Puff Puff Puffin

So we have now been at the Skerwink Hostel for three days and so far so good.  It is pretty slow here so far but we have had some really cool characters coming through here, both travelers and locals, so we are always entertained.  The work is pretty easy, just three hours a day of various projects.  One day we did some light cleaning at the hostel and yesterday we did a more hardcore cleaning at a place that is owned by the hostel.  But we can't argue with the commitment.  It's given us a chance to go see and do cool things in the afternoons.

We had a bunch of errands we had to take care of on Wednesday and it was raining so we dealt with that.  We drove up to Bonavista and got our laundry done and did some grocery shopping.  It is nice to have access to a real kitchen after so long.  Even nicer is to be able to cook food - real, honest to goodness food - after so long.  The downside, of course, is that food here is not cheap.  Some of it is, like a lot of the meat and grocery aisle items are comparable to the prices at home, but other things like dairy items cost anywhere from $2-5 more than at home.  And don't even get me started on the price of beer.  But it comes with the territory so we pay it, no big deal.

Krissy had a headache so she went to bed after dinner and I stayed up with Jamie and Nathaniel, two of the visiting guests here, and watched Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals.  Despite being in Canada I really haven't had much opportunity to watch hockey while I've been up here so any chance to see a game - even if it is between the Kings and the Rangers - is a welcome one.

Yesterday we went and dealt with that house in Melrose.  Fortunately that house has a great view of some amazing icebergs.  Even though we've been seeing icebergs for a while now they never seem to get old.

Icebergs never look as big in photos as they do in real life.  This bugger is huge.  And if you looked behind the rock you would see that the berg is more than that big chunk but there is some more business off to the right, but this was the best photo so this is the one you get.  

A beautiful vista of icebergs.  These are all quite far from shore, some further than others.

Once we got back to the hostel and got cleaned up we went on a hike to a place called Fox Island.  Technically it is an island but not because it is connected by an isthmus.  What a beautiful place.  Once you cross the isthmus the climb up to the island is so steep that there are ropes rigged up and you need to hang on to them for dear life.  Once you make it up to the top, however, it is totally worth it.  I wish we had more photos of the rolling meadow that sat at the top of the island but this trail is close by so we shall surely hike it again, preferably on a less windy day.  Because the wind yesterday was wicked.  The wind here is always wicked but yesterday...there were times when it almost blew us over.  We did our best to stay away from cliffsides and whatnot.  The fortunate thing about the wind is that it blew all the clouds away and we had our first sunny day in over a week.  That amounts to a lot, you bet.

Oh yeah, when we were up there we totally witnessed a sky battle between two ravens and a bald eagle.  I don't know what the eagle did to piss off the ravens but they were on his tail for a solid five minutes at least before the ravens just tired out and gave up.  The eagle's ducks and rolls, and the ravens' following reminded me of the end of Star Wars, when the tie-fighters were after Luke in the X-Wing, except without the inevitable crash and burn.

This is Fox Island from a bit of a distance.

Scaling the side of Fox Island.

A bit of the top of Fox Island with Trinity East in the background.

At the summit of Fox Island.  The wind there was ridiculous.

This is just around the beginning of the battle.  Unfortunately it is the only photo we got that doesn't look like total chaos.  

The rocky shore at the base of Fox Island.

An old fishing cabin that sits near the trail to Fox Island.  You see these little huts everywhere but this is one of the best we've seen.

From there we drove up to Elliston which is the home to one of the largest puffin colonies in North America.  As if the wind wasn't blowing hard enough, up there it was even crazier.  Of course, when we talked to locals about it, they just called it a "light summer breeze".  Because that is how Newfoundlanders are.  The wind was so crazy, in fact, that all the icebergs that weren't grounded were rolling in the sea.  Some of them were also breaking apart, leaving all sorts of "bergie bits" on the shore.  Eventually we made it to where the puffins are and, oh wow, those little things are adorable.  They are currently inhabiting the top of a sea stack, just a little ways off of a wild bluff.  You can see them well enough - the cover the whole thing - but zoom is a wonderful thing.  The word is, however, that if you come back later in June, they tend to come over to the land and will hang out with you.  Needless to say we will definitely be going back.

Bergs of all shapes and sizes, courtesy of mother nature's fury.

Oh yeah, aside from the whole puffin thing, Elliston is apparently the "root cellar capital of the world".  I put that in quotes but I would be inclined to believe them.  These things are everywhere.  As the name suggests, these things would be built into the side of the hill and be used to store and preserve the yields of root veggies (potatoes and turnips are very big here) for the winter.  Since we were here for the puffins and not the cellars, I will definitely have to go back and learn more about these weird little Hobbit holes.

Holy Moly, look at all those puffins.  All the holes you see are their burrows.  There are puffins in many of those as well.  And more puffins outside the frame of this photo.  And some in the air too.  Watching them fly is hilarious.  But unlike most of their relatives, they actually can fly, so I can't really make fun of them.

So one puffin says to another puffin......
(best caption wins a prize)

More root cellars.

From there we went back to the hostel for dinner.  Word was that there was going to be cheap lobster available but that did not pan out so we made some awesome pasta and drank beer and wine and hung out with the other guests and local friends.  Eventually we broke out the Cards Against Humanity and had a right old silly time.  These are some of my favorite parts of this trip, meeting and hanging out with new people.  Last night was the first night of sharing a room with strangers and I will admit that it is kind of weird but we'll soon get used to it.  It is worth it for all the fun and adventures and such.

Not sure what we shall be doing today.  A few hours work which will happen soon and some time outside.  Looks like another nice day, but another windy day.  Whatever we wind up doing, you'll be sure to learn about in the next blog.

Exactly.