From western Newfoundland we headed to iceberg alley on the north coast of Newfoundland. We had hoped to do a day visit to Fogo Island but in digging deeper into the ferry times, it made more sense to spend the night there. Thankfully we were able to make adjustments to AirBnBs and found a place available on Fogo that fit all of us.
The ferry to Fogo departed from the town of Farewell. We got a bit of a chuckle out of the welcome sign.
We had our first whale spotting from the ferry.
Fogo Island
We stayed in the village of Fogo (on the island of Fogo) and enjoyed a walk around town.
A very unique house (where our Airbnb’s host’s father grew up!) and a creative name for a Bed & Breakfast (Between a Rock and a Hard Place).
A few of us went out late to try and enjoy the sunset. We didn’t last long. It was getting pretty cold, but worse than that was that the mosquitoes decided it was time to come out and boy did they go for the head! The kids decided to stay inside and came up with this routine:
The next morning the girls were out climbing on the rocks behind the AirBnB when Annika came running into the house with a “Mom, Mom, Mom!” which could be a something bad or something good. It was followed with a shout of “Iceberg!” so all was good. Credit to the youngest member of our party for spotting it!
It was a ways out and best viewed with binoculars and the our zoom camera. We decided to finish packing and drive out to the viewpoint over the Western Tickle (a tickle in Newfoundland is the narrow straits out of the harbour).
When we got out there, we could see better that there were actually two of them. They were still a ways out and looked small without an aid, but someone told us the larger one was probably more than 30 stories tall.
There was a hike up to the top of a hill/peak but the iceberg was eating into our scheduled arts and craft shopping time (which the island is known for). So with two vehicles there was a divide and conquer decision made with the dad’s taking the youngest three to the top, with the oldest three ladies heading off to explore the art scene of the island.
Not all shops were created equal, but there were a few gems to be found.
This particular pottery studio had an incredible view of the sea. We also saw the famous modern architecture fancy hotel that looked a little out of place with the rest of the buildings there.
Herring Neck
We left the island that afternoon and headed towards Herring Neck which is just outside of Twillingate.
We stopped at a famous lobster restaurant on our way. It was quite a wait, and it was rainy night so the view wasn’t great.
We stayed in this nice AirBnB right on the water in a bay surrounded by trees and Canadian Shield rocks. It felt like many cottages in Ontario area until you noticed the jelly fish just off the dock.
Julia’s sister had coordinated with the owner there to do a cod fishing and a whale and iceberg watching boat tour. Unfortunately it was too choppy in the open waters and we had to stay in the bays and narrows which primarily meant cod fishing with a short tour of bays close by. Thankfully we had seen icebergs in Fogo though it would have been cool to get closer to some. On the plus side, we did catch enough fish for dinner!
Guess who snagged the first one! She also caught another smaller one and then Julia’s sister got one too.
Colourful buildings and somewhat familiar scenery.
We boated by a few houses with cod hanging out to dry. Our guide helped us with cleaning our fish.
We also enjoyed exploring around Twillingate. This is the view from Long Point Lighthouse & Twillingate Lighthouse.
We enjoyed a few art shops in Twillingate as well. One shop had this large human size lobster trap outside that actually helped explain how they worked!
While we were there, Julia got to enjoy her second birthday of the trip (both in Canada!). Though the cake selection was very limited in rural Newfoundland compared to Abbotsford BC, there were no ankle issues to deal with this time so a pretty good trade off.