Today we woke up early and headed for the Bay Bulls to the O’Brian’s Boat tour.

We headed out at 11:00am and had the hat trick. We started with a sighting of a couple humpback whales (a mother and calf) we then saw a Minke whale. After watching the whales for a little while we then sailed over to Bird Island where we saw many, many birds. We saw thousand of puffins many of the puffins that where on the water were so full on Capelin (a small fish) that they couldn’t fly and had to scoot across the water on their bellies to get out of the way of the boat.
We finished off our tour with a close up few of an iceberg.

After our boat tour we drove around the Southern tip of Newfoundland the Irish loop in the car. We stopped at a couple of great beaches. One of the beaches we stopped at is called St Vincent’s.

St Vincent’s is special because it is a bay with a beachfront but the ledge drops down quickly after the beach. The beachfront is what the Capelin likes for spawning. The birds and whales follow the Capelin into the bay for feeding. Because the ledge drops down so quickly after the beach the whales are able to swim very close to the land. When we where there the Bay was filled with at least 50 whales feeding and playing and 100’s of gulls diving into the ocean getting their fill of fish. Some of the whales were only 50 yds from the shoreline.
We ended our day introducing Daddy to Ches’s fish and chips

We had a long smooth flight to Newfoundland. During the flight we saw some interesting parts of Canada like the open prairies and Hudson Bay. Using the GPS in the plane we timed how long it took to travel across province. Ontario took the longest to travel across on our flight. Amazingly enough to us it took 1 hour to travel from the coast of Quebec to the airport in St John’s.

Our first full day in Newfoundland we have encountered some wonderful Newfound weather. The fog has been with us on our journeys today. We went for a walk around Daph’s house. Daph’s house and surrounding area is very beautiful and is very green.


We have also visited the Fluvarium museum. Fluvarium means: “windows underneath a flowing stream”. This museum allows you to see the underwater life of a fresh water environment. We saw Brown Trout, Atlantic Salmon, frogs and an eel being fed worms.

On our way home from the Fluvarium we stopped by a story board. This story board gives some information about the Newfoundland Ranger Force. Newfoundland Range Force were a group of men who where hired by the government to help fill the void created by the collapse of Newfoundland’s political system after so many men where lost during World War I. Daph’s father was a member of the Newfoundland Range Force.

We completed our day with a visit with Daph’s parents who are energetic and fun loving people. Daph’s mother is laid up with a broken ankle after going for a walk with Daph and her brother Jim around the North Hail trail. This injury has not stopped her as she is cooking a lobster dinner for us on Sunday.

Yesterday I couldn’t update out Blog site as I forgot the password….Blogging 101.

We woke to a fine day in Newfoundland. The girls really wanted to go shopping so Daph took us along Duckworth Street very close to the Harbour. Along Duckworth Street we stopped at a war memorial.

Following our shopping extravaganza we had to pickup our Sunday night dinner at the farmers market (lobster). Daph expertly choose our dinner and Daph’s mother is cooking them for us. This is holidaying at it best as we are being treated like royalty.

In the afternoon went up to Signal Hill and watched an orchestrated battle between the French and English to the west. To the east we saw icebergs floating by and whales playing with the gulls. (no men or gulls were lost at sea in yesterdays activities). The convergence of the old and the new summarizes our experience in Newfoundland. The past is not easily forgotten but there is an excitement towards the future.


Daph then drove us to Cape Spear another area rich in history. Nicole was so excited to see a lighthouse. Here at Cape Spear there is a retired lighthouse which we took a tour around as well as a working lighthouse. In the older lighthouse they have a broom in the kitchen. The girls were thrilled to learn that the person who made the broom also made the brooms for the Harry Potter movies.

On our way back from Cape Spear Daph took us around some quaint fishing villages. One village in particular Petty Harbour has adapted to the changing times and is still a working fishing village.

Our day ended with fish and chip from Ches’s Fish