RV Trips: NL July 29

A gorgeous sunset last night:

followed by a beautiful sunrise this morning (and no, I won’t be doing daily sunrises!):

We drove up the coast a bit more to Garnish. It has several old saltbox houses, nicely refurbished, but sort of placed here and there in the village, almost as if they were moved from elsewhere and just dropped here. You almost drive straight in to one on the highway. Maybe they were resettled here.

No one is awake anywhere. But Walmart in Marystown was open! As we headed north up the peninsula, we were passed by small convoys of fifth wheels and motorhomes. They must have been travelling south together.

We got back to the TCH, got some gas and information about Avalon and continued. Highway 13 is through the woods and there are several “trailer parks” with old trailers, school buses like we’ve been seeing around. When we stopped for propane in Witless Bay, the young man explained that “if it has wheels, it can be parked anywhere”. So, these are small summer communities and fishing or hunting camps placed wherever there is a likely gravel road and flat area. At least I think that’s what he said. He was about 18, at least 6 foot 8, and had the hardest-to-understand accent so far!

We decided on a Whale Watching-Puffin Tour and rejected the bigger, slightly longer and certainly busier boats for the small Molly Bawn. While we were driving there, we passed this awesome “River of Boats”, small replicas of a fishing village and all types of boats floating (they were anchored) in a small pond on the side of the road:

On the real-sized boat, we headed out with only six others. The three to four foot swells bounced us around a lot, but we headed out to two of the four small islands in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. We saw Puffins immediately flying, floating and fishing:

We saw Razorbills, Gannets and Murres as well. This is a nice Murre and Puffin together:

And even some sheep grazing:

Then, at Pee Pee Island was the Puffin Rock. Puffins were everywhere, in droves, floating and swarming. It was amazing to see them from the lower level:

Further along (I forget the Island’s name) we stayed for a while and were mesmerized by the nesting Murres (like little Penguins) and Kittiwakes and more Puffins. Plus a juvenile Bald Eagle just waiting for lunch (he caused the swarming):