28th
May 2016
Rain, snow, cold
– And PUFFINS !!!
Puffins have
always been one of the major items I want to get up close and personal with on
this trip, and after a couple of minor meetings in Homer Alaska 4 years ago, today was the
day. But a lot was to happen before
then, so I will come back to the puffins later !
It had rained a
little during the night, but was more or less dry as I packed up – But once
again bitterly cold at about 2.5 deg C, and the wind, so I ate my breakfast
inside the car ! Left this great wild
camp site beside the sea and with more icebergs than ever headed south for the
summer this morning ! But before I had
gone very far up the road, it started raining in earnest, and was to do so for
most of the remainder of the day.
For much of the
first couple of hours I was either in forest or beside lakes or ocean inlets.
The forests are a bit boring because you cannot see anything past the first row
of trees, and there were a LOT of them.
But it was still very scenic with all the lakes, and I can only imagine
how spectacular this would have been in the sunshine. Ah well, can’t have black wine gum days every
day !! Further south I actually went
through the northern tip of the Terra Nova National Park before turning eastward
up a peninsula towards Salvage. I had it
marked on my map as somewhere worth visiting that someone along the way had
told me about, and I needed something for today to brighten things up, seeing
the weather was so bad !
Shortly before
Salvage I crossed over a long causeway and that was beautiful despite the
weather, with islands all around and cloud covered hills in the distance. And then I dropped into Salvage – And if I
hadn’t seen some of the beautiful little fishing villages up in Fogo I would
have been gobsmacked – As it was I was still pretty impressed. The rest of the drive had been so “normal”,
and then suddenly you drop into these incredible little fishing towns nestling
around these amazing natural harbours that help to protect them from the worst
of the wild weather on this east coast of Newfoundland, and it is all such a
contrast that it takes your breath away.
Salvage was first
used by Basque fishermen in the early 1600’s, it was eventually settled by more
West Country merchants, and is one of the oldest continually inhabited
communities in N America. Today fishing
continues to be the mainstay of the little town, although more tourists are
gradually finding it. Some of the
scenery around the many inlets and rock cliffs in town are just sublime, and at
one stage I watched a couple of fisherman coming in from a mornings work in
their little boat. As they came in I
followed them around the bay until I saw them dock and start unloading a catch
of lobsters by hand into the plastic bins for taking ashore. Time almost stood still for half an hour
while I watched them.
As I left
Salvage, I passed another fisherman on his own, pulling up his own lobster
pots. It was obviously his last pot of
the day, as once he had emptied it he sat back and zoomed off up the coast
towards home. Such a peaceful and
picturesque setting, despite the weather. The fishermen were all well rugged up
in oilskins !! Then it was back across
the causeway I had crossed earlier, and for a while I was back on the main
highway that was heading towards St John’s, along with much more traffic throwing
up spray from all the ruts in the road.
I have to say
that the condition of the roads in Newfoundland is atrocious. I know they have snow and cold, but so do
Alaska and BC and other places, and the roads there are no where near as bad. Even the main highway is bad, but any of the
smaller highways that go off round the coast are in truly dangerous condition,
with deep potholes that are so plentiful in places that they are largely
unavoidable, especially if you have oncoming traffic and can’t use the other
side of the road ! You really have to
concentrate all the time to make sure you miss the big holes. Sometimes it might be easier (and cheaper)
for them to just leave the roads as gravel and just grade them regularly during
the summer months ……..
I turned off the
main highway at Port Blandford and headed up the large Bonavista Peninsula
towards – er – Bona Vista ! There are a
couple of places at the end of this peninsula that are supposed to be
absolutely gorgeous, and since I heard a rumour that the sun might shine again
tomorrow, I may as well try to see them.
In fact the weather on this east coast of Newfoundland is renowned for
by the worst in the area, with a lot of rain all year round, and strong winds.
So far, it was living up to expectations !
Most importantly (for me) is that at Elliston there is a large Puffin
colony that is one of the largest in the country during the summer months, but
I had heard that a number were already there, nesting. I have ALWAYS wanted to see puffins, and so
this has been high on my list for a while.
The scenery
driving out along the peninsula was still very wooded, but when there were
lakes, they were drop dead gorgeous. For
some reason, maybe the warmth of the past few days, the lakes were all steaming
in todays cold temperatures - The
highest temp I saw today was about 4.5 deg C !! With the seasonal colours of the grasses,
and the steam rising off the water, I had to do U turns several times in order
to go back and get the photo.
I arrived in Elliston
at about
3 pm, and set off looking for a camp site that was marked on my
map. I had to go out on really small
(and even more atrocious !) roads on the other side of Elliston and finally
came round the corner and there was the camp site – Nothing fancy, but it was a
camp site. The attendant at a gas
station back up the road a little had told me that it was supposed to snow
tonight, but there was still a chance it would be fine in the morning ! I asked the office about the puffins and they
said they didn’t think any were in yet, but the place was just up the
road. So after checking in, I set off up
the road.
Elliston is also
the Root Cellar capital of the world – I have mentioned the underground storage
places for vegetables before, but here they seem to have it down to a fine art
– They are everywhere ! And so are the instructions about who built which one,
and what is the correct / best way to build one ! So wandering up the road past
the camp site in the rain, I not only find many root cellars, but also,
eventually, the puffin viewing area. I
hadn’t really dressed for a long hike, so was a bit surprised when I found that
to reach the viewing area one has
I was now very
cold, and as it was still raining quite hard it was really difficult to get the
camera out quickly, shielding the lens from the rain, and then put it away
again before it got rain drops on it. As
a result I didn’t get very good pics of the puffins today, but hopefully
tomorrow will not be raining…….
One of the
funniest things with puffins is how they fly – They are a bit like a cross
between
I then went back
to the camp site and set up – It was already only 2.5 deg C at about 4.30 pm,
so I was glad of an electrical plug where I could plug in the little heater
that my sister in Anacortes gave me some 2 years ago, and we last used in
Alaska because it is only 110 volts (ie no good in S America or Europe). And so I sit tonight in the car, toastie
warm, even though by 8 pm it was down to 1.4 deg, and was actually snowing
! What a place ! I wonder what the weather will be like
tomorrow ? I know it will be cold – That
is OK, but it would be nice to have it dry for a while so I can spend some
quality time with my puffins !
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