Come From Away to Come Home : Trinity by the Sea

This tiny village looks like some giant hand sprinkled brightly coloured dice on the peninsula, so square and random do the buildings look.

It's charming, and is not surprisingly popular with tourists. In the 18th century there were more than 1,000 people living here. Now maybe 40 make it through the winter, but the summer season sees thousands.

It's still very early in the season though. Things are still closed. The famous theatre sadly proclaimed not a large enough audience to perform tonight. We are beginning to see a pattern that brings a rueful smile, as we are constantly told, "everything opens up (insert date which is always the day after we leave)"

But we get the place more or less to ourselves.

Our room looked out at the winking lighthouse and the far bluff, gold in the setting sun. Later we walked that bluff and looked back at the harbour, realizing just how protected it is. Although I would not want to bring a large ship in here.

The whole area, on Bonavista peninsula, is typical Newfoundland tourism brochure-worthy. There are great trails and hikes. One of our favourites was the Skerwink, a must do. We were lucky - it was supposed to rain, but instead it was sunny and actually warm!

on one side of the trail,
lots of healthy young trees

on the other side of the trail,
trees growing too tall get ravaged by the winds

There is Elliston point not far away, where there is a puffin colony although midday there are very few puffins there as most are off somewhere fishing. But we did see about half a dozen puffins nesting alongside seagulls and cormorants on a grass-covered island cut off from a peninsula by erosion. We have binoculars with us, but only our phones for taking photos, so nothing here is going on the cover of Natinal Geographic that's for sure.

puffin!

Another hike took us along another peninsula. The Cape Shore Trail was good, but this one was better, as there was virtually no one else walking it and it afforded two great sights. A startling chimney-sized rock, and our first iceberg!