FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Newfoundland Trip - May 2024 Icebergs, Puffins and Dildo?!

Jun 13, 2024 | 5:27 pm

#11

curlingfan

Join Date: Dec 2019

Location: Canada

Programs: SQ KF Gold, Marriott Gold

Posts: 138

Elliston - WARNING - cute Puffin photos ahead!

We arrived in Elliston in the evening after a long, tiring day, having visited Dildo and Skerwink trail earlier in the day. We had a nice 2 bedroom cottage with full kitchen. The weather was foggy, windy and rainy (what’s new?!!!). The cottage was nice and modern and overlooking the Atlantic ocean. We had two nights here, which meant one full day before we depart for Twillingate, our next destination. There were no icebergs in the area according to the extremely helpful NL Iceberg Reports page. It's a great resource for iceberg chasing.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Newf...cebergReports/

It is updated regularly with iceberg sightings by locals/visitors. I had been following this before we left home and our best chance was going to be either on the way to Twillingate or in Brighton/Triton area (a 3 hour drive from Twillingate). So the focus shifted to Puffins in Elliston. Oh Puffins! These are tiny, cute, and unusual birds. Did I mention cute?!!! There is a Puffin colony 10 minutes drive from where were staying so we decided to go there first things in the morning after breakfast. It was still foggy and windy but there was no rain. Once we reached the entrance to the site we had to walk 15-20 minutes to get to the viewpoint – it’s an open area so there is nothing to stop the wind. And boy was it windy! We were bundled up but the wind was relentless and it was hard to stand facing the wind. We did see many Puffins and other birds. We had to use our binoculars to get a closeup of them. Although the weather was miserable, we were quite happy to see the Puffins. We decided to head back to the cottage to have lunch and then headed to Bonavista to see what it was like. We stopped at Spillar’s cove, which was quite nice. After looking around Bonavista harbour and a quick stop for groceries, we were back in the cottage. It was only around 4pm so we decided to head back to the Puffin colony again. The weather was much better – less windy and clear. It was still cold but it wasn’t as miserable as earlier in the day. And we got lucky when we were just about to head back, a lone Puffin flew and sat in front of us around 30 feet away! We calmly got a little closer and took lots of nice photos of the cute creature. Did I already mention they’re cute?!!! We also saw a few root cellars as apparently it's the root cellar capital of the world! Another successful day behind us, we headed back to the cottage. The next was a 5-hour drive to Twillingate. We were taking a little longer but scenic route, the one that hugged the coastline and there was still a chance to see an iceberg on the way.