Stick your paddle in! Sea kayaking in Newfoundland offers great scenery, and thrills to boot BY DENISE FLINT
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and Bartlett and his kayak landed safely, right side up, back on the surface of the water, no harm done. He laughs about it now but admits, “I didn’t know how that was going to turn out. It was an amazing experience—after the fact.” Although Bartlett’s experience was the kind that only happens once in a lifetime— if then—sea kayaking in Newfoundland features on many bucket lists. And it’s not just for the opportunity to get close to the whales, although that certainly features in the equation. Becky O’Keefe and her partner, Alex Chafe, run Wild Gros Morne on the island’s west coast. Their kayaking tours are based
in Bonne Bay, which O’Keefe calls the perfect location: a fjord where two glaciers met some 15,000 years ago. Frequent animal sightings include humpbacks, minkes, white-sided dolphins, tuna and schools of mackerel that make the water look like it’s bubbling, as well as river otters and foxes on the secluded beaches that kayakers are able to access. “It’s a lively area, but that’s a bonus,” says O’Keefe, whose company focusses on interpretation and education about the area. “The scenery is what’s special about Bonne Bay. You’re seeing the layers of colour, with great views of Gros Morne Mountain and all the little communities,
NANCY NEUMAN
BIGSTOCK/PIXELSAWAY
he humpback didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. “Skipper” Bob Bartlett, owner of Trinity Eco-Tours in Trinity, Newfoundland, had been watching it approach. A member of his tour group had just asked if a whale ever came too close to the kayaks and he was patiently explaining that the animal knew what it was doing, knew where the kayaks were and would never do such a thing. “I didn’t have the words out of my mouth when I was picked up,” he exclaims. Bartlett found himself riding the whale’s back as it came up to blow. The animal submerged again almost immediately, possibly because it realised it had an inadvertent passenger,
Trinity Eco-Tours
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NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
