A Whale Of A Time

Well here we are at the cusp of another week.  Our last week here at the Skerwink Hostel.  We have had so much fun here and have gotten to know so many great people.  It is going to hurt a bit to leave.  But we still have four days left, so no need to get too wishy-washy about it yet.  We shall make the most of the time we have left, as much as can physically take (which, I shall admit, is a limited amount).

When we last parted it was a lazy day at Chez Skerwink.  I am pretty sure the only time we left the hostel was to go to the store for beer or whatnot.  Lazy days when there are few guests are quite nice.  You can sit around and play a game or strum a guitar without bothering anyone and then eventually the local favorites drop in and we hang out and all is well.  The big wild party nights are fun too, of course, but quiet nights are appreciated.

I think our loafiness extended into Thursday as well.  We've been pretty hard pressed to figure out exactly what we did that day but I think it went something like this.  We probably woke up somewhere on the late side and went about doing our work outside.  A few hours of sod turning and a shower and some loungy time.  There was no one at the hostel for most of the day so it was a quiet one.  Hung out outside with folks for a while, lounged around inside as well.  For dinner we went to a local place called Coopers and got some delicious fish & chips.  It totally hit the spot though all the fried was a bit much for Krissy and she was feeling a little wonky for a couple of days.  We got back and there was a fair number of people in the house, and quite a mix of people at that.  We had a couple of older French ladies who were fun to chat with and an older lady from Brooklyn who was the happiest and chattiest ray of sunshine to ever walk the earth.  We also had the quietest and shiest girl in the world, who happened to sleep in our room for four nights and Alicia, Melanie's sister, was here with her kids and we all had a right good time.  Meanwhile, I had a margarita and some whiskey and then many beers out back with the fire. It was a spinny-world kind of evening but a pretty awesome time.

Friday morning began with Kent waking us up early to ask if we wanted to go kayaking.  Of course we did, so we get moving.  Made it down to the beach and got in the boat.  Was feeling a bit rough from the night before but not too bad.  Was more uncomfortable as, being a bit of a big dude, the kayak skirt and the PFD were quite tight and I felt a bit stuffed in the boat.  Had to leave my shoes on shore so I could better handle the rudder pedals.  We get moving and it's a bit wobbly but manageable.  Mind you, we have kayaked many times before but it was always in single kayaks (we were in a two-person boat) and it's always been on lakes or rivers.  Open sea is a bit of a different story.  Needless to say it was a bit of an unstable ride.  But for quite a while it was enjoyable, as we paddled through the harbor.  Once we passed the lighthouse, it got a lot rougher and we were really having to work hard to negotiate the waves to keep from tipping over.  We got ourselves stabled and just sort of parked ourselves over there for a while.  And with good reason, since there were at least four humpback whales feeding in that area.  One of them was probably no more than 20 or 30 meters from the boat.  Being that close to the whales makes them seem even more majestic.  They are so massive, but I was never worried about them getting too close as they are quite gentle and, really, more interested in eating as much caplin as possible than trying to menace some poor kayaker anyway.  Unfortunately, after a while the wind picked up and the swells got bigger and we needed to start back in towards the harbor.  I managed to get the boat turned around without any problems, aside from some epic bobbing and such.  We started to make our way in and we got hit by a particularly vicious swell and we went over.  While I never had any fear that I was going to die in that process it was still a very unpleasant experience.  We were stuck underwater for a minute as we tried to get our skirts unhooked from the boat and swim up.  In fact, at one point I managed to get my head above water for a gasp while still trying to break free from the boat.  Got out and got the boat flipped back over.  We weren't quite panicking but we weren't quite calm either.  A lot of gripping the side of the boat and gasping for air and stammering and such.  Kent, however, was a pristine example of a guide keeping his cool.  Later he said he was totally freaking out on the inside but he handled the situation quite well and managed to get control of our boat.  Krissy managed to make it back into the boat.  I, however, had a hell of a time with it.  I would get myself up on top of the boat and then something would happen and I would fall back over, inevitably taking Krissy with me.  We made it over to some rocks and I was able to stand on the rock, thanks to some seaweed and my bare feet.  Once we got everything back together (and kent had come back from retrieving our paddles) I managed to get myself into the boat.  And then I fell right back out and into the rocks.  Thankfully I did not sprain an ankle or crack my head open.  Finally we just decided to swim to shore.  We weren't far from shore but it was a tough swim.  Now, the water was not as cold as I imagined it would be but it was nothing close to warm either.  And I think in this case, when we got used to the water it was because our nerves were frozen.  We made it to shore and it was a pebble beach and climbing up on the shore was hard enough as it was, rocks sliding with every step.  It was particularly challenging in bare feet.  Bare numb feet.  Fortunately there were people from the lighthouse who helped us out, especially a woman named Linda who gave us a ride back to Trinity East, as any good Newfoundlander would do (seriously, the best people in the world up here).  Dave and Kent went back to retrieve the kayaks as we got ourselves dried off and set about our day's work, turning sod and laughing at our debacle.

Sadly there are no photos from the kayak trip.  I would pay a thousand dollars for video footage of the whole disaster.  Because as scary and inconveniencing as the whole process was, there is no way that it was not 100% hilarious.

After we put in some time working in the garden we decided to head over to the lighthouse and park ourselves and watch the whales.  So we went over and laid out a tarp and sat on the edge of the cliff and watched them feed.  Rolling whales is such a tranquil scene and I even managed to take a bit of a nap out there.  Krissy got lots of photos and even some video of the whales.

She's gonna blow!

A bit of whale throat.

A little bit of splashy business.

After a while of watching the whales we decided to leave.  I was parked in a grassy bit that had a slight incline getting in.  My car could not make it back up to the road.  I tried and tried and wound up looking like I was over there doing burnouts.  Krissy even got out of the car to push but that did her no good.  She just fell down.  After a while someone came over and showed us a different way out of there.  Of course it involved a drop-off so steep that my car bottomed out a bit (it was only grass, so no damage).  And the path ran wickedly close to the edge of the cliff.  But we made it out and lived to tell about it.

And that, dear readers, is why we refer to this as our "Calamity Day".   We are hoping there will be no more of those.

So anyway, on our way back we stopped into Trinity and booked a proper zodiac tour for Saturday, through Sea Of Whales.  Then we went back to Aunt Sarah's Chocolate Shop and got some more of the best chocolate almonds in the world as well as an impressive amount of other chocolates.  She remembered us from before ("we talked about almonds", she said....and we totally did) and we had a right nice chat.  She is another of many that we've met who came to Trinity and fell in love with it and never left.  There are so many of them.  This is just that kind of place.

After all that, we didn't have it in us to really do much more so we headed back to the hostel.  It was another somewhat quiet night.  We had a fair amount of guests but most of them were in their rooms so we just hung around a bit and played a round of Quirkle and went to bed since we were aiming for an early start.

Saturday morning we woke up and got to work pretty early.  After one or both of us working on it for two weeks we finally finished cutting and turning all the sod in the front lawn.  There will surely be a pretty awesome garden out there next summer.  Once we got cleaned up we headed into Trinity to go on a whale tour.  We were on a zodiac in the bay and our friend Melanie was working on the boat.  We went to the Skerwink Head and stayed there, in the middle of about a dozen whales, for three hours.  I will admit that three hours in one spot was a bit much for me.  I got a bit bored and actually started to fall asleep but it was still amazing.  To be that close to so many whales as they were feeding was just incredible.  They were all humpbacks and some of them came very close to the boat.  Sometimes they'd go under the boat.  And sometimes you'd see five of them roll, parallel, at the same time, as if it were some sort of synchronized swim display.  Phenomenal.

Fin.

See the whale?  See the boat?  Yeah.

Pretty much all the whale business you might need in one go.

Whale.  Whale.

Sometimes the whales wave to you with their pectoral fins as the go back under the water.  It's a nice touch.

The best whale photo of the whole weekend.  Krissy worked hard to get this shot and she should be applauded for her efforts.

Suited up!

Afterwards we had dinner at the Trinity Mercantile, which is this cool little cafe.  They make a good seafood chowder and great sandwiches.  If I lived here for real I would probably eat there every day.  Tasty stuff.  After that we headed back to the hostel and then took a walk to a waterfall, about 30min away.  It's just another one of those amazing little spots in Trinity East that is totally walkable and not far away.  Krissy saw an otter while scrambling around on some rocks but, as she had handed the camera to me to hold and I was walking elsewhere, there are no photos of that.  But there are others that we got on the walk.

An old fishing shed in Trinity East.

Piper, piper....

An old, out of the way boathouse along the waterfall trail.

The waterfall.  It was on the opposite side of the pond from where the trail was.  Krissy wanted to climb over to the waterfall but I had to put my foot down in the name of caution.  That happens sometimes.

The spirit of Trinity Bight.

Later that evening we went down to the beach where a bunch of the local folk were having a bonfire.  We were pretty ragged out from the weekend so we weren't too chatty or drinky but we had a good time.  All the usuals were there such as Dave, Kent, Justin, Melanie, and Mel, as well as several other people that we hadn't met yet and one of our guests, Allie, came along as well.  It was a right good time, especially when Justin got out his accordion to play some tunes.  I always love that.  Especially when he plays songs I know, like "Dirty Old Town".  To hear that at a beach bonfire in Trinity East....that's about as Newfoundland as you can get and oh my do I love it.

Woke up Sunday morning and got some work done around the house, doing our best to recover from the night before.  And it was a must because I had big plans for us.  We would hike the British Harbour trail.  This trail is about 12km round trip and is full of ups and downs on some of the craziest varieties of terrain you can think of - thick grass, gravel, jagged rock, soggy bog, bare & mossy rockface, and even up some streams.  It's pretty intense.  The uphill bits were tough but not too long and usually separated out by flat bits or downward bits.  I like variety on a hike and this one had it.  The trail starts at the Random Passage site, over near New Bonaventure, and winds through to an abandoned community called Kerley's Harbour.  There is not much there aside from a few old foundations and a refurbished cabin.  We had a nice little moment there.

Then it was on to British Harbour.  We were still in the first part of the hike and still had over 4km to go.  We slogged along, up some really steep inclines and some pretty wicked downhill bits too, over that same mix of terrain, with a few others thrown in (those log bridges were often tricky).  We finally made it to British Harbour in the early evening.  We were aiming for a particular house but there were campers over there so we slogged on to the other side of the harbour and found a nice spot on top of the rock.  We had a late lunch and some snacks up there and the view was outstanding.

Of course the tough part was that we then had to turn around and do the whole thing again, backwards.  There are no roads that lead out there so we couldn't do the leave-the-car thing.  It was tough but we were in the groove and we made the stops that we needed to make and no one really wiped out or anything so it was alright.  Still there was no better feeling than making it back to the cars.  Crowning achievement.  So much better than the Calamity Day.

A bit about British Harbour (and others like it): in the 1960s there was a big movement to resettle citizens of remote outport communities to less remote areas, where they could work, because it was costing the government too much to support them.  Some 300 outport communities in Newfoundland were abandoned.  The residents were given $500 to resettle.  Sometimes their entire houses would be moved (towed through the water by boat, no less...pretty badass when it worked) and sometimes the houses would be left to weather and blow away.  Many of these have since been refurbished and used as cabins, and many have just withered away.  Resettling is a practice that still happens, especially on the southern coast, where few of the communities are actually accessible by road.  It is practical and totally understandable but it's also sad.

But anyway, the hike was pretty amazing.  I mean it was a total asskicker and we are all feeling the pain today but I am also feeling very accomplished for having done the trail.  We had a good group - me, Krissy, Dave, Kent, Mel, and Justin, who took this trail like an absolute champ, always heading up the group and also managing to not get even a speck of dirt on his boots (the rest of us ruined our shoes in the bogs).  Oh, and Mel's dog Charlie, a girl Jack Russel with so much energy that she tore up that hike, running circles around Justin, even, never tiring out.  I wish I had that kind of energy.  Anyway, we had some good stops at some beautiful spots so that was nice.  The views we had were nothing short of stunning.

This is one of the few things that is left of Kerley's Harbour.

Most of the bergs are moving on but this one popped by Kerley's Harbour to say what up.

A refurbished boat shack at Kerley's Harbour.

We stopped at this rocky summit for quite some time.  It was magical.

These elevated mountain ponds are even more magical.  

We don't know what these plants are but it is soft like cotton.  I want to take a nap on them.

This is just one of the many streams we had to hike across, through, or along.  Scenery is so beautiful you don't even mind too much when it's being difficult.

I love the fact that places like this exist.

The remains of an original house at British Harbour.

Some of the old houses that have been refurbished into cabins.  There still is no one that lives there full time.  Not quite a ghost town but pretty damn close.  We were aiming for that yellow house but there were campers that had dogs and Charlie was freaking out, so we went over to the other side of the harbour,

It's the little things like this that make me love this place so much.

Needless to say we did not do much once we got home.  We hung out and chatted with some of the guests and friends for a bit but it was a relatively early night.  Krissy actually made it into bed before midnight and I was somewhat soon after.  It was nice to get a good night's sleep.

Today (monday, that is) we woke up and did some work around the house and then had a big fun adventure to beautiful, picturesque (insert sarcasm) Clarenville.  It was a beautiful day.  The temps actually hit 32C (or, 89.6, for yous at home) and it was a bright sunny day.  But today was a day of necessary errands so we had to drive an hour to Clarenville (the closest town for this sort of thing) and do some laundry (four loads of it!  yeah we've been slacking).  We also got much-needed haircuts and had to make an appearance at (shudder) Wal-Mart to get some necessary things.  We got back to the hostel around dinner time and got to know tonight's guests a bit.  All of the guests tonight are new and the place is pretty packed so we're all hanging out and getting to know them.  Krissy quickly busted out and went for an evening walk.  My ankle is a little beat up from all the hikes I've been doing so I stayed behind.  It seems like she got some pretty sweet shots.

A good ol' Newfoundland Lady Slipper orchid.  These are all over the place.

Another dramatic and beautiful sunset on the Skerwink trail.

The moon is back!

That is about it for now.  Tomorrow is Canada Day and that will be a lot of fun.  Surely we will be celebrating with all of the usual folks as well as guests and other locals.  Justin got a bunch of fireworks and we got hot dogs for the grill and all that good stuff.  Most of you folks will be doing the same thing on Friday for the 4th and we will surely be missing that fun but this will be a good substitute.

Oh yeah, a new volunteer arrived tonight.  Her name is Sabrina and she is from Germany and will be here for a week.  We haven't quite gotten to know her too well yet but she knows she's in a good place.  Welcome Sabrina!

We will remain in Trinity East at the hostel until Thursday and then will be heading to St. John's to work at the next hostel.  From all accounts this is going to be a huge adjustment.  That hostel is busy and it's cramped and is nowhere near as awesome as this one.  I already told Dave that we might be coming back if that place sucks.  But we'll see.  There is so much to see in St. John's and the entire Avalon peninsula and it will take six weeks to take it all in so we may just have to roll with it.  At least for a little while.  We will see how it goes and, if we must, we can just leave early and move on, come back here, go somewhere else, do whatever.  After all of this, the idea of spending six weeks based in a city kinda scares me.  If you add "volunteers at a busy hostel" to that, then it becomes a bit terrifying.  Or it can turn out to be awesome.  Who knows.  The itinerary is becoming pretty loose after this point.  Many places will be crossed off the list, many places will be revisited.  We're gonna be playing it by ear before too long.  That's what it should be about anyway.  So long as we make it to Quebec in September, we can do whatever we want.  While I wish we could stay all summer here, it will be good to move on and to have new experiences and open a new chapter in this voyage but I will always look back to our time here in Trinity as one of the true highlights of my life.

Anyway, enough of that.  Wanna watch some whales?