... a little rain must fall.....

If I did not know any better, I'd think we are in Norway.  Even the color of the buildings is the same red and yellow ochre, and the Fjords, and the water falls from the still snow covered mountains.....  This is however not Norway, but the "Viking Trail" - on the east coast of Newfoundland - where vikings first landed around A.D. 1000 - they probably felt right at home!

But I am getting ahead of myself.  We left Twillingate early, skipping our planned hike because it was raining hard and the wind was very strong.  I am getting very zen in my old age: when I was younger, this would have upset me.  But not now.  Now I realize that the weather is what it is and that, "in every life, a little rain must fall", and I just go on my way....  so on our way we went.

The road is pretty even in the rain, and there were some lovely clear spots in the sky eventually. 

Also, the only time we go to museums is when it rains, so this gave up an opportunity to get some history and culture...  We stopped at a charming regional museum in the town of Great Falls, which is in the very center of Newfoundland -- as far from the sea as one can get (which is not very far).  The museum is dedicated to the history of the Beochuck, the native people who were in this part of the island when Europeans arrived.  They were a small tribe (about 1500 people) living from the sea and hunting, and them last one of them, Demasduit, died in 1829.

 She left the only oral history we have of these people, as well as a lot of drawings of the way they lived.  There is still very little known.  As often when learning about native tribes, it is a tragic story.  But it was very interesting. 

Also, it is nice to see that not all Europeans were heartless, as the proclamation from the then governor shows.
(also note how careful the museum is to explain that the wording is just old fashioned, and they are not using the word "savage" in a derogatory way.....)

We continued to the Gros Morne National park, and as we arrived, the sky started to clear.  Just enough for us to get a glimpse of the amazing surrounding, and wanting more.

  I took a walk on the beach in front of the hotel,

and Joe took some pictures of the bay behind it.

After a short walk by the lighthouse, where Joe could not help but take pictures of the fence - because he likes fences almost as much as doors and windows-





















 we had a lovely local dinner. 

Going to bed early because we want to maximize our day in the park tomorrow - weather is supposed to be very nice - although it will start on the chilly side- there is a frost warning for this evening......

From St. John's to Twillingate

It was chilly when we we left St John's this morning!  (that's about 37 Fahrenheit).  and cloudy too.  But by the time we got to Terra Nova National park, the temperature had reached a balmy 50 degrees, and the sun kept trying to peak out.

  It was great weather for our planned hike - an easy 10k along the rugged seashore.  There where only a handful of hikers, so it was very peaceful, with plenty of opportunities to admire the trails, the beaches, the rocks, the gulls.

The end of the trail provide a perfect spot for a picnic, with only the seagulls for company.  It was blissful!








 

 

  Joe got artsy....

Spring is really just starting here:  There were a few beautiful flowers, but most are just starting to bloom.  (the ones on the left are Canada Mayflower - as the name indicates, they tend to bloom in May.  But we are very north.....)

 these are my favorite!

 On the way, a little red squirrel chirped at me very loudly, because I was apparently disturbing his lunch!

There was fresh evidence of moose nearby, but the moose itself remained elusive.......

We then continued Northwest, past the town of Gander:  We did not stop, because there is nothing to see there, but we felt warmly about it, because we recently saw "Come From Away" on Broadway, which tells the story of how the town got together on September 11th 2001, to house, feed and take care of 7000 people, whose flights got stranded there when the air space over the US was shut down for almost a week.  (it's a GREAT musical, go see it!).  Anyway, the only thing Gander is famous for is a very long runway because, until the 60's, planes could not fly direct from Europe and had to refuel there.  It still does happen that in cases of emergencies, flights get rerouted to Gander....

But we continued on to Twillingate.  I think Twillingate is the prettiest spot we have seen so far (and that's a high bar!).  It's on an island (but there is a bridge - no ferry), so surrounded by beautiful water.

 The lighthouse sits high on a cliff, from which you can see icebergs float by.
(the white dots on the picture below - Joe did not have the super-duper lens.... will  have to try again tomorrow).  We may go back tomorrow morning and do some hiking around there because it is so pretty.

We had dinner by the harbor, and finally tried fried cod tongues - yep - cod tongues!  I actually asked the waitress "what are cod tongues?" and she answered "they are the tongues of cod"....  (actually that's not 100% correct, cod has no tongue, but it's a soft part of the back of the throat - which sounds gross, but is actually quite good).

The view was really lovely.
We have only 1 night here, so are hoping to see more of it tomorrow.  I really would love to hike a bit around the lighthouse.  The weather forecast looks bad- but we have been very lucky so far with the weather, so we'll see......

PUFFINS! ( and gannetts, and common mures, and whales, oh my!)

Joe put the super-duper lens to good use today!













We drove south of St John's to Bay Bulls, so that we could take a boat to the Witless Island sanctuary, home to 1.5 million sea birds, 360,000 of which are puffins (PUFFINS!!!!).  We got on  the delightfull Gatheralls tour, with great staff, who entertained us with songs and stories as well as with their knowledge of the local fauna.

We got to admire the rugged coast while on the look-out for whales.

 We were not disappointed.  A few minkes swam right by, and then a humpback came very near, and then displayed its fluke for us to admire:  A good start of the day indeed.

 But this was all about puffins:  Witless island is home to the largest breading colony in North America, and they were all over:  Swimming around the boat,

 trying to take off.  Tthey are very bad flyers - it takes them forever to take off and they have to beat their wings very fast of they just drop.  In fact, about 1/2 the time, take off is aborted, they drop back in the water and have to start again....  looks pretty inefficient, but it's enjoyable to watch.

On the island, we got to see their breeding nests:  they burrow in the ground, making the entire island looked pocked-marked.  The ones who are not busy fishing sit by the edge of their hole, looking pretty.  They are MUCH smaller than I thought.  Only 6 to 8  inches tall, which makes them even more adorable.  Joe, of course took hundreds of pictures, so this is just a very small sampler.

There are many other type of birds on the island - and I feel they do not get the notice they deserve:  Yes, puffins are adorable with their orange beak and all that, but the others were cool too!  I particularly liked the common murres - another type of auk (same family as the puffin),  they are larger and gather on the edge of the cliffs in large numbers.  To me, they resemble penguins, but there is no relation.

 The razorbill auk is very cool too. 
And pretty gulls called "black-legged Kittiwakes" were nesting all over the cliffs









 as was the predatory black backed seagull (it eats puffins!!!!!!) - (below)

  They were also majestic gannets, and a few eagles (but since we have these back home, I won't post a picture).

At the end of the ride, we got "screeched-in" - which mean we were declared honorary Newfoundlanders (because there are only two type of people in the word, Newfoundlanders, and those who wish they were.....).  The "ceremony" involves getting your feet wet, saying something in the local slang, and drinking one shot of Newfounland rum "Screech" directly poured into your mouth....  it was very silly and fun.

 After this exciting boat ride, we continued south along the coast of the Avalon peninsula, to Ferryland and it's pretty lighthouse.

 Along the road, it was nice to see some wind turbines- if there was ever a place that can use wind to make electricity, it has to be Newfoundland!

As we continued ever south, the landscape changed dramatically, and became very barren.  By the time we made it to the very south, at Cape Race (from the Portuguese raso- meaning bare), it was a wind blown almost tundra-like landscape.  Very grand and beautiful in it's own way, but hard to imagine that it sustained a largish community for several centuries -

 because the lighthouse is so critical to east coast ship traffic.  Although the light house is still manned (one of very few), technology is such that very few people are needed, and the community has now died down. 

This was a long day and we were tired and dirty when we made it back to St John's- so we had quite good Chinese take out in the room.  Tomorrow- we go west!