presentations.  So without further adieu, we had a test today in that class, which I believe went really well, but more importantly (I think), we got back our grades for the presentation that my group gave last Wednesday.  I'm not sure how this happened, but we got an 88!  Before turning in the papers and presenting, he made the entire class feel as though failing the test and paper was almost certain.  Well, an 88 is far from that. 

You see, in Canada, the grading system is different than in South Carolina.  Here, to get an A, one has to get anywhere from an 80 to 100.  To merely skim by with a passing grade in Canada (all that is required of me as an exchange student), I need to get above a 55.  Getting an 88 on a big assignment is a great way to assure that I bring home a "pass" to school back in Clemson.  Before I move on to Bell Island, I must say that I talked with this teacher that makes student's cry after class, and it turns out that he is a really nice guy.  I think that I am going to be helping him get a coffee business going in St. John's!

Bell Island.  What a beautiful place to visit on a Saturday.  At around 9:45 in the morning, I, along with my host family, picked up my friend Jan and went on a 20 minute drive to Portugal Cove.  As we arrived, the smell of the fishy, salty air hit my nostrils and coated my skin.  Looking into the harbor, I saw little boats pulling in with their morning catch, as well as the large ferry that would be taking us on a 20 minute journey over to this very small island called Bell Island.  While Jan and I waited to board the Ferry, we explored the port area and looked around at the houses built on the rocky hills of this quaint little city of Portugal Cove. 

 













"A traveler without observation is a bird without wings."

As we departed Portugal Cove and began the ferry trip to Bell Island, the horn of the ferry blew loudly, reminding me of my last great memory on a boat; I was a 17 year old in high school, about to pull into the port of Nassau Bahamas.  What an amazing time that cruise was.  There aren't many deals out there as good as that of a cruise, so go on one whenever you get a chance!  Anyways, the ferry ride was just short enough for me not to get seasick, and before I knew it, we had arrived.

Arrival at Bell Island--view of Portugal Cove from ferry

Our first stop after driving off of the ferry onto Bell Island was the #2 Mine.  As we drove around the island that is only 9 km in length and 3 km width, I realized very quickly that nothing there wasn't much on the island.  While driving to the mine, which was clear across this island, we passed about 50 houses, 1 restaurant, and a school.  Other than that, the island consists of open fields and windy roads...and a seemingly endless supply of Iron Ore.

Once we arrived in the museum, Jan and I walked around and waited for the tour to start.  Twenty minutes finally passed, and we were on our way, with about 20 other people, down the stairs and into the room where we would put on our hard hats and get a little briefing before heading into the underground mines.

The picture at the right is terrible, but I hope it gives some perspective.  The line that slants down to the bottom right corner of the frame is the main shoot of the mine.  If you look at the middle of the picture, about 2/3rds of the way up, you see can see the surface of the ocean with a little boat on it.  While this is only a very small portion of the vast city of underground mines, the deepest part of the mine goes 2 and a half miles below sea level.  They were literally under the ocean floor mining Iron Ore, which is unbelievable to me.

An off-shoot of the main aisle

The further we went under ground, the colder it got.  Aside from the vast size of the underground mines, by far the most interesting thing down there was the underground lake (for lack of better terms).  When we got to the farthest depths that we would go in the mine (the middle/main aisle of the mine was a consistent downhill slope), we arrived at a rope.  We stood there and talked, and because the lights cut off at that point, we could not see beyond the rope.  The tour guide proceeded to throw a rock into the dark area, which made a big splashing noise.  He then lit the dark area up with his flashlight and all we could see was water.  It was seriously like a lake underwater.  The water was not from the ocean, but fresh mineral water coming from the earth.  He said that they used to pump it out and drink it back in the day.  As for now, it has filled up and will be used as drinking water if they ever need it in the future.  There were miles and miles of this fresh water under there. So unbelievable.  Imagine swimming in this in complete darkness!


While this lake of mineral water blew my mind, after leaving the mine we got to go hike the island a little bit.  As I have said in a prior blog, I wish the videos would be better quality when I upload them to this site, but they're not, so I'm just going to show some pictures of the hike.  Words and pictures can't really describe the beauty, but here we go.  

The first view on our hike.  In awe of The Creator's creativity.

The sounds of the waves crashing below excite me.  I immediately want to find a way onto the small-rocky beach.

As we hiked further, we came to a place that allowed us to get almost down to sea level.  This was my favorite part of the hike.  The power and energy behind waves excites me more than almost anything in nature.  I love getting completely caught up in the moment.

There I am in red.  Arms raised up to the one who makes these moments possible.  God is so much bigger than we know...

Walking. Listening. Being.

Looking at Bell Island as we departed on the ferry.  

Well, I hope you enjoyed the blog today.  Bell Island was such a great time.  I don't think that I will be back any time soon, but I left my mark with a writing on the wall in Dick's Fish and Chips and have many great memories from a beautiful time on Bell Island. 

Thankful,

Benjamin