Day 8, Wednesday

Our last full day on the Avalon Peninsula, tomorrow we head west.

We started our day in Quidi Vidi, returning to the Brewery where we bought a six pack of Iceberg beer and several gifts.  We then had an incredible breakfast at the Mallard Cottage which was highlighted on Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods show.  Nothing bizarre for us, just eggs benedict with smoked beef.  Absolutely delicious.

The cottage is very charming, it's a 18th century pub that's been fully restored and won server all awards for it's fidelity and authenticity.

We then headed south to the village of Bay Bulls for a Puffin and Whale Watch on Witless Bay.  We didn't see any whales but we saw a couple of Eagles, (Not as good a photo as Jenn Walker's Osprey),

but more importantly, and the reason we took the cruise,  we saw over 180,000 puffins who reside on several islands that are part of an ecological reserve.  It was thrilling with the puffins and other shore birds literally swarming all around us and the islands we visited.

No, the above birds aren't puffins, but the ones below are!  They're common murres.  They really  stink when you got down wind of them.  All the white you see on the rocks in these pix is bird poop.  The puffins only spend 4 months of the rocks, mating and hatching.  Once the weather turns they head to sea for 8 months.

The crew on the ship were thoroughly accommodating,  entertaining, and informative; singing sea shanties and sharing lots of info about the birds.  This was certainly the highlight of our first week in Newfoundland.

Obviously, she's not the captain.

Returning to land we followed the captain's advice and drove further south along the coast, first to Ferryland and then to Brius South.

I think this shot really captures the beauty of Newfoundland.

Ferryland was one of the first settlements on Newfoundland, going back to the 1590's, but it was abandoned and forgotten for centuries.  We went there however for the scenery, which was the most breathtaking so far.

This is Brius South.  Just a tiny fishing village with no gift shops.

We closed our day, returning to the Duke of Duckworth pub in St. John's for another meal of fish and chips with pou.ting.

What a great week we've had!