January 5, 2007
Woody Island, Placentia Bay. It conjures up a bunch of thoughts. Jim Price and lodge owner Loyola Pomeroy organize the annual kayaker's weekend there in April. They even have a boat to follow the paddlers and bring them lunch! But Woody also makes a great day-paddle in the summer.
From the put-in at Garden Cove, it's leisurely 2-3 hour paddle to this resettled island. (And if you call Loyola ahead of time, you can order lunch - complete with toutons - at Woody Island Resort.) Oh, that's Sound Island, across from Woody, in the photo directly above and the Burin Peninsula in the background. Nice lumpy land, lots of wildlife (always eagles, usually a caribou or two, river otters playing in the inner reaches). Nearby at Rattling Brook there's a deep pool above a small waterfall - ideal for a mid-paddle refresher. On the outside of these two islands, one can see clear across the Placentia Bay (well, usually one out of three days) and often see huge oil tankers making there way to and from the Grand Banks glory holes.
Placentia Bay, on the south coast of Newfoundland, is a huge, ice-free deepwater bay. It's fringed with outports full of people with surnames of the original settlers and scudded with over 300 islands including Woody. A paddling paradise.
6 comments:
The bags are packed, the kayak's on the car roof, what time does the ferry depart Sydney? (Oh, hang on, my wife's yelling something at me... something about waiting for Spring!) LOL
It was the toutons that put you over the edge, right? Ask your wife to consider starting the paddling season in late April - the Woody Island weekend is a hoot - paddle in the day, party at night (keep up the cardio workout with dancing), sleep in a bed and no cooking.
What a fantastic spot!
You're right there Douglas. So, today taking a page out of your book - was telling the family about biking in Scotland - looks some good I told them. So on this old Christmas Day, since there's no snow for skiing, we dusted off the bikes and headed out for a short one around Quidi Vidi village. I haven't biked for ages (St. John's ain't your biking city - it's like San Francisco!) but made it on a rusty old 12-speeder.
Avoided this one for a while as I thought it might be an obituary. Thanks got the blogroll addition. I'm beginning to feel part of a virtual community.
Hey Grazie - it's a great community. Your site is fab - a real service.
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