A balmy Canada Day weekend

....everywhere but where we are!

It was 27 degrees today in Rocky Harbour Nfld - one of those rare hot days they get here on the island.  Unfortunately, we left Rocky Harbour yesterday.  We're in St Anthony Nfld today, where we purchased toques to brave the 7 degree weather.  That's right: SEVEN degrees!  Dave always says that he prefers the cooler weather to the hot weather, but this is a little extreme.  Thank goodness we had the good sense to book hotel rooms for our three days in this town of 2,500 rather than continue camping in a tent!

We're staying at the Grenfell Heritage Hotel & Suits.  'Grenfell' is a famous name in this town.  Something about a Doctor who lived here and started a hospital etc, etc...  We haven't been to the museum yet to see what it's all about.  The hotel is gorgeous!  Small, only 18 rooms, but well worth it!  We had the 'honeymoon suit' for our first night here.  King sized bed, 2 person jacuzzi, bath robes, flat screen tv, hardwood floors...  Way nice. 

Except for the water.  The water here is the colour of pee.  Like, after you flush the toilet, you turn back and wonder if you've forgotten to flush the toilet!  Yellow.  Imagine a jacuzzi tub filled with beer-coloured liquid...  It was somewhat off-putting. (It didn't stop us from using it, mind you!  But we sure didn't drink it.)  It was almost enough for us to consider switching hotels for the rest of our stay in St Anthony.  I'm glad we didn't though.  When we asked, we were told that the water is naturally yellow in this area; it's safe to drink, and in fact some of the best water in the area - it's just yellow.   ...still very weird to have a bath in. 

We've had to give up the honeymoon suite for the rest of our stay though (it was previously booked by someone else); so our new room doesn't have the jacuzzi, but it does have a full kitchen!  Which, in the long run, is probably better for us anyway.  If you ever find yourself in St Anthony Nfld, stay at the Grenfell!  You won't be disappointed.

We spent the morning exploring Fishing Point, which is just where the road ends at the lighthouse.  There's the lighthouse, a gift shop (where we did indeed purchase a toque, as well as a few souvenirs) and a seafood restaurant where we had some lunch (I ordered the most nonsensical thing on the menu: Thai moose spring rolls and rice.  That's right, spring rolls made with moose meat!).  Fishing Point is also home to "Leifsburdir"; the Great Viking Feast, (think Medieval Times, viking style).  The feast takes place in a real sod home out behind the restaurant.  It's something I would have liked to do, but unfortunately, the next show isn't until Tuesday evening and we'll be back in Rocky Harbour by then.

The adventure of the day was the iceberg and whale watching boat tour.  And man!  Was it cold!  The ocean is a chilly four degrees right now, and with a northeast wind, and the threat of rain, it was frigid!  But so totally worth it!!

The largest iceberg seen in this area well over 15 years, beached itself off the coast of St Anthony just the other day.  It was a kilometre long when the tour boat first discovered it.  Since then, it has broken in half and part of it drifted away.  But the section we saw, at 700ft long, is still way bigger than normal.  It was approximately 90ft high, and snagged on the bottom of the ocean in 300ft of water.  That is one big cube of ice!  There's currently a big crack in one part of it - I was hoping we'd get lucky and be there when it came apart, but no such luck.  Lots of little chunks of ice (bergy bits) floating around too.

We did see a puffin, but it was simply flying by and didn't look like much more than a black dot.

The highlight of the tour was the humpback whales for sure.  We spent quite awhile chasing around a 40ft cow and her calf.  At one point the calf came right up alongside the boat just to check us out (of course, that's the moment I fumbled my camera and missed the picture!).  In all, we saw 4 or 5 different whales - all humpbacks.

All in all, a pretty fun day.  Dave even admitted that boat tours aren't all that bad after all!

Tomorrow, vikings!