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Published: September 5th 2008
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Hello
Flying into St John's, I kept waiting for that moment where you break through the cloud and can see the land below. The wheels went down, and I kept waiting. Then suddenly I saw the wheels of the plane hit the tarmac. Slightly surprised I turned and looked at the guy next to me, who smiled and said "Welcome to Newfoundland, the world's foggiest place!"
I've spent nearly four weeks volunteering at the Admirals Adventure B&B
, with two Germans (Julia and Simone), a French Canadian (Catherine), and a fellow Kiwi (Dawn). The place is run by a jovial Newfie, Bruce. The homemade alcohol was free flowing; three sizable excellent meals were dished up each day. So life here was good. We built a stone fire place, made wine and beer, kept the B&B tidy and took turns making breakfast in the morning for the guests. We were usually finished work by 3pm in the afternoon, and had ample time to explore St John's, Signal Hill and Sundays were off, so we walked sections of the East Coast Trail. Simone, Julia and I walked the 15km from St Johns through to Cape Spear (the most easterly point in Group shot
Cielle, Dawn, Bruce, Catherine, Julia and Simone North America). The walk followed the coast line, which has specular cliffs. The cliff tops were flat topped and speckled with ponds (or what we would call lakes). Cape Spear has a cute historic lighthouse on the point, and if you’re lucky, you can spot whales from the shore.
Bruce has a cabin at Tore Lake, and that's where we headed for my birthday. Typically for the 12th of August - it rained and was rather foggy, so the day was mainly spent inside the cabin, by the fire, playing card games. But the wine was good, and dinner was NZ lamb and German chocolate cake for desert, so all and all, it was a fantastic birthday 😊. The thunderstorms cleared up by midday the following day, so we all went swimming in the lake and then helped to build the foundations for Bruce's new toilet. Our moose search that evening was rather unsuccessful, but we had fun bashing around in the bush on Bruce's non-existence trail. The bonfire was a bit more successful, as were the tasty smores (toasted marshmallows, chocolate and biscuits). I spotted a couple of shooting stars too. We headed back to St John's via
the scenic Marine drive, and even spotted humpback whales offshore.
While staying at Bruce's an opportunity popped up to head to Cape St Mary's to help out with the Cape St Mary's performance series
. Catherine and I jumped at the opportunity - I was sold when Bruce uttered the words "sea bird colony". The night we arrived, there was a full moon and all the stars were out, so we headed out for a walk along the cliff tops, the sea roaring 100m or so below us, to the gannet colony. It was magic, the colony was only about 20m away, and quite visible thanks to the full moon and the birds were swirling over our heads. We woke up to heavy fog the following day, Catherine and I decided to walk back to the colony anyway - and magically the fog lifted for the hour we were there. The performances that night were awesome too. Local artists telling stories and singing local tunes. To top the weekend off we spotted moose and beavers on the way back to St Johns. Upon my return to the Admirals B&B, I soon discover that I had missed a major calamity, Puffin
Photo credit: Simone Frost Dawn, had slipped a broke her ankle. She was then resigned to spending the next 6 weeks in bed, upgraded to a guest bed with an ocean view and being waited on hand and foot.
As a birthday treat, the girls back home (Sarah, Jen and Ronnie) shouted me a whale watching tour. So we booked when the weather was predicted to be the sunniest, and got the most perfect day. The tour started and finished with an Irish song, the commentator, by himself was worth the tour fee. We spotted a whale in the distance, as we were heading to the Witless bay marine reserve, and then cruised over to the puffin colony. Here we saw heaps of puffins (or potatoes with wings as Bruce calls them), common mures and a variety of gulls. Great trip.
Newfoundland is certainly a unique spot in the world. Big thanks to Bruce for everything, I had a wonderful time at your B&B 😊
Next stop is Vancouver and the Okanagan. Will be home on the 23rd of September.
Cheerio
Cielle
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Dawn
non-member comment
amazing
Hi Cielle, What an amazing story, why dont you write mine?