We awoke again on day 6, Thursday, to foggy weather. We were in Lobster Cove in Long Harbour and had clocked just over 100 kms on our tour of Fortune Bay so far. The plan for the day was a paddle up Long Harbour and back, leaving the tents in place. Long Harbour is a fjord like indenture that probes almost 30 kms inland.
Without having to break camp we took our time and got on the water just before 10:00.
Just underway we came to Pissing Mare Falls cascading off of the 250 foot high cliffs.
The thing about fog is there is usually very little wind. The water was calm an we were in no hurry what-so-ever. We made our way slowly past the ruddy volcanic rocks of the harbour.
The entrance to Long Harbour began to disappear the further we delved into the fjord.
The harbour narrows at Tickle Beach in the distance but then opens up again.
As we past Tickle Beach we saw a red object in the distance. The closer we got the more it came into ...
... focus. Someone with a sense of humour had tied a Santa up in the trees. We all got a good chuckle out of it.
At noon it began to pour. It made no difference as we were in our drysuits and it wasn't cold.
At Indian Tea Island and ten kilometers in we crossed over to the west side arriving at Herring Island. Behind it we found ...
... this small take-out where just wide enough to haul the kayaks out and cook lunch.
It continued to pour off and on so we erected a tarp crouched against the cliff.
I had filtered some water earlier in the morning but there was no need to get it out. The heavy rain washing the rocky cliff trickled down and we had outside plumbing.
Looking back down to the entrance to Long Harbour it looked to be clearing up. It did a bit as the rain stopped but it brought with in a bit of a breeze and from Tickle Beach it was a sprint back to Lobster Cove. We were glad we had left the tents and the tarp up.
Looking out from under "Big Yellow" it didn't look like we were going to have our usual camp fire. A driving drizzle was blowing into the cove so Neville took out a couple of glowsticks that served as a fire stand-in. If my memory serves me well, I believe it was the first time in five years of kayak camping we didn't have a camp fire.
We were comfortable under the tarp and the bar was open. Last call for alcohol was early though as we made a dash to the tents. The wind and rain continued overnight and I wondered whether we'd escape Long Harbour in the morning to continue our tour.
The track into and out of Long Harbour.
They say the memory goes first... We didn't have a fire last year on the last night before getting to Trinity... it was a rain-filled night then too, and we didn't even have a glow-stick in the clubhouse!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, forgetful of me. It was wet but not as wet as this night but we were a long way from the "beach" in Kerleys Harbour, there wasn't much wood and rain was expected. At least a fireless night doesn't happen often and we made up for it in Doctors Harbour!
ReplyDeleteTony :-)