Sunday 23 August 2026

A magnificent sunrise over Trinity Bay wakes us. This is worth getting up for, even though it is 5.40am

With such an auspicious start to the day, and with promise of more sunshine, i decide I’d better iron a shirt. I plug in the iron and turn away to get some water when I hear Cherrie yelling. I see flames, literally, spewing from the power point. Being the quick witted soul that I am, I yank the cable from the wall, but not before the evidence remained.

I wear a crushed shirt today

After reporting the incident, and receiving abject apologies, we set off for Trinity. It’s a sweet little town which has taken full advantage of the many tourists

They were bumping in and I felt a need to help. But the walking poles got in the way so I retreated

It’s another beautiful day and the bay is very pretty

We drag ourselves away from Trinity and head north. We pull into Elliston which boasts a puffin colony, some of whom you met in the puffin alert a couple of days ago but our photo editor is insistent that there can never be too many puffins

These puffins, and other birds, ( but who cares?) have chosen a very pretty abode

Elliston is known for another attraction too

Store your root vegetables here, and keep ‘em cool through summer and prevent ‘em freezing through winter. There’s lots of these cellars around, now empty of course. Oh, what I could store in there. Just a bit inconvenient though when one hankers for a Shiraz.

I took a stroll, whilst she took a walk. The yacht in the background has been surveilling us since St Johns. It’s seen us from the Avalon Peninsula and now today. It’s very impressive and there’s been a lot of chat about it on the Newfoundland social pages and it’s apparently privately owned and the largest single masted yacht in the world. No sign of Gina so far

We’re on the Bonavista Peninsula, headed for the cape. En route we drive through the Dungeon Provincial Park which is part of the UNESCO Global Geopark, covering roughly 280 kilometres of coastline and featurimg rocks and fossils dating back over 560 million years. Poor Cherrie is driving and it’s clear that the road hasn’t been upgraded for 550 million years. It’s quite a feat to keep four wheels on the road whilst navigating the immense potholes. And then we come across an unexpected and wonderful sight.

Extensive research undertaken reveals that long ago most towns in Newfoundland shared common land, where everyone’s animals could roam. The Bonavista Community Pastures keeps this tradition alive by local farmers bringing their stock in to graze through summer. What a joy

Onward to Cape Bonavista. This is the very site where John Cabot landed. This is, I think, where he sat to admire the view.

Now, if any of you are as ignorant as me (which I realise is unlikely), John Cabot was the explorer who, in his quest to find a shortcut to Asia, was the first European to sail the coast of North America. He claimed Canada for England, since Henry VII had funded the trip. My research didn’t extend as to whether Cabot ever found Asia, or indeed what became of him, but he’s a big hero here. It tickles my fancy that John Cabot was, in fact, Italian. Born Giovanni Caboto, he anglicised his name when he went to live in England and beg the King for some exploration money. When he reached North America and first saw the rocky cape after weeks at sea, he shouted ‘O Buon Vista’. That phrase, too, was anglicised and so this cape, the town, and the entire peninsula, is now and forever Bonavista

Amazingly, at 3pm we found somewhere to eat in the town of Bonavista. How much salad is too much salad? The servings are ridiculously enormous and we both filled up and still left some. At least we didn’t need dinner.

Back at our accommodation there was a new iron in the room and a note of apology, with instructions that we can plug this iron safely into any outlet. Deeming it too early in the holiday to tempt fate, we remain crushed.