I opened my eyes and stared up at the tent. Brian had set the alarm on his phone for 4:30 am as planned, and it must have awakened me since his tent was not far from mine. He called out to see if everyone was awake...
We all made quick work of breaking down the tents and loading up the kayaks. There would be no breakfast for a couple hours so I ate a granola bar to hold me until then. We carried the the heavy kayaks down to he water and were leaving the beach by 5:30.
The winds were low and the paddling was easy. We made our way across to Western Head, passing Morton's Harbour Head, Pomley Cove, and Pearce Harbour.
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| Brian and Hazen |
We turned our bows south and headed down the coast until we came to Little Bridgeport Harbour. This would be our breakfast location. I was hungry and tired from the lack of breakfast and the early rise and my oatmeal and tea tasted especially good.
With breakfast finished we decide to take a run into the outer part of Bridgeport harbour...
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| Brian |
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| Tony |
There were fishing boats tied up at the wharf... I always seem to think of the song "Little Boats of Newfoundland" when I see images like this...
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| Brian |
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| Brian getting the weather report for the next day from this fisherman |
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| Hazen |
From Bridgeport Harbour we carried on down to Puzzle Bay, passing between Cottle's Island and Knowles Island and could see some of the houses of Cottlesville. This was a place I was keen on seeing. About 12 year's ago we had Juniper wood flooring installed in our house and Cottlesville is from where the flooring came.
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| Cottlesville, well part of it anyway |
We passed this lovely little stage... I think if I owned it I might spend a lot of time there, at least when I wasn't paddling...
We passed along the inside of Cottle's Island and then across Cottle's Bay and made our way to Intricate Harbour where we believed we could find somewhere to camp during our pre-planning before the trip. We looked around and found a spot in a little cove that would be very good for camping, plenty of wood around and a nice sheltered area up in the trees. We had paddled twenty-seven kilometres since leaving Roses Harbour early in the morning and it was only about 11 am... The wind/weather was supposed to be the same the next day and high tide was around 1 pmish. We believed we could ride the falling tide under the causeway and out Dildo Run towards the park. So the decision was made to continue the rest of the way to the park (about another 20 kilometres if paddling in straight lines) and camp there for the night and then drive home the next morning. But not before having lunch...
With lunch finished up we got back in our kayaks and paddled out of Intricate Harbour, around Farmer Head, and into Summerford Arm. Below is the last picture I would take until we reached the park. It is of Tony somewhere around Farmers Head, I believe it is just as we are going into Summerford Arm and that Island behind him is Farmers Island....
We were handrailing up the northern side of Summerford Arm. A couple of kilometers up the shore Tony and I crossed over toward Farmers Island but Brian, Neville, and Hazen decided to continue handrailing. Eventually we all met up just before Curtis Causeway. It was then we realized the tide was running against us and would not carry us under the causeway. We all seemed to believe it ran the other way when it was falling.
Anyway, long story made short, we all managed to get our kayaks on the other side of the causeway and carried on. At this time we had surpassed the 40 kilometer mark for the day. I had done a couple 37 kilometre paddles previously and had told Tony I wanted to do a 40 kilometre paddle this year. So that goal had been reached, but we were still about eight or nine kilometers from the park!!
By this time I was tired, my feet hurt from pushing on the foot pegs, I had an ache in my big toe, the muscle in my right shoulder was sore, and I had had enough of paddling into the wind for the day. A non-paddling buddy of mine use to say when you are tired and fed up doing something to "just dig deep." I always remember this when paddling (and doing other things) when I get tired. I put the aches out of my mind and I dug in deeper.
Eventually we rounded an island and the park was in site. The wind was now behind us and we paddled in. When we hit the beach the tide was low and we had to carry the heavy kayaks the extra distance up the beach. This paddle was done and I was glad for it to be over.
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| This was the very last picture I had taken |
The guys got the vehicles and we unpacked the kayaks and re-loaded the gear into the vehicles and the kayaks onto the roofs. Hazen straightened up with a couple campsites and we pitched our tents, Brian decided he would just sleep in his car.
We all headed to the showers to clean up and then drove to a restaurant in Twillingate for supper. The lady there said it was closing time but they still had some customers finishing up and she let us come on in... she said she doesn't turn any customers away. As we were sitting down, waiting for our food, the realization of how tired I was came over me. When we got back to the park we all just crawled into our tents, no campfire, no drinks... It was the best night's sleep I had during this trip!
The next morning we packed away our tents and headed for home. We stopped in Gander for breakfast and at Clarenville for coffee...
Here's an overall map of New World and Twillingate Islands showing our direction of travel and campsite locations:
X = started the trip at Dildo Provincial Park Sunday morning
C1 = Cobbs Arm, campsite end of Day One, paddled ~ 25 km
C2 = Sleepy Cove, campsite end of Day Two, paddled ~ 31.5 km
C3 = Black Island Harbour, campsite end of Day Three, paddled ~ 20 km
C4 = Roses Harbour, campsite end of Day Four, paddled ~ 23.5 km
X = ended the trip at the start point Thursday evening, paddled ~ 50 km
It was another great trip. Brian, Tony, Neville, and Hazen are an excellent bunch of guys to paddle and camp with. Like each trip I do, I learned a few things along the way and I had a few good laughs. My tally for the distance we covered was just a couple hundred metres shy of 150 kilometers. I enjoyed the first four days immensely, even when it was chilly on days three and four. The last day was enjoyable too, but those last few kilometres were demanding. In hindsight I wish we had stayed in Intricate Harbour and finished up the paddle the next day. But the long day on the water was a good test of paddling stamina, but I think it may have been at my upper limits for a day.
I wonder where the next big paddling trip will be?
(See Tony's blog entry for morning of Day 5 and afternoon of Day 5)
We all headed to the showers to clean up and then drove to a restaurant in Twillingate for supper. The lady there said it was closing time but they still had some customers finishing up and she let us come on in... she said she doesn't turn any customers away. As we were sitting down, waiting for our food, the realization of how tired I was came over me. When we got back to the park we all just crawled into our tents, no campfire, no drinks... It was the best night's sleep I had during this trip!
The next morning we packed away our tents and headed for home. We stopped in Gander for breakfast and at Clarenville for coffee...
Here's an overall map of New World and Twillingate Islands showing our direction of travel and campsite locations:
X = started the trip at Dildo Provincial Park Sunday morning
C1 = Cobbs Arm, campsite end of Day One, paddled ~ 25 km
C2 = Sleepy Cove, campsite end of Day Two, paddled ~ 31.5 km
C3 = Black Island Harbour, campsite end of Day Three, paddled ~ 20 km
C4 = Roses Harbour, campsite end of Day Four, paddled ~ 23.5 km
X = ended the trip at the start point Thursday evening, paddled ~ 50 km
It was another great trip. Brian, Tony, Neville, and Hazen are an excellent bunch of guys to paddle and camp with. Like each trip I do, I learned a few things along the way and I had a few good laughs. My tally for the distance we covered was just a couple hundred metres shy of 150 kilometers. I enjoyed the first four days immensely, even when it was chilly on days three and four. The last day was enjoyable too, but those last few kilometres were demanding. In hindsight I wish we had stayed in Intricate Harbour and finished up the paddle the next day. But the long day on the water was a good test of paddling stamina, but I think it may have been at my upper limits for a day.
I wonder where the next big paddling trip will be?
(See Tony's blog entry for morning of Day 5 and afternoon of Day 5)
