Bonavista Penninsula

 You'll remember that we left off yesterday with me having just lost all of the photo's off my camera's SD card.  I have since bought a new one but we have another full day without any camera photos. 

Yesterday, I got up at 7 am for my 8 am rental car pickup at the airport.  I used Uber again.  Successfully!  I feel like a toilet training toddler!  someone give me a sticker!  

I got to the airport to discover that the car rental kiosks are in the luggage claim area, behind a big 'Do Not Enter' sign.  This is Newfoundland so I ignore the sign and barged in. No one cared.  I got my car, a Ford Explorer.  A mid-sized SUV.  It seems huge compared to my kleenex box on wheels at home but it is fine.  The best thing about it is that it has GPS.  The GPS is questionable. Well, a tool is only as good as the user and we can all agree, I am not technically adept.  Sometimes it says it knows where something is and then the next time I put in the same place, it's like 'nah, not this time'.  Other people of course would remember where it is from the last time, but I am not other people, I am my mother's daughter, generally lost.  

Anyway,  I plugged Port Union into the system, mostly so I could figure out how to get from the airport parking lot to the TransCanada Highway (#1).  No problem, easy peasy, just right there, turn here and here and then there you are.   Yup, there I was, looking at a highway closed sign.   I backtracked and tried the next entrance.  Also closed.  

Newfoundland's unknown soldier had arrived from France the night before so I wondered if they closed the highway for his pass-by but I was sure that happened the night before.  I pulled into a Sobey's parking lot.  I couldn't reprogram the GPS to find an alternate route since I didn't know what to put in.  I also couldn't figure out how to change the radio station from Sunday morning church services or how to turn off the seat warmer which was getting increasingly hotter by the minute. No time to figure any of that out.   The Christians did give me a news update.  The 'ring road' highway, the bloody TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY was closed for the whole day for CLEANING!  

 I had to eyeball the GPS map, expanding, contracting, twisting to try to figure out where I was and find an alternate route to a further entrance to the highway. I could see the #2 highway seemed like the best bet.  I went the way the GPS seemed to be saying but it was all upside down and backwards by this point.  I followed the road for a ways.  Then I got to Quidi Vidi Lake.  That can't be right, that would mean I am heading back into town.  I turned around.  The GPS was not happy with this.  I drove up and down that road a few times.  My backside burning and apparently, my soul would also be burning if I didn't accept Christ as my saviour.  I ended up back the same Sobey's parking lot.  This time, I took the time to figure out the seat warmer and the radio tuner.  Hello CBA, my old friend, it's good to talk to you again.  

So, it turns out the GPS was right and I was wrong, who could have seen that plot twist coming!  I had to drive through downtown to get to highway #2, right past my hotel, past the bars, over a bridge and on my way .  I eventually made it onto the highway and I was on my way.  

I was raining and windy but the highway is good.  I took a detour to have lunch at the Dildo Brewpub in Dildo (obviously).  Newfoundland has an quirk, where they tell you on the highway about some great that you should leave the highway for, but then never mention it again, no signs, no direction, just 'you guess and let's see what happens'.  Dildo Brewpub is a major tourist attraction, just not worthy of a sign, not even a little arrow or a piece or cardboard nailed to a telephone post .  I was almost to Hearts Content, well past Dildo, before I realized, I was well past Dildo.  On my way back, I saw a sign for a craft sale. I went there.  It was directly across from the Brewpub. 

I had lunch, fish tacos with lime and mango, really just a repackaging of fish an chips.  I got soup instead of fries.  I had eaten fried food almost exclusively the day before, I needed a vegetable, even if in liquid form.  Plus, since I was driving, a pink lemonade radler, a mix of beer and lemonade.  It sounds like an abomination but it was good.

My photos from my phone.  

I made it back to the highway and onto Port Union without incident.  Well, one minor u-turn since my GPS decided that even though it knew where my hotel was earlier, it would no longer share that information after lunch.  Fine, I got there.  

Nice hotel.  Actually an Inn.  Probably more like a four room AirBNB.  It is a converted historical house in Port Union, just north of Trinity.  Port Union is the only union built town in Canada.  Some of those words may be incorrect but the gist is there. The union buildings are red with yellow trim.  In Bonavista, they are yellow with red trim (but that is for the next day).   My Inn is a union house on the main strip which is a dirt road  My room looks out over the bay.  It is very nice.

It was late and very wet and blustery and I was tired after my drive so I stayed in for the evening.  

The next morning (today) I had my breakfast, included with the room.  I sat with the only other guests, a couple from Florida.  Between them and the innkeep (any chance to use that word!, Brad the owner, I got some good ideas for things to see and do.  First stop, the PharmaChoice in Bonavista to get a new SD card.  Plus some anti-inflammatories.  Remember when I boasted I didn't need to bring my full first aid kits.  Yea.  

Once I had a working camera again, I back tracked to Elliston, Root Cellar Capital, and also the best viewing site for Atlantic Puffins in Canada.  Both exciting to be sure but I may have been a bit more excited about the latter. I took a couple pictures of root cellar doors, and a couple hundred of puffins.  Maybe I might even be able to upload some, we'll see.  

But first, I had to find the root cellars and the puffins.  First I ended up at the sealers memorial.  Beautiful view. 

I had to ask some tourists how to find the puffins.  The info centre/gift shop was unlocked but unmanned so there was no one else around.  The tourists pointed me in the right direction and I managed to finally find a sign nailed to a fence so I knew to stop.  

Root cellars: 

Puffins, if you care after the excitement of the root cellar doors! I am getting these from thumbnails on my phone so these may not be my best shots.  

The scenery was amazing as well.  But that is true for everywhere. 

Next stop Bonavista point and lighthouse. 

More puffins! 

I did succumb to the gift shop.  I bought a hand knitted scarf and a puffin T-shirt.  

A quick stop to say howdy to John Cabot who landed in Newfoundland in 1497. Since no one knows exactly where for sure, Bonavista decided that his landing spot might as well be there.  

I wanted to go to Dungeons provincial park.  I asked a couple of people.  Just go to one of the many roads and turn left.  The second person even assured me there would be a sign.  No sign. My GPS claimed that no such park existed, not now, not ever.  Eventually on the third or fourth try, I did aquiese there there might, maybe, just possibly be a Dungeons Rd.  I went there.  No sign, nothing to indicate I was entering or already in a Provincial park.  But it was spectacular so I took some photos, of course.  I also ate some lunch looking out at this view (Sobey's sandwich and banana).

I finally found one sign.  I probably should have noticed the little group of people as a tip off.  

Turns out, the Dungeons are a collapsed sea cave, creating two arches.  Very cool. 

Next stop, Keel.  Where I would find 'the devil's footsteps'.  Did I find them?  No idea.  No sign to tell me, no clue what I was supposed to be looking for.  But a picturesque little fishing village with a nice pebbly beach, covered in beach glass.  

Then onto Tickle Cove where I was promised another arch.  

Oh my God!  Signage!! 

And an arch! 

I followed a little trail up and over the arch.  Which granted me a view if the other side away from Tickle Cove as the sun was starting to go down. 

Back down the path where I became fascinated by the rocks.  There seem to be two colors of rock here.  Red and green.  On Signal Hill in St John's, there was a rock quarry of green rock.  On Bonavista, ot is mostly red with the occasional green rock for contrast. 

It was time to think about dinner.  Both Brad and the Floridians recommended the same restaurant, the name of which will come back to me, starts with an S...

I had a lobster roll because Robynne, from whom if you remember, I totally stole this vacation time, told me to.  

i thought I took a picture of the restaurant, yellow with red trim, but I don't see it.  Here are some photos of Bonavista at sunset instead. 

Oh, I found the photo but it's sideways.  Skippers.  

Since I had been clearly instructed not to drive at night, I headed back to Port Union.  Where I took a few photos of the buildings.  But still not the Harbourside Inn. 

The town has seen better days but lots of signs (not actual signage signs of course) of fixing up the heritage buildings. 

A quick stop at the memorial graveyard, with a total of four people's graves and a bust of the town and union founder.  

A risky wander up a Geo-trail. There are tons of Geology trails and sites in Newfoundland.  This was only risky because I live in fear of coming across a moose during calving season.  I only went a little way into the bush before I turned around.

I stopped at this rock.  Definitely not the geo of interest But I had moose to avoid.

And back to my cosy room to write this monster. Good night. Tomorrow I head to Twillingate. I'm posting this without reading it over.  I'm tired, it's after midnight.