On Sunday, June 22, we continued our road trip and managed to get a campsite for one night on the Bonavista Peninsula and visited the towns of Elliston and Bonavista. We first stopped at a restaurant in Elliston named "Nanny's Root Cellar Kitchen". It was one of the selections for local restaurants in our GPS. The name was interesting and Pam made the final decision. When we first arrived we thought the restaurant was in an old church but were told it was actually a town hall of sorts built in 1902 called an Orange Hall. We were puzzled by the name and when we researched found out "Orange Halls" were used by the "Loyal Orange Association". They served as community centers and were often used for meetings, concerts, and social gatherings. Pam had Atlantic salmon and I had a BLT. The food was good and the lady that waited on us gave us excellent directions to the Puffin Viewing Site.
The sign mentions that Elliston is the root cellar capital of the world. Not sure if that is a fact but they do have a lot of root cellars. There are 133 documented root cellars in Elliston. Out at the Puffin Viewing site there were several that we were allowed to enter. When we arrived there was no where to park and cars were on the shoulder of the road. When you are driving an offroad capable vehicle you can sometimes make your own parking spot as we did. Notice behind our truck is one of the root cellars.
A root cellar up close:
A look inside:
Walking out to the Puffin Viewing site it became apparent that we should have brought the 500mm telephoto lens. The puffin colony was on the top of a large rock isolated from the coast line. We were forced to view them at about 100 yards. In the photo below the white spots are puffin.
The following photo is the best we could do with the 150 mm lens we had on the camera.
Here is a photo of Pam with the puffin in the background:
There was some spectacular scenery at this location. Here is one of our favorites:
From Elliston we drove to Bonavista and out to the lighthouse. We thought the vistas were better at the Puffin Viewing site at Elliston. There was a puffin colony at Bonavista Point but it was also located on an isolated section some distance from the viewing location. The population of puffins was considerable larger at Elliston. The puffin choose locations like this for protection from predators and humans. They come here from May thru September to breed and then remain at sea during the winter.
Light house at Bonavista:
The puffins at Bonavista Point:
The coast line is rugged and we don't think anyone will be building sand castles here:
Here is a panoramic from Bonavista Point:
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