July 25, 2024 – Avalon Peninsula, Eastern Newfoundland Coast

 

We decided to take another whale watching tour in the hopes of seeing whales.  We booked a tour for Thursday morning with Gatherall’s Puffin and Whale Watch.  The tour goes into Witless Bay where we were told we would see whales. The captain and crew on our boat were great - many were of Irish descent and had wonderful Irish accents.  They told lots of great jokes but the one we liked best went like this:  “In England they drive on the left-hand side of the road and in Newfoundland we drive on what’s left of the road.”  We can certainly agree with that as many of the roads are very bad and there is not much left to drive on.  We also enjoyed the traditional Newfoundland music throughout the tour.



Not far into the tour – Whales!!!  Two Humpback Whales were playing by a ship anchored in the harbor.






We were able to watch the whales for a long time and got this great video – watch to the end because one of the whales waves to us.  The crew did a great job describing what we were seeing and telling us about the whales.





A final wave from one of the whales - we were so excited to finally see whales up close!






After watching the whales, we went to a small island with a Puffin colony.  What at first looks like small rocks on this island are thousands of puffins.





There were Puffins everywhere – in the bushes, on the rocks, in the water and in the air.  The crew again gave us a lot of information about Puffins.

We enjoyed this tour and especially seeing whales - the crew made it fun.


After lunch we drove part of the Baccalieu Coastal Drive.  This drive goes around the peninsula between Conception Bay and Trinity Bay.  We started on the east coast and our first stop was at the town of Dildo.  Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is Dildo’s honorary mayor.  He declared Dildo to be the sister city to Hollywood, and now there is a Hollywood-style sign in the hills above the town.




The town is very picturesque. 






We couldn’t resist getting our picture taken with the town’s mascot – Captain Dildo.







We stopped at Whiteway to view the beautiful rock formations - this one is called Shag Rock.





These colorful fishing sheds in Cavendish caught our eye.

We drove through cute towns called Heart’s Delight, Heart’s Desire and Heart’s Content and finished our trip down the west coast.

We had another great day touring Newfoundland.


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