2016 Road Trip with Kerry & Donna: Bonavista

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With an early morning start we headed out to catch the ferry to Fogo. But luck would not be with us. We arrived with an hour to spare before the 9:00am crossing but there were already in front of us a number of commercial large trucks that would occupy the centre boat capacity allocated to them and RVs. Further the annual safety inspection for the boat (the other 2 being out of commission) was to follow that crossing so our only hope would be on the 5:00pm crossing. We headed out!

Along the drive further east we happened on an alley of icebergs all lined up in a row next to a rocky shore - only a single photo (taken through the window) as no pull over location for more.  

On and on looking for a place to stop for brunch but restaurants were hard to come by. Finally in New-Wes-Valley we found an open kitchen and friendly staff. The waiter / chef mentioned that an open site was just off the highway around Greenspond turn off. We got there but the site was chock-o-block and in the middle of nowhere. We carried on to the dead end of the island of Greenspond and camped in a pull of area right on the ocean and located at the start of an around the island set of hiking trails put together by the local community. We had fog on arrival that ebbed and wained. We had a view of a helicopter overflying us on to way to servicing the telecom towers out on further islands. The trails led us partially over boardwalk (covering wet boggy sections), as well as granite and peat moss with views out to the surrounding sea. As we walked the fog dissipated and we saw several icebergs in the area. A pleasant spot for the evening.
A wee bit on the early side we again headed out - this time towards Bonavista. It had rained over night and it carried on for a fair portion of our drive which took over 4 hours before we pulled into the town. The rain had stopped but boy did the temperature dip - windchill must have been below zero. We stalked up at a local grocery and had a large lunch.

A short 6 km drive took us out to oceanside and the village of Elliston and a view of several icebergs, root cellars, and most importantly a fairly close up view of a puffin colony nesting site. The root cellars are caves dug into the hillside, lined partially with wood floors and closed off with a stone front and wooded door - (the village is famous for having over 100 of them). The puffins were located on the cliff top of a karst that was the furthest out of two with the first one accessible via a narrow connecting ridge from the main road. Its a place that keeps them fairly see from predators. The cold had remained with us as did the wind and I was glad to get back into the RV to warm up.

40 minutes later we pulled into the Lockstep Path Provincial Park for the evening.

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