DAY 16 Cape Bonavista to visitor’s center on TCH after Clarenville

Dungeon Provincial Park

June 4, 2013
A balmy 53 degrees this morning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonavista Harbor

Driving in our rv from Cape Bonavista to visitor’s center (closed) on TCH after Clarenville.

 

 

 

 

We stopped back in town of Bonavista today to take some pictures.  It was raining and blowy so we didn’t get many photos. 

 

 

Elliston

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elliston

Next stop was Elliston to see the PUFFINS!!!!  They were so cute/adorable and for maybe ten minutes there were two of them on our side of the peninsula (there were many of them on a separate nonaccessible rock nesting and hanging out).  We took lots of pictures hoping to get a few that were good.  They few that were near us appeard to be quite animated and used to people.

 

 

 





Hobbits live here!

Elliston is also root cellar capitol of the world.   Well, they have lots of root cellars…snapped some photos there.  Some of the cellars are still in use and some have been “renovate” and some are in decline.  They looked rather hobbitlikeJ  We talked to the nice ladies in tourist information center in Elliston.  They actually have a Puffin Festival later on in the season.

 



Bird Island - Puffins



These few were about 10 feet from us

cute!

Nesting Grounds

Nesting in holes in side of island

I should say we tried to find propane for our motorhome.  We tried to find propane today but no luck.  They will fill bbq tanks but not directly into our motorhome tank.  In St. John, we will find some.

 



Hanging Out

 

Skerwink Trail

Next stop was Trinity East where we wanted to hike the Skerwink Trail.  When we got there it was foggy so we opted to wait a bit as there would be views.  I took a nap; David read.  Then, we attempted it when the weather cleared up a bit…only to watch the fog come back in as we were hiking.  It was 5.3 km or about three miles of lots of uphill and downhill steps.  I got to say they did an excellent job in building all those steps and boardwalks to get you above the bogginess and up the mountains.  There would have been awesome views if we could see them and in parts we could.  Lots of exposure on the trail to look down and see the waves below so maybe for me it was pretty good to not see it all….and feel like I was being pulled off those cliffs.  Lovely hike!  This hike was rated one of the top 35 hikes in North America and Europe by Travel & Leisure magazine and I could see why!

 



Standard Firewood method

Since there wasn’t anything else we wanted to do on the Bonavista Peninsula, off we went in the motorhome  towards St. John’s.   We ended our day overnighting at a Irving K gas station/truck stop on the TCH just after the 210 turn off.  It was 7:45 and the light wasn’t great because the last few miles were rain and lots of fog…not great weather to try and see if a moose was going to jump in front of you...fine for an overnight and to get us off the road.

 

Stick fence (woven) for garden



Monumentous occasion….we successfully had a zero money spent day.  We had been feeling our money might not hold out so we had wanted to do one of these and hadn’t managed it.  Since we are fully self contained in our motorhome, we have a lot of food with us…so didn’t really need anything.  I am not sure what the culprit is in the spending but maybe because we added two weeks without adjusting anything thinking that our budget was overkill anyway.  Ga$ is certainly the biggest expense in this beautiful expansive country.  We don’t eat out much so I know that is not it…we brought a good $500 - $600 worth of pantry items and customs approved foods.


Post trip realization:  The next trip will be a little slower now that we know what to expect...places to revisit with our rv, new places to see, places to linger, etc.