Puffins at Last...and Whales...and More Icebergs

Jack, Lynne and Carol drove to Bay Bulls for a boat tour on Saturday to see puffins, whales and yet more icebergs--the Big Three of Newfoundland June tourism! (Unfortunately Marc has a virus and has had to lay low at home for awhile.) The weather now is perfect--sunny, fairly warm, no humidity. All the locals are wearing their tank tops and short shorts, after being in parkas and gloves two days ago! The boat tour with Gatherall's tour company was spectacular. We saw several humpback whales and one mother and calf let us get really close. The calf seemed curious about the boat and kept surfacing right next to us, so we got several good photos. We could even smell its fish breath when it breathed!

About to board our seaworthy catamaran.

Carol and a closeup of the puffins

A whale of a tail. This was the friendly humpback calf.

Then we pulled up right next to a small iceberg. We've seen a bunch of icebergs over the past few days, but all at long distance, so it was neat to see one close up like this, and see the waves washing over it.

Too close for comfort?

For the grand finale, the boat took us by Gull Island, the site of the Witless Bay bird colony. Several species of pelagic birds are here in very large numbers right now--hundreds of thousands! It's one of the largest bird colonies of this type in the world. "Pelagic" means that the birds live out on the ocean almost all the time, coming to land just to breed and nest. Puffins, murres, and kittiwakes are the main types of birds here. The puffins are the ones that I've been waiting to see, and it was great! Some were in the water, some flying overhead but most are on the cliffs of this rocky island, either in or near the holes in the cliff that they lay their eggs in. They're smaller than expected, but so cute with their brightly colored, oversized, round beaks (see the photo on the Gatherall's tour van for a close up view of what they look like--although we were very close to them, we didn't succeed in getting a close-up photo with the iPad, unfortunately, just a general view of the thousands of birds). Each breed has staked out its own territory on the steep cliff, some in holes like the puffins, and some building nests wherever a rock sticks out enough. With this many birds, the noise and smells were terrific! It was amazing!

Hard to see the birds in this photo, but you get the idea.

Birds everywhere.

After the boat docked, we headed for a nearby pub for some "pub grub," since we hadn't had a real lunch yet. We tried the cod tongues, a local dish. Tasty, reminding us of fried oysters.

The geologist Lynne had interviewed on Friday, Andy, had invited us all to dinner at a St. John's restaurant that night, but Marc wasn't feeling up to it and Jack decided to stay home with him, so Lynne and I later walked a few blocks to the restaurant to join the dinner party. It was a good group, in addition to Lynne and me consisting of Andy and his wife Vi, Paul a senior geologist who is involved in all kinds of science education and administration in the area, and Hilda, a local science editor and writer. All very interesting people: great food and great conversation!

The next morning we were up early to pack the van and head out to Gander. Our goal is to catch the ferry to Fogo Island on Monday; we'll spend the night at a motel in Gander and drive the rest of the way to the ferry Monday morning. Before we leave the St. John's area, we decide to drive up to Signal Hill on the outskirts of the city to see the view; this is the spot where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal--it was Morse code for the letter "S"--hence the name "Signal Hill." It's another beautiful day and the view is spectacular from the hill. We can see a couple of nice icebergs, as well as a beautiful view of the St. John's harbor and city. Lovely, scenic spot. Wish we had longer to spend here, as there's a great-looking hiking trail, but we have miles to go...

Carol, Iceberg, and Jack

Iceberg, Marc, Lynne and Carol on Signal Hill

Click here for a panoramic view.

The drive is scenic and uneventful. We pull into our Gander motel, the Country Inn, about 3:30 pm and I get out to register us. I had made reservations here several weeks ago through booking.com. I go into the foyer of the motel and find that the door into the main lobby is locked. There's a sign saying "If after hours, call this number." I call the number and hear the phone in the lobby ring once and a message says "this party is not available." Hmmm. Weird. I look inside and see that the lights are all on, but looks like nobody's home. There are a couple of cars outside, so it seems like there must be some people staying here, but we don't see anyone. There's also an RV campground behind the motel, so I go back there to see if I can find someone, but no one's around. By this time, the rest of our gang has gotten out of the van and are hanging out in the front of the motel. Another big RV pulls up and wants to pay for a campsite, but of course they can't get in either. I go try to call again but the same thing happens. I bang on the door loudly and yell. Finally a guy comes and opens the door, and says he's a guest at the motel and heard the banging. He says he hasn't seen anyone at the desk for a while, but he lets us in, as he has a key to the locked front door. He seems to know his way around and manages to unlock the door into the area behind the front desk, to see if he can see what rooms we're assigned to, and maybe get us a key. He doesn't see anywhere that says what rooms are ours and he has to leave, but we are inside at least and we sit in the lobby for a bit. Finally, Jack goes over and manages to unlock the door into the area behind the front desk. We look at the master book and calendar and finally see that we are assigned to rooms 7 and 8. We find the little cards and fill them out, and take the keys for our rooms! First time we've ever had to check ourselves into our motel! Too funny! Must be a Newfoundland thing!

Carol, our new receptionist, registers Marc.

Later the lady who's supposed to be in charge comes out of room 3, along with her husband (or boyfriend, not sure...), with sleepy looks on their faces. I told her we showed up and no one was here so we checked ourselves in. She looks shocked and says, "Why didn't you call??" I told her I had called numerous times but only got the message "not available." Seemed like she didn't believe me, but later she discovered that her cellphone had died (she had apparently forwarded the motel phone to her cellphone while she was napping...or whatever). No apology was forthcoming. We discovered that the owners are out of town for a few days, so maybe it's a case of the inmates being in charge of the asylum.

Tomorrow, ferry to Fogo....