Batterton Island

I fell asleep while parked in a little spot at the bottom of Crow Head Hill. Lulled by the wind whiffling against the truck and the mournful bellow of the fog horn from the lighthouse sitting on the hill above me. The fog was indeed thick. As appears to be the norm, the fog rolls in around dinnertime and then clears at some point late the next morning. After a good sleep I woke up early thinking of whales. I drove up the hill to the lighthouse and was gifted to a show. Humpbacks right in the cove below the lookout. They were behaving in a way that seemed odd to me in that they were literally surfacing on the edge of the rocks. The bright white outline of her fin was visible in the clear water. She finally left this cove and headed back down the coast where I had walked the day before. I hopped in the truck, drove back down the hill a little ways, then on foot, scrambled up the steep incline to get to another overlook. I was still only about 6am so no one else was around. As I panted up the hill, dressed in twelve layers, and rubber boots, all topped by my huge patagonia deep winter coat, I was surprized that the exertion didn't really generate enough heat to get warm. It was that cold. Low 30's was my guess by the looks of my bright red hands. It wasn't much of a deterrent when motivated by whale searching. I climbed up to the top of the rise just in time to simultaneously see and hear a big blow of spray/air as the humpback surfaced. I had timed it just right! I sat and watched for as long as she was feeding there and then followed back up to the lighthouse one more time when she backtracked down the coast. There were a couple of women there this time to share the experience with.We oooed and aahhed together until the whale left and then I went in search of coffee. Once caffeinated, I went to a little lecture at the Boat Builder's Museum! I learned about the boats and why they were built with really low sides to make for ease of hauling nets. They would actually use two boats in tandem that would each take a side of the net eventually bringing the boats side by side with just a little pocket of net, filled with fish, in between them. From there they would scoop the fish up into the boats to finish the catch.(see photo #3).
Now it was about 1:30 on this beautiful warm(high 60's), sunny day. I was hungry and decided to stop at the Crow's Nest Cafe which was perched, pun intended, halfway up the hill overlooking the town of Crow Head. They were out of lentil soup so I settled for a cup of chili that was warm and filling. While there, a couple sat down and we began to chat. The banter between tourists seems to flow from the starting point of "Are you travelling from the east or the west?". When we established that we had both come from the east, the woman said, "Well I can't recommend places for you to go but we can share what our highlights have been so far." That quickly moved to them telling me that the little pennisula, the one I had skipped in my hurry to get to Twilingate, was their favorite spot so far. They raved about a tiny little town with a tea shoppe where they had watched whales from the patio. So the beauty of the way I'm traveling?...I just hopped in the car and backtracked, like my humpback friend had done that morning, back down the coast to Greenspond Island. I've included a picture of the road I traveled which is Newfoundland's version of rush hour. Five o'clock, Friday afternoon. First weekend of summer. It's not quite always this desolate but there are definitely big stretches of quiet between "Outports". The radio stations actually report animal sightings as part of the news.(And during this stretch the "top 40" station was playing traditional Irish music and sea shanties.) "Moose sighted on the off-ramp to Gander. Be careful out there folks". What a lovely contrast to Fox News.Read more