Translate

Friday, July 24, 2020

Staycation 2020 - Little Bay Islands; Arriving

Wednesday, July 15th, we had gotten ourselves in position to paddle to Little Bay Island from Paddocks Bight on Sunday Cove Island.  We took advantage of a picnic table where we had camped.

The day started off mostly cloudy as we set our sights on the Oil Islands 3.5 kms hence and just off of Long Island.

Almost an hour after leaving Paddocks Bight we arrived at the Oil Islands in a little cove dominated by a huge cobble bar.

I wondered why we were getting out here as Brian beached his kayak.  Turns out Brian had done some research.  As we climbed onto the upper level we saw numerous deep pits that Brian explained were food cache pits of unknown age.  They could have been Native Beothuk Indian or even predating to Paleo-Eskimo.  Seals were hunted in season and cached in the 1+ meter deep pits and covered with rocks.  Difficult to get perspective but the stick that was in the pit was about 1 meter long.  In the bottom was another archaic artifact of plastic *lol* which ...

... this gnarly tree probably dates from too.

The location is called the Oil "Islands", plural as the topo map showed a passage between two land masses.  We poked into the inlet but it was only passable at high tide.

Leaving the Oil Islands we made our way to the community of Lushes Bight.  We could see the lights of the town from our campsite at Paddocks Bight which, on location, made the town appear much larger than it was.  We were attracted to the brightly painted stages.  After checking out Lushes Bight and talking to locals it was getting close to lunch time so we ...


... paddled on to find this beach where we had lunch in preparation for ...

... our 5 km crossing to Little Bay Island under clear blue skies and calm water.

I paddled to within sight of the bridge connecting Little Bay Island to Macks Island but did not enter the harbour.  We would save that for the next day so proceeded down the southwest coast of the island to find ...

... our campsite at Suly Ann Cove.

We set up the tents, cooked supper and later walked to the resettled community of Little Bay Islands but more on that next time.

Here are the breadcrumbs of the day's paddle.

No comments:

Post a Comment