The Hostel Life

Well we made it.  We are now installed in the Skerwink Hostel, in Trinity East NL.  It is a very quaint little place and the people here all seem to be very cool.  Still not entirely sure how we fit in to the picture here but we will roll with it the best we can and see how it all works out.

We left Gander around 11:30 this morning...a late start, yeah.  And we drove towards the Bonavista peninsula.  I wish I had more exciting things to report from the drive but it was pretty much like "trees, trees, amazing vista with nowhere to pull off for a photo, trees, trees, small town with little in it, trees, trees, trees".  Now, we love trees, don't get me wrong.  They are the reason the air here smells so good.  But, y'know.

We made it to the hostel in the late afternoon.  It is in Trinity East but we first messed up and went to just plain old Trinity.  It is a super cute, super quaint little town.  It is totally unlike all the other communities we've seen in Newfoundland.  It really has this super old British colonial vibe going on, like the town looked precisely the same two hundred years ago as it does right now.  There will be more time spent there over the next few weeks so surely there will be photos to come in some future blog entry.

So we made it to the hostel and got acquainted with Dave, who runs the place, and Kent, who also works here, and got a grasp of what we will be doing.  It will mostly be stuff like painting and gardening but will only be for three hours a day.  The downside is that we have to provide our own lunch and dinner but we have a free place to stay so that's a win.

This is the hostel.  Pretty quaint, huh?

We made dinner and went for a walk.  Near the hostel is a trail that is known as the Skerwink Trail.  It is a little over 5km and has been rated as one of the top three coastal hikes in all of Canada.  And, my friends, it did not fail to disappoint.  Fortunately the weather was on our side.  It was brisk but neither warm nor cold, it was dry (for once), and there was no wind.  Ahhhh, that was the best.  Much of this walk is along the coast and runs right near the edge of some seriously dramatic cliffs.  The scenery was breathtaking.  There was one spot, right near the cliff edge, where there were all these holes.  At first I thought they were rabbit holes but it turned out to be a fox den.  A very young fox popped its head out of one of the holes and eventually came out and more or less posed for the camera.  And, as soon as Krissy was done taking photos, the fox went back into the hole.

Gotta love that coastline.  One of many reasons why this place is called The Rock.

There are lots of sea stacks around here.  I am looking forward to kayaking around them,

I don't always pop out of holes and greet hikers but when I do I really ham it up.

The view of Trinity, across the bay.

Skippin' stones.

This spanish moss-like stuff grows everywhere, at least in many areas of the hike.  It eventually kills the tree and the result is some pretty intense stretches of dead forest.

A cormorant comes in for a landing atop one of the sea stacks. 

That's about it.  We hung out in the living room with everyone for a while but it seemed that we were all pretty sleepy so it wasn't the most exciting time.  Hopefully we will find our groove soon.  We start working tomorrow so we'll see how she goes.

Oh yeah, so I don't have a witty photo to end on but this is one little bit about Newfoundland that I have been meaning to share with you guys for weeks.  So it's pretty well known that the roads in Newfoundland are not very good.  The potholes rival any others you may be able to find.  They are so prevalent that I've made it into a game.  It's called "Dodge The Pothole".  Not very clever but it goes like this: dodge the pothole.  Sounds simple but it is not.  Sometimes they creep up on you.  Sometimes they take up the whole street, in a series of potholes and such.  And sometimes there are two and you can't dodge them both and you have to decide which one to hit.  Anyway, rather than fix the potholes (which will just bust open again) they will post a sign that says something like "Caution: Potholes Ahead". When you think of it, the sign surely will last longer than the pothole repair but it is still funny.  It's as if Newfoundland, as a whole, have decided they have better things to do than fill a blasted pothole every few months.  It makes sense but we still get a kick out of it every time.

Until later...