Bonavista Peninsula

The Bonavista Peninsula—a rocky thumb extending into the Atlantic from Newfoundland’s eastern face--has seen European arrivals since 1497-

                                        -when John Cabot made landfall in this vicinity.

The Cape Bonavista Lighthouse has stood here since 1842.  It marks the end of the road between here and Europe.

 Gazing over the water in the direction of London, we watched a colony of puffins on a nearby rocky promontory.

Many gulls and this family of silver foxes were ready to catch anything they could for supper.

    We toured an exact full-scale replica of the Matthew, the ship that brought Cabot and his crew to North America. 

It is now kept inside a huge building to preserve it.

The Ryan Premises National Historic Site is a series of period seafront warehouses that present the last word on the once mighty cod fishing industry.

The history of inshore, offshore and international cod and seal fishing is well covered from its very early beginning to the present day. 

Root Cellars and Puffins

The town of Elliston is known as “The Root Cellar Capitol of the World”. 

                   It has 134 documented root cellars, some dating back to the 1830’s.

More than 40 of these have been restored to optimum storage condition.

The nearby Atlantic Puffin nesting site is probably one of the most accessible places in Newfoundland to view the Atlantic Puffin.

                           They are friendly and, although wary, came very close to us.

                          This site is home to more than 400 breeding pairs of Puffins.

        

                        It is also home to a few breeding pairs of Black Guillemots

And a few breeding pairs of the ever-present gulls

                                   We found one more nice church in the town of Trinity.

With so many beautiful coastal camping sites it was hard to decide where to stay tonight , but this is the spot.