In Trinity, our room was perched on a hilltop and we looked down at the harbor. We had a zodiac tour booked to go whale watching and, along with about ten others, bundled up in these heavy one piece waterproof suits to go out and look for whales. We did find some, although none of them wanted to come up and play. The most we saw was a fin breaking the surface here and a water spout there—no breaches or tail flaps.
We visited puffin nesting grounds in Elliston, a town also known as the root cellar capital of the world. In order to preserve foods during the winter, storage rooms were dug into the landscape’s natural mounds yielding natural refrigeration.
Although we have run into many tourists here, none of them are from the US. Many are from other parts of Canada, and one astonished young couple who saw our PA license plate wanted to know if we had actually driven all that way. They were from Switzerland. On the group tour in St. John’s as everyone announced where they were from, we grew sheepish and said we were really sorry about the state of things caused by the US. “No worries,” replied one fellow,”we certainly understand why you are here.”
While Twillingate is literally an island, it is an island reached via causeway, not ferry. The draw was a zodiac tour to see “icebergs’ which, from what I could tell from the photos were more like the huge chunks of ice that break off from larger bergs, similar to those we saw in a lagoon in Iceland a few years ago. But, alas, the weather turned and an unexpected thunderstorm cancelled the outing.
When planning this trip I indicated that we wanted upscale lodgings as we drove around, realizing that, on this journey, the pickings would be slim in some places. I also told the agent that we loved water views when possible. Well, the oceanfront suite booked for us in Trinity was one of five brightly colored shacks, for want of a better word, at the edge of the water. Ours was blue. The outsides were weather worn, the interiors were clean and, er,… adequate, but a bit depressing. How can a place witha waterfront porch be depressing? Visit and find out. A sign reminded us that failure to wash our dishes would result in a slight additional charge. We laughed, and, since our sea outing was cancelled, drove up to the Long Point Lighthouse whose cliffs and rocky shoreline did not disappoint.
Found a beautiful spot on the water for dinner about 20 minutes from town. I was hoping to see a moose quietly grazing by the road on the drive to or from, but no sighting. Newfoundlandland is teeming with moose since they are an introduced species with no natural predators. There are moose fences along some highways, and moose signs along the road but I have yet to spot one. Except for the statue at the Fisher Loft Inn in Trinity, where, carefully placed, it had me believing, for an instant, that it was real.
