The great outdoors

I've found out in the past few days that mostly everything that can be done in this island is one (or both) of two things: 1) something outdoors, and 2) something that is only accessible by car. Because of this, a lot is dependent on the weather, which can be really disagreeing in Newfoundland.

The first real outdoorsy activity that we did was the hike up Signal Hill, a national historic site famous for various things, like being the site where the first transatlantic wireless signal was received. The next day, we headed over to Bay Bulls to do a whale- and bird-watching tour. We saw a tremendous amount of puffins, due to the fact that we went by Witless Bay, which has the North America's largest Atlantic puffin colony, and is an ecological preserve. We also spotted a couple of humpback whales during their lunch break.

The trip to Gros Morne National Park was ultimately scrapped. Matt had to leave earlier than anticipated due to a miscommunication on the part of Matt's travel agent in regards to his flight to England, so he didn't have enough time to swing by to the west side of the island for a few days. I, myself, could not justify doing the trip alone, so I decided to just stay in the east coast for the remainder of my stay, which will now last until the 18th of August after some travel plan changes.

For the time being, I've decided to see as much of the Avalon Peninsula as possible. After a few days of rain, sunshine finally broke through the clouds again, and made for better conditions for outdoor activities. Today, a few of us from the hostel (myself plus Anna and Kathleen from Toronto) were dropped off at Cape Spear, from where we would hike all the way to Fort Amherst, which is on the other side of the St. John's harbour. We started off by doing a bit of whale-watching off the easternmost point in North America. I actually spotted a lot more whales today than I did during the other day's tour (though I guess that was mostly for bird-watching). I believe they were minke whales, though I think I also spotted some dolphins, though I can't be 100% sure on that.

Anyway, the hike took quite an effort to complete. We were told that it was around a 15km hike, but what we were not told was that it involved lots of steep climbs and descents. We started the hike at around 11:30 in the morning, and didn't really get going for a while because we were too busy picking blueberries, which were growing freely along the trail. After a while, we decided that this would take up too much of our time, and we soldiered on. At about the halfway point, we were really starting to feel the strain on our legs, and after lunch time we were working up quite a sweat. About an hour or so before the end of the trail, I landed awkwardly and twisted my ankle, which was not too pleasant, but I kept going, and by the end of the trail, we clocked a good 6 and a half hours worth of hiking. It was a beautiful and brutal trail (and incredibly tasty too), and my legs are still aching from it.