What a fantastic day!! The sun shone all day and it was quite mild. We had one main aim for the day and that was to see puffins but we also knew that there was an iceberg in the same area and as we drove into Elliston, Lorraine spotted the iceberg. Yay! Our first iceberg! Around the bay and through more roadworks and we came to the car park for the puffin viewing, which turned out to be puffin and iceberg viewing.
The sign welcoming people to Elliston announces that it is the root cellar capital of the world. Turns out that there are more than 130 root cellars in the area many of which are still used to keep potatoes, carrots etc in good condition even through the freezing winters. They were once vital for survival through winters here.
There was a gravel path out to the viewing place and as we got closer there were cliffs either side. We were very glad it wasn’t as windy as Monday. There is a rope fence at the edge where people can stand or sit on a rock to see the penguins on their own island 50 metres away. There were dozens of puffins, some walking, some preening, some having conversations and some just sitting. It was great just watching them doing their own thing.
As we were about to leave we saw a group of people taking photos in a different spot and when we joined them we saw one solitary puffin sitting happily on the human side. I think it was his turn to pose for the tourists today.
Later on we drove out to the Cape Bona Vista Lighthouse. There is a colony of puffins there too but that island was much further away, so they were better viewed through a telescope.
We had a late lunch at the Puffin Cafe in Elliston after going back for a second look at the iceberg. It’s appearance had changed as the day progressed and the waves wore it down. Our lunch was terribly slow to arrive and in the meantime a really nice couple from Ontario joined us at the big table and we had a very enjoyable conversation with them. It turns out that the cook was off sick and the rest of the staff were filling in.
Our long, chatty lunch capped off a terrific day.
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