NEWFOUNDLAND – WHALE & BALD EAGLE SIGHTINGS, OUTRAGEOUS SCENERY, A WARM SUNNY DAY, PARTRIDGEBERRY DRINKS & A GOURMET MEAL.
Day 147 – Today was a good day. Perfect weather. A great boat tour. A wonderful meal. What more could you want? Warmer this morning at 49 degrees at 7:30 a.m. And sunny with light wind. This is our third day in a row with pretty good weather after four solid days of rain & winds. The weather forecast is for at least four more days of solid rain beginning Monday.
Rob took a hike on the Park’s Berry Hill Pond Trail, a 2 km walk around the pond. We ate lunch early in the RV & headed down to Rocky Harbour to check on our upcoming mail delivery. Then we took a leisurely drive to the amazingly beautiful town of Neddy Harbour just beyond pretty Norris Point. These two towns are in one of those picturesque areas where you take one look & wonder what it would be like to wake up each morning to look out over this incredible view. Words really can’t describe it. You’ve got to see it for yourself.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
The boat tour took off at 2:15 p.m. from Neddy Harbour – Bon Tours (they are the ones who do the Western Brook Pond Tour). This boat tour (the Bonne Bay Tour) is scheduled to run at 2 p.m. daily until October, weather permitting & if they have a minimum of ten people reserved to take the tour. The boat holds 90 (another reason to do things off-season – plenty of room to move around & no one blocks your view). The Bonne Bay Tour is two hours long (or more depending on what you see). In season, they also offer a “Discovery Tour” and an “Evening Tour”. They also run the Bonne Bay Passenger Ferry from mid-June to Labor Day. This 15-minute ferry ride can save an hour’s car ride. It goes to & from Norris Point & Woody Point & crosses the Bonne Bay eight times daily in season. BonTours: (709) 458-2016 or 1-888-458-2016; www.bontours.ca. Peak season is July 1 to August 31; shoulder seasons are May 15 to June 30 & September 1 to October 15.
For this tour we caught the boat at the dock at Cat Stop Pub & Grub/Ticket Office in Neddy Harbour/Norris Point Waterfront, next to the Norris Point Marine Station where an Aquarium is also located. There were about 20 people on board. The weather was excellent. We sat on the top deck with 360 degree views. It was warm and sunny with a high of 65 degrees. We took a leisurely water “stroll” thru time to see tiny fishing villages, one of them now empty, having been resettled elsewhere. The views of the mountains in the distance and the rocky hills that met up with the water were beautiful. We saw Minke Whales, two of them at two different locations, and that was a surprise for everyone. Most of the whales had left by now. We saw Gannets diving for fish and many tiny fish (probably herring) swimming in schools. We saw several Bald Eagles, adult & juvenile and their nests were pointed out to everyone. There was the sighting of an Ocean Sunfish (common Mola, one of the heaviest known bony fishes in the world, average length 5.9 feet, between 250 & 1,000 kg) by two people but when we circled around, it was gone. The guides were excellent with great senses of humor. We had a great time. We also got several pictures in & around Norris Point of various items of interest.
To top off our day, we had 5 p.m. reservations at the Black Spruce Restaurant in Neddy Harbour. The boat tour ran over, until 4:30, so it worked out perfectly. This very nice restaurant is part of an upscale inn overlooking the Harbour, Neddies Harbour Inn. Expensive, but with really good service & fantastic gourmet food, we recommend this place! Get ready our Foodie Friends! We were shown to a table overlooking the water & the hills beyond. We watched Gannets diving for their dinner. Rob had the Quidi Vidi Mad Mike beer, the best Quidi Vidi beer yet, he says. I had the Mooseberry – a fresh Partridgeberry drink with Amaretto di Saronno, Rye Whiskey, & Lime Syrup, absolutely the best partridgeberry drink I’ve had to date. Then we were brought out the Chef’s Choice Starter Sample, each was a small crepe with goat cheese & beets blended together & topped with a dot of honey & a few sprigs of an unknown fresh herb. Delicious. For appetizers we ordered two to split: Caesar Salad and Homemade Cavatelli with Broccoli Pesto, Roasted Tomato, Gruyere Cheese, Slivered Almonds, & Broccoli Florets. So good! Dinner was the Lobster with a light Saffron Cream Sauce & Parmesan Reggiano over Squid Ink Fettuccini & the Homemade Spatzli Noodles baked with Tomatoes, Carmelized Onion, Gruyere Cheese, Charred Zucchini and Toasted Pine Nuts. We split the two entrees. So amazing! For dessert we split the Apple Cheesecake – totally different than any cheesecake we’d ever had – when it came out it looked like two huge scoops of vanilla ice cream, but tasting it – it was definitely cheesecake, must’ve been whipped?, with thin slices of green apple on the side plus small bites of cinnamon baked apples & walnuts. An amazing meal and we would absolutely go back there again. The Black Spruce Restaurant at Neddies Harbour Inn: www.theinn.ca; stay@theinn.ca; (709) 458-3089. We had a great day.