Further Wanderings

Here we’ll recap the past several days. After one more visit to the Puffin site we decide on our next area to explore. We hope to head to Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve about 200 miles south of our current location. We have mixed feelings about this location which we’ve visited in a previous Newfoundland adventure. It’s one of six major North American Northern Gannett nesting sites. In normal years one can view tens of thousands of nesting pairs of Northern Gannetts, but this is not a normal year. Thinking back over the past few days we’ve observed many dead Common Murres floating in the ocean as well as washed up on the shore. The Common Murre and Northern Gannett have been decimated by the Avian Flu. On our boat trip looking for the Stellar’s Sea Eagle we’ve seen both species floating dead in the water.

The Northern Gannett colony has been hit extremely hard by the Avian Flu. Online photographs show the massive sea stack totally covered with nesting pairs earlier in the summer. Now, photographs show thousands of nesting pairs no longer living. Biologists now believe that it will not wipe out the colony, but will reduce the size for years to come.

This is our dilemma, travel the distance to see the devastation or bypass it for this year. We decide to see what the weather dictates since Cape St. Mary’s experiences heavy fog about 220 days each year. During these foggy periods visibility is reduced and it’s often hard to see the birds. A check of the forecast for the next several days revels rain and fog. This influences our decision so that we’ll visit St. John’s first then check the weather. We move to Butter Pot Provincial Park twenty miles outside the province’s largest city. We do a supply run then visit The Rooms, a major Newfoundland and Labrador museum dedicated to the cultural heritage and history of the Province.  It’s an impressive modern facility overlooking St. John’s Harbour.

On another day of wanderings we elect to explore the northern coastal area north of St. John’s. The coast views are dramatic and desolate sprinkled with many small coastal villages. These villages have quaint names including Harbour Grace, Bristol’s Hope, Heart’s Content, Heart’s Desire, Heart’s Delight, Hopeall, and Dildo, yes Dildo. All seem as if they could be names chosen by a marketing firm. Only Dildo uses the name for marketing and with impressive success. This is the home of the Dildo Brewing Company. We’ve visited here back in 2019 but found the brewery overwhelmed with tourists. Today we had hoped for a smaller crowd, but with no luck. The marketing phrase, already taken by Budweiser of “This Bud’s for You,” could be slightly changed for the Dildo Brewery to “This Beer’s for You.” Across the road is the Dildo Gift Shop so we wonder what sort of gifts do they sell?

The following day is a washout with plenty of rain continuing into the night. In the morning we find our trailer is three quarters surrounded by three inches of water. Our generator was stored under that back of the trailer and in the water. Pulling the generator out of the water we let it drain for a while then attempt to start it. It starts on the first pull. We avoid a disaster and count our good fortune. In checking the weather for the next couple of days and we see no improvement for Cape St. Mary’s. Our decision is made, we’ll leave here and start our trek west, but to where?

As we approach Gander we decide to head north to Fogo Island. Our next blog entry will start there.