Burnt Head

Day Eighty Three

The weather for a good portion of our trip has been cloudy with on and off rain. We have taken the weather in stride, keeping a positive attitude to ensure it does not slow us down. Our last three days in St. John’s has been so wonderful, it’s become hard to believe, I keep thinking; when does the rain arrive? Every day has been sunny with blue skies, and just enough wind to keep you cool, we truly are in appreciation of this weather. 

With the hopes of driving the coastline and exploring some coves, we decided to drive the 300 kilometre long Irish loop that goes from Mount Pearl down to Fermeus, over to St. Stephens, and then slowly back up to Mount Pearl. We hit the highway early, heading towards Witless Bay. Shortly into the drive Lori was in discussion with her cousin Vera, via text about our plans for the day. Vera noted that she and her husband Vance did the Irish Loop and found the drive was mostly inland with little cost line. We decided to heed this advice and head over to Conception Bay by the little town of Cupids. 

We arrived at Witless Bay and drove down to a small hiking trail that ran along the shoreline. We hiked to the first crest of the cape with perfect views of the island reserve along the way. We did not see any birds of interest other than a large amount of seagulls that were busy feeding as the tide rolled out…. In the Pixar movie Finding Nemo, they portrayed seagulls as mindless birds that would only say “mine, mine, mine”. I think they nailed it, that’s all I think when I hear them now. 

After the hike we headed to the other side of Conception Bay to explore the town of Cupid, and hike the Burnt Head Trail that was mentioned in a few travel guides as very scenic. The hike was only two and a half kilometres long with a tiny waterfall and costal cliffs with amazing scenery. Along the trail there was a few boardwalks where the path crossed over marshy areas. The first few times over the boardwalks, we discovered there were wasps nesting under the boards, when the first person (me)crossed, the second person (Lori) would get an angry wasp after her 😣. After she made a few frantic runaways with poor gizmo trailing behind, I allowed Lori to cross all existing boardwalks first, of course there were no more wasps nests to disturb 😂. 

We finished up our hike around three o’clock and decided to call it a day! The sun had really taken its toll on us. 

Burnt Head Trail. 

The water was so clear and inviting in the bays. 

Gizmo did not want to wait until the end of the trail for his victory roll. 

Lots of marsh along the trail. We had to move quick over the boardwalks.

An arch in the rocks below one of the cliffs, sent the drone down for some video of it. 

Time to relax for the evening, going to try some of the local wines .