Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!

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St John's - Gander 581 km. 6.37 hours. Elevation maximum 239 metres)

Well, we are beginning to trek back Westward, but we are by no means done! Today we left St John's and are in Gander overnight (more on why we stopped here tomorrow), but we didn't drive straight here. Hild was determined not to let puffins be this years's mountain goats (species we wanted to see, but didn't) and she had found a spot where you can see a puffin colony without having to get on a boat! So, yes, we got to see the puffins courtesy of a 150 km detour!

You would think that the little town of Elliston would make a big deal of the puffin colony, but they are actually just as proud to call themselves "The Root Cellar Capital of the World"! To be fair, there are a lot of root cellars dotted about the town, and not always obviously connected to any one house. We wondered how you knew who owned/used which cellar (rather like the vegetable plots along the side of the road in L'Anse aux Meadows), but they do seem to like them.

But we were here for the puffins - and they were here! It was only a short walk from the car park, but quite rocky so you had to look at your feet until you suddenly looked across a narrow gulf to a big rock and there they were, nesting on the top. The rock they were nesting on was across a 20-30 meter gulf of pretty rough water so most of our photos are pretty long distance, but Hild proved that necessity is the mother or invention and held her phone up to her binoculars and got some great shots! Tammy (our new mascot) was pleased to say hello to her cousins. We had found her in a shop in St John's yesterday and as we have now given up on finding Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia Duck Toller toys to sit on our dahsboard, Tammy might have a lot of time up there. We actually had a discussion of whether Hild's collage of puffin-piccies should really be on the Stranger Things page, given that puffins are really a strange bird, but Rob needed something to add to the daily page and it is not fair to call the puffins Stranger Things because they are so cute!

There was more to see than just puffins (as if they weren't enough) as the rocks were popular spots for gulls and cormorants - and pretty spectacular in themselves. The waves were crashing at the base and it was a bit windy, but the sun was shining and it was nice to be outside. We made tea and had lunch sitting on the rocks in the car park.

Then is was back the way we had driven to the Trans Canada Highway and on to our hotel in Gander which had some nice big chairs at the front. We nipped out to buy some groceries and also popped into the Liquor Store - which we think is the provincial booze outlet like LCBO in Ontario - or Vinmonopol in Norway. We were on the lookout for the special cloudberry gin we had seen advertised in St John's and as well as a half bottle of that, Rob got talked into a miniature of the seaweed gin, which was apparently all the rage. Rob tried both and recommends the clouberry, but he is probably biased! They are both nice to just drink on their own though - no tonic needed.

Coming up: Gander Airport and Corner Brook

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