Puffins are perhaps my favourite wild birds to see.
Actually, my favourite birds as a whole are actually chickens – I’ve had them as pets since I was little and so have a very soft spot for them but in the wild, puffins are my absolute fave.
They’re clumsy colourful little clowns of the ocean and I absolutely love getting to see them in the wild.
Newfoundland and Labrador as a province are one of the best places in the world to go see puffins when they come back to land to rear their young’uns.
So, the very next day in Newfoundland and Labrador, we headed over to Gatherall’s to hop on one of their puffins and whale boat tour near St. John’s.
All in the hope of finding ourselves some puffins and whales.
I’ll just start with a spoiler alert, despite my high hopes, we didn’t actually get to see any whales, humpback or otherwise.
Though, the puffins and whale boat tour near St. John’s certainly didn’t disappoint.
The puffins, however, now those we did get to see and honestly, the sight of about 180,000 puffins, flying around, swimming diving and just waddling on the island more than made up for the lack of whales.
There were other birds too – some of which I was more familiar with and others where I didn’t even know their names until I was told.
They were all amazing to see, especially in such high numbers like this but the puffins were the real MVP, I’ve gotta say.
Suffice to say, I ended up taking far too many photos of them right up until it was time to head back to the harbour.
Best of all, on our puffins and whale boat tour near St. John’s, I got to partake in something of a Newfoundlander tradition (sans one crucial item).
See to become an honorary Newfoundlander, you get “Screeched In” which essentially involves kissing a raw cod (fish), saying some stuff and then taking a shot of Screech (which I guess is a type of rum).
Of everyone on the boat, I somehow found myself the only one saying yes to this.
Thankfully though, the raw cod was replaced with the wet butt of stuffed toy puffin (though to be honest, I’d have been game for the raw cod – I like to do things right ).
Oh, and I did have to get my foot wet too (I probably should have taken my shoes off before dipping it into a bucket of cold water).
Anyway, long story short – I’m now an honorary Newfoundlander.
Leaving Gatherall’s, on a whim, we decided to head over to Salmoners Nature Park to see if we could spot some of their resident local moose. We could not.
There was one there but it was hidden behind a tree.
We did see other rather interesting wildlife while we were there though… and it did make for a nice leisurely walk outdoors. 😀
Back in St John’s, we went back to the Quidi Vidi village, as I mentioned in this post from the previous day, where we popped into Mallard Cottage for one of their famed lunches.
It is ridiculously hard to get a reservation here (there’s limited space for meals and it fills up quickly) so, despite initially wanting to come here for dinner, we had to make do with lunch.
Immediately you get in, the dessert table (which is very much help-yourself) calls you but we “ignored it” for now in favour of cocktails, while we waited for lunch.
There’s also live music here while you wait and I guess, asides from the place being a historic spot in the city, is actually just a fun place to hang out in.
The meals might not necessarily look like a whole lot in photos but trust me, they were absolutely delicious.
The kind of meals that made us wish we had come for dinner here and worked our way properly through several of the course on the menu.
Lunch over and done with, we decided to go for a little jaunt around the village…
…before heading back to the centre of the city to properly explore parts of it we hadn’t gotten to just yet.
Read more: Best things to do in St. John’s
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