capitalized on the iceberg craze with a lager quickly recognized by its signature indigo blue bottle and 25,000- year-old iceberg water addition. If all else fails, Iceberg beer is readily available year-round in the province. Their mission is to provide the most accurate and timely information on ice and icebergs in Canada’s navigable waters from the Bering Strait to the Great Lakes to Newfoundland’s iceberg alley. A little known service and valuable resource can be found in the Canadian Ice Service, a division of the Meteorological Service of Canada. Late May and early June are prime time for cruising bergs, but just like autumn leaves, Toronto road construction or Monarch migrations, there can be delays. Kim and I agreed that it was a necessary detour for authentic croissants and vino, despite the steep Euro and forecast: il pleuvait (10 years of French classes and I can only remember a few colours and ‘it was raining’). Clarification: Fortune, Newfoundland, is just 29 miles (a 55-minute ferry) from the French territory of St. Congeniality (Fogo Island) and southern France. With that scale in mind, two weeks in Newfoundland can involve a few figure 8’s and some backtracking because of the limited road system through the interior-which is why we decided to leave Gros Morne National Park (western Newfoundland) until next time. For Islanders wondering how PEI fits into the puzzle, the land size is 5,660 km². Newfoundland is a surprising 405,212 km² while Alberta covers an area of 661,848 km². It should be noted that the Café follows the same schedule as the puffins, and when they migrate south to North Carolina, the owners hunker down too.

The Puffin Café is a necessary stop for whatever you might fancy as the menu jumps from deep-fried cod tongues to puffin-sized wedges of carrot cake. Nearby gift shops hawk puffin-everything from toques to salt and pepper shakers and naturally, puffin poop (chocolate covered nuts). I can’t imagine the crowds that jam in for the annual July festival (both human and puffin), but, it would be fun to be caught up in the fever pitch. But, observing the presence of these flyweights (puffins barely tip the scales at a fluffy 500 grams) was the penultimate on our trip. It was a crisp eight degrees with an angry wind that blew our conversation away. It’s important to refine what you’d like to chase: Icebergs? Puffins? Lighthouses? Whales? My wife and I were lucky enough to catch the last four puffins holding ground in Elliston on September 9th (2019). You can actually feel the tectonic shift from the precipitous cliffs of the east to the glacier-scraped miles dotted with ‘erratics’ (boulders scattered haphazardly across the land from the Ice Age). If you are too starry-eyed in your itinerary plotting, the province will become a blurred landscape in your rear view as you log countless miles on the Trans Canada.Ī tempered itinerary will allow you to experience the painter’s landscape of metallic lakes, wind-bent tuckamores and sun-beaten fishing sheds. I’m not talking about budget, it’s geography. Planning a trip to Newfoundland requires some restraint.

Iceberg drive inn sunrise