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Wednesday July 14, 2004
The fog was so thick this morning you couldn’t see across to the restaurant 50 feet away. We decided to pass on a second visit to the Cape St. Mary sanctuary. We drove 75 miles to Holyrood and tried to get a site at Butter Pot Provincial Park. They were full but offered us a spot in the day use area on the shore of the pond. The ranger said it was quiet.. While we were eating lunch at our picnic table a day camp group of about 30 5 and 6 year olds walked by, though they were not too noisy.
After lunch we went to the local tourist information office and picked up another 3 or 4 pounds of brochures and maps. Then we headed for the town of Bay Bulls for our Whale and Puffin Boat ride. What an awesome trip. Witless Bay is an Ecological Sanctuary of four offshore islands forming a huge seabird rookery. We traveled along the west side of Gull Island. The top was covered with Puffins, thousands of puffins, on the island in the air, in the water; everywhere you looked there were Atlantic Puffins. Unless, of course you were looking at the Common Murres, Razorbill Auks or Black-legged Kittiwakes! Also in huge numbers. The boat moved quite close to the island affording us great views and photo opportunities. Then we went looking for whales and we didn’t have far to look. Their favorite food, Capelin, is here in abundance this time of year. On the left a Minke whale, up ahead a Humpback, no two Humpbacks. To the left we catch a glimpse of a full body breach where the whale comes completely out of the water. The Captain sees a splash to the right and heads over there. A mother and juvenile humpback are feeding. Well, actually it seems like the mother is feeding and the kid is playing. This small Humpback breached continually for at least ten minutes. Between breaches she would roll on her back and slap her pectoral fins on the water. What a show. An hour and a half went by in a blink. Even on the ride back we saw numerous Humpbacks and Minkes in the distance. What a fantastic experience.
Thursday July 15, 2004
Today we drove the “Irish Loop” which goes around the southeast arm of the Avalon Peninsula. After driving through Witless Bay, our first stop was the Irish loop Café which advertised Internet service in their brochure. It was a dial up connection on am “ancient” computer but we used it for almost 2 hours to weed through almost 700 email messages, 90% SPAM of course. It will be another couple od weeks until we are back in range of our satellite. Next we visited the Colony of Avalon, an archaeological excavation site from the late 17th century when Sir John Calvert aka Lord Baltimore, first settled the area. After one winter season, Baltimore went on to found a settlement in Maryland that bears his name. However, others stayed and the display of recovered artifacts was very interesting. Our two hours of emailing put us behind schedule so we decided not to drive down a 20 mile dirt road to visit the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, site of 650 million year old fossil finds and Cape Race lighthouse where the first distress signal from the Titanic was received on April 15, 1912. Instead we continued along the main road where we had been advised to watch for Caribou. We watched for twenty miles but saw none. We stopped at a roadside display describing the caribou herds and as we looked out across the barren rocky landscape we saw over 50 caribou off in the distance. Fun to watch but too far to photograph. Less than two miles further along, a bull and two cow caribou walked across the road 30 feet in front of the car and waited alongside the road for us to get some good pictures. The last stop on the loop was the small town of St. Vincent at the head of a cove where whales were said to come close to shore following the capelin. We saw several whales but none in close. People on the beach said that around noon a big humpback was frolicking about 25 yards from shore.
An hours drive brought us back to the coach to freshen up for our night on the town. We drove into St. John’s, did a little shopping then had dinner ay Bridie Malloy’s Pub complete with live Irish music. Our last stop of the evening was at the Anglican Church where we met up with Rev John Whyckam esq. a talented actor who conducts nightly tours of the haunted houses and graveyards of St. John. For $5 each we were entertained for over an hour as we walked the dark streets of St. John listening to his yarns. It was great fun though we got home after eleven.
Friday July 16, 2004
We started the day with a run; invigorating but very hilly,so we walked quite a bit. Back to the coach for a shower and breakfast, we got a late start going into St. John. We went to the Laundromat and while the clothes were washing and drying, we visited the nearby (so Carl could go back to put the clothes in the dryers) Botanical Gardens operated by the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Lots of beautiful flowers, displays of medicinal plants and quiet trails to walk along. After folding the laundry, we headed for the National Historic Site on Signal Hill, the location where in 1901, Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless radio message. It was hard to concentrate on the history of the site because a Humpback whale was breaching and fin slapping continuously. It was too far away for good photography but plenty close to enjoy through binoculars. We watched for over a half hour then left to visit the brother of a friend from Lowell. Gary Whitten’s brother Eugene and his wife Barbara were friendly and welcoming. We had a delightful evening with them and another couple, talking about Newfoundland and other places we had each traveled. We got lots of good tips on the parts of Newfoundland we have yet to visit especially Twillingate and the Northern Peninsula. We also learned about Cod Tongues and Cod Cheeks (ask us when we get home ;-)
