Thursday 3rd July- Icebergs off the Starboard Bow!

Fortunately it wasn’t the bow of our boat, which is tied up 390m south of here.  We took a tour of the icebergs with Cecil http://icebergtours.ca, and it was fantastic.   He has been giving tours of the icebergs for 30 years and is still so passionate about them, and of course very knowledgeable.  As you probably know, icebergs are very dangerous, since 90% of them are below water and their centre of gravity changes as they melt which can cause them to suddenly roll without warning.  Our skipper pointed out icebergs that had recently rolled – he could tell from the texture of the ice whether the exposed part had been underwater recently but I forget the details.  He was still cautious of course about going too close but we did get some amazing views of them. 

Teresa must have put a really big roll of film in the camera, ‘cause she took ~300 photos which she has pruned down to 136.  It was extremely difficult but she’s chosen a few to include here – enjoy! Note that one of the photos is an eagle nesting in the mountains.  The photo was taken from the tour boat. What an amazing area!

In the afternoon we went for a short and very hilly bike round around North and South Twillingate Islands.  The islands are very pretty and hilly and the weather was unbelievably warm – 33C, 92F.  We took a hike up to Long Point lighthouse and just missed seeing an iceberg calve – when a large chunk breaks away and forms a smaller one.  In fact we heard the crack and by the time we turned around, just saw the remains of the splash. 

In the evening we went for a ‘Theatre Dinner’.  This took place in a community centre and was attended by a mixture of locals and tourists.  We had dinner, then the wait staff took up guitars, accordions and various props to entertain us with music and sketches.  The jokes were intentionally corny, but the whole experience was enjoyable.  It took me (Ron) back to the middle 1960’s when my Boy Scout troop performed “Gang Shows”, attended mostly by friends and family, to raise money for the troop.