North by Northeast

  The first full day on the Avalon peninsula began with a boat tour in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve south of St. John’s. The peninsula is shaped more or less like an “H” with four smaller peninsula’s extending north/south off the trunk. Witless Bay is located about halfway down the eastern side of the H and includes four islands that sit just offshore and serve as breeding colonies for almost a million seabirds during the active summer season. The Elliston puffin colony is large, but the four island in Witless Bay host North America’s largest Atlantic puffin colony with more than 260,000 pairs who return here every year from their winter grounds floating on the North Atlantic. They not only return to the same island; they also return to their same nesting spot and the same underground burrow where the females lay a single egg deep inside. The puffling - YES THIS IS REALLY WHAT BABY PUFFINS ARE CALLED- is fed for a short period by its parents then is left on its own until it ...

Today started out overcast and foggy and it ended up raining most of the day. We had about a three hour drive from Port Rexton to St. John’s and arrived with rain still coming down, so we headed to the Quidi Vidi (pronounced kiddy viddy) Brewery where our beloved Iceberg beer is made. The brewery is named for the tiny village at the edge of St. John’s where it’s located with great views of some working fishing boats and the rocky terrain that surrounds the city. St. John’s is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador and also the largest city with about 100,000 residents. It’s also the easternmost city in North America. Still raining, so we decided to visit The Rooms which is the province’s cultural museum with art, artifacts, natural history exhibits and great views of the city below. The museum integrates natural and cultural resources into the same exhibit spaces and there was great representation of the earliest indigenous sites right up to the present. We got to see artifacts f...

My puffin dreams came true today when I saw not one but two entire puffin colonies, each consisting of hundreds of adorable fat little birds, up close and personal! We had about a four hour drive today from Twillingate to the Bonavista Peninsula , which juts out on the east central section of Newfoundland. We decided on a loop route which took us around the shoreline from northwest to southeast and ended in Port Rexton where we’re spending the night. Bonavista has some very old villages and towns but its also known for its UNESCO Discovery Geopark which is defined as “a unified geographical area where sites and landscapes of geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education, and sustainable development.” The Bonavista geopark includes more than a dozen sites scattered across the peninsula and first on our list was the Dungeon Provincial Park located in the town of Bonavista on the northern tip of the peninsula. This site is a collapsed sea cave (al...

Yesterday's post was short because I'd been out drinking beers with Jen's colleague most of the evening. Her co-worker is also travelling around Newfoundland right now and they'd made a sort-of plan to meet up here in Twillingate. Like many places these days, this town has its own brewery- Split Rock- and we spent a few hours sampling their offerings. While at the Stage Head Pub we chatted with a slightly intoxicated local who, we found out, was going to be a guide on our boat trip today (see below). Our early morning boat tour (ideally) takes you to whales and icebergs and sea birds. We saw one of those things and it wasn't whales or icebergs. Apparently all the whales are to the south right now around the Avalon peninsula, and that's where we're headed in two days. Fingers crossed! The icebergs are all up on the northwestern end of the island right now , including a massive block floating off the coast near L'Anse aux Meadows. Oh well- no planning with...

We started out day in Corner Brook with a proper Newfoundland breakfast of codcakes, eggs, baked beans, mustard pickles, and toutons . Bad picture; good food! The plan for today was to get up early and head about four hours to Twillingate , one of the largest of many small islands and peninsulas located on Newfoundland's northeastern shore. Short causeways connect most of them, but a few (including Fogo and Change Islands) require a short ferry ride. Twillingate is on many tourism lists because of it's history, its amazing natural and cultural scenery, and because it's on what's known as "Iceberg Alley" as well as a prime whale migration route. Despite this it doesn't feel touristy and everyone we met was incredibly friendly and happy to give us all sorts of local history and tips. The owner of our Airbnb brought us some extra crab legs she and her husband had cooked and left us homemade partidgeberry /blueberry muffins, and a guy who befriended us at the ...

Back on "the Rock" after 14 hours of driving and a (sort of) overnight ferry! We breezed through Massachusetts and alllll of Maine on our way to New Brunswick where we spent our first night in St. John on the Bay of Fundy. It was a quick overnight stop and we were on our way again early Sunday morning headed for North Sydney and the overnight Maritime Atlantic ferry to Newfoundland. We learned the hard way on our last trip that booking a cabin was critical, so assumed we were all set for a good night's sleep and a civilized 8:00am arrival. Unfortunately, vessel issues on one of the routes meant more trips needed to be squeezed and ours was changed to a 7:30pm departure and a 1:30am arrival. Ummm, wait, what? The ferry ended up leaving a little late so it was closer to 2:30am when we disembarked in a pitch black tempest of blowing heavy rain and fog. After downing a few of our fave Iceberg beers we managed to get a little light sleep but definitely not enough. Channel-Port...