Newfoundland – Day 3 – St. John’s to Bonavista

Cynthia In Binavista

This morning we got up an drive to Bonavista. On the way we stopped in the unfortunately named town of Dildo

dildo

Dildo is a very cute little fishing village and was a great place to stop for some coffee and some photos.

Dildo Newfoundland

Dildo Newfoundland

We drive on and stopped in Port Rexton for another short phto break

Port Rexton Anglican Church

It was a fairly easy drive on into Bonavista and we checked into the hotel. While in Bonavista we wanted to see two things. The Bonavista Lighthouse. We ended up having fantastic light when we drive to the top of the peninsula

Bontavista Lighthouse

And the other thing we wanted to see was the puffins. There’s a place in Elliston where you can hike out and stand on the edge of a cliff next to a small island where they have their nests.

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Puffin - Elliston Newfoundland

Puffin - Elliston Newfoundland

There’s about 6-8 icebergs floating around the peninsula, some are very close to land, but not always easy to get to the piece of land that they are close to due to the terrain.

Iceberg Near Bonavista

Tonight we rest and prepare to do some exploring in Bonavista and the surrounding area tomorrow.

Newfoundland – Day 2

The time difference between Houston and Newfoundland is 2 1/2 hours. We’re adjusting well, but we’re already early risers and with the sun coming up around 5:00 am we’re out of bed by 6:00 am.

This let us get an early start on exploring as we went to Cape Spear which is the furthest east you can get in North America.

We saw our first icebergs!

Iceberg

And we had the entire site all to ourselves

Cape Spear Historic Site

Cape Spear Historic Site

After visiting Cape Spear we had some breakfast and made our way to Bay Bulls to take a whale and puffin watching tour with Gatherall’s

We say thousands of puffins and other seabirds as well as about 4 or 5 Fin Whales, the second largest mammals on the planet. Sadly, no good photos as they only briefly ever broke the surface.

I did manage to get some photos of the Common Murre

Common Murre

At one point thousands of them left their rocky perches and took to the sea

Common Murre

Common Murre

We drive for a bit more and headed up to Pouch Cove, a small and picturesque town north of St. John’s

Pouch Cove

After this we were pretty wiped. We had an early dinner and called it a day. St. John’s and the surrounding area has been just lovely.

St. John's Newfoundland

Tomorrow we head to Bonavista.

Arrival St. John’s, Newfoundland

We had a 7:00 am flight from Houston to St. John’s with a connection in Toronto. Flying Air Canada our bags were checked through to to our final destination without the need to claim them and recheck them. We grabbed our rental car and made our way to the hotel and got checked in. A great day of travel without incident.

After checking into the hotel we drive up to Signal Hill, the sight of the reception of the first transatlantic wireless transmission on 12 December 1901.

Signal Hill, St. John's

Signal Hill, St. John's

There’s a great view from up there of Fort Amherst, St. John’s

Fort Amherst, St. John's

We even saw a giant Newfoundland dog

Newfoundland Dog

From there we went back to the hotel and had dinner and we’re calling it a night. Tomorrow we drive to Witless Bay to take a boat tour to see whales and puffins.