Chop Chop Billy Goat

We stayed in Elliston, the root cellar capital of the world, right near a puffin colony. The puffins were adorable, and very curious. Sometimes they would fly from the little island that they lived on to the mainland, and sit a few feet away from us. They would look at us with their cute little faces, like they were wondering what the heck we were, and then go back to their normal business. I loved when they would land by flying, hovering for a few seconds, and then dropping straight down onto the rock.

Along with the puffins, there was the puffin festival right in the campground. We all loved the music, especially Little Kid. There were also lots of fun games, and one of them was led by a Member of Parliament. He was very funny. When he asked who was from outside Newfoundland, Ma and I were the only ones. He asked where we were from, and he was pretty surprised when I said Arizona. I was called up on stage to do the “puffin dance” with him and another Member of Parliament.

There were also tons of root cellars, and Little Kid and I had a lot of fun playing in them. In the tiny town of Elliston, there were over 150 of them!

When we were at the lighthouse in nearby Bonavista, we saw a whole pod of whales. One of them jumped completely out of the water!

On our way out of town, we stopped in another town named Trinity. There was an old forge that was still being used, and we spent a long time watching them black smithing. It was very cool. Pa also started chatting with a sailing couple, and before we knew it, we were helping them get to the fueling dock.

I am definitely going to miss seeing puffins everyday, but there is cool stuff ahead!

The end of the earth? Well, a long time ago the Flat Earth Society believed that Brimstone Head, where we were staying at Fogo Island, was one of the corners of the earth. It did look like the sparkling blue ocean just went on forever.  On the ferry ride over, Pa and I were invited in to the bridge by the captain!  They had and old fashioned steering wheel that they actually used, no auto pilot, and a repeater to send signals to the engine room (they didn’t use it).

Fogo Island looked liked a mash of different centuries and places. The tundra with stumpy trees reminded me of Alaska, and the little red shacks along the water looked like a picture of an eighteenth century village. The people were very friendly, and it was pretty hard to just take a walk without spending hours chatting with locals. A lot of people had Irish accents!

We did a few hikes, and one of them was to a sculpture of an auk, an extinct bird. We got an added bonus: a herd of caribou was grazing near the trail!

We spent a week
At Dildo Run,
And everyday
There was much sun.

The water was cold
Frigid but clear
And wherever we turned,
There was an old fishing pier.

There were animals on the ground
And birds in the sky
But unfortunately this was
A favorite spot of the fly.

There were broken houses
Lying in a heap
But there was pretty sea glass
Sea glass to keep.

The cliffs might be steep
And the beaches few
But I love this place
I really do.

We stayed at Dildo Run Provincial Park and drove down Bowl-Me-Down and Stuckless Lane. I think Newfoundland has the strangest place names ever! But despite the odd names, these places were beautiful. There were endless towering cliffs with seaweed covered rocks at the bottom and hidden coves with pebble beaches. In some places, there were four foot gaps between the shore and the little rocky islands. Waves would roar through these canyons, colliding in the middle and sending water flying back out. When the water wasn’t being torn apart by these waves, it was the same color blue as a geyser pond in Yellowstone. But the temperature of the water was slightly different: It was freezing!  But that didn’t stop me from swimming!

The people in Twillingate were so friendly! One day, we hiked to see where a little village used to be until the 1960s, when Canada gave $700 to anyone who moved to a main road (you can google the Newfoundland resettlement project). When we got back to the main road, we met a family who had actually floated their house across the bay to the main road. We met their 95 year old dad who showed us around his little workshop where he makes wooden crafts. We were given armfuls of amazing crafts. Then we were invited in the house to see some of the old things they had. They had lots of things, including their great-great-great-grandpa’s staff from London, a kerosene lamp from the 1800s, and a picture of the village before the resettlement. They told us stories about making their own seal skin boots and walking across the frozen bay to school.

The area was very amazing and we were sad to leave, but we are excited for Fogo Island.