Newfoundland Kayaking 2026
And now for something completely different.
The Mission: The goal of our trip was to do some sea kayaking in Newfoundland. Have an adventure. The secondary goal, which was highly desired, was to see some whales while we paddled. Did we achieve our goals? Read on.
I was invited to join this trip as the third wheel. I graciously accepted. I shall name them Running Man (RM) and Deerfly Bait Man (DBM).
It began innocently enough, we arrived at the Ottawa Airport (YOW) early on Sunday. Clear through security, the plane is at the gate waiting to take us to Halifax to make our connection to Gander, NL. We were highly confident we would make it as the same plane was scheduled to make both legs of the journey. We boarded, I found room for my carryon bag. All was great! It was not great. Eventually we were de-boarded while they worked on repairing the plane. Departure times got pushed back, the airline found another plane for the Gander leg and we knew we weren’t getting to Gander today. Sad face. We rebooked for Monday but on a different route through Montreal.
As we arrived at the gate Monday morning we were horrified to see the same plane, same crew waiting for us. Oh no! (no offence to the crew, it just didn’t work out yesterday). We were assured the plane had been fixed overnight and was good to go. And it was. We made it to Montreal and subsequently Gander more or less on time.
Because we arrived later, our outfitters hosted us the first night onshore at their home. We had a nice night’s sleep after going to dinner at a local restaurant. The next day we were up far too early to make the hour long boat trip out to the Exploit Islands, our home for the next 4 days. It was a wonderful boat ride in relatively calm seas. We did wear our rain gear and that was a good choice.
Our home base for this trip is Adventures Newfoundland (ANL), an outfitting company that operates primarily out of the Exploits Islands. We have chosen the more civilized adoption of staying in the owner’s (Paul and Joanne) summer home (aka Base Camp)as well fed, well rested and well showered guests rather than camping on assorted islands. We chose this option for the joy of food, showers and real beds. We made a good choice.
We got unpacked, set up our kayaks to our liking and then had lunch before setting out for our first paddle.
The boats. ANL has a large collection of nice, comfortable ocean kayaks. We paddled Delta Kayaks model 15.5 GT. They were in great shape and are obviously well maintained. I found the boat comfortable and not claustrophobic. The boats have plenty of storage and are equipped with rudders. Our paddles, PFDs, and wetsuits were all provided by ANL.
Our first paddle took us out along the northern shore of the west island and then back up towards a beach on the east island. Along the way we explored alcoves, took in the rugged shoreline and saw an immature bald eagle amongst other birds. Total was 6.02 km. Winds were fairly light. Sea state was relatively calm with some swells we could surf when heading east. Normally my left leg will go numb in kayaks after about an hour, but I had enough room for movement that we were able to go just under two hours in this stint. Good thing as it’s hard to get out of the boats at the cliff walls.
We had a nice break on one of the beaches on the east island. We walked up to view the wall that protected part of the island. Some of us hiked up to a lookout whilst I had different priorities and skipped that short hike.
Water shoes: I had decided to not bring my wetsuit booties for fear of having waterlogged feet. I had gone to MEC in hopes of finding some good water shoes. That mission failed and I ended up with crappy $10 Walmart water shoes. Bad idea. The booties would have been the better choice. I did not bring my $10 Walmart water shoes home.
After a nice bit of land time at the beach and an appropriate amount of snacking we got back in the boats and explored parts of the coast of the east island. We continued to be amazed by the ruggedness of the coastline. We saw some guillemots (a bird related to puffins). While we wouldn’t see puffins, it was nice to see puffin-adjacent birds. This paddle was a bit shorter at 5km and we concluded at base camp. This closed a nice easy introduction to the area. Sadly it lacked whales.
Accommodations. We stayed at the summer home of Paul and Joanne, the owners of Adventures Newfoundland. The house is relatively new and really nice. My compatriots stayed in the two upstairs bedrooms whilst I took the bunkie. One day later I discovered the upstairs bedrooms have their own en-suite bathrooms. I’d like to thank them for sharing their bathroom with me. The house is off grid and uses solar power to provide electricity in usual circumstances. Utility water comes from a pond 1km away or from rain water catchment. There is a wonderful hot water shower. Overall, a great, comfortable place to stay.
After our paddling time we independently utilized the showers and finished organizing our stuff. Dinner was a wonderful homemade lasagna, caesar salad and fresh homemade dinner rolls. Sadly I forget what we had for dessert, but it was really good. But for me, I was grateful to have a second dinner roll too.
About the food. Our goal was all about the paddling and sightseeing. Food was a worry given how picky I am and the indecisiveness of my surgically repaired digestive system. I packed like the proverbial fat kid going to summer camp. Half clothing and supplies and half snacks (including 600 grams of peanut M&M’s as my GORP). The food was amazing. Joanne baked bread every day. I love bread. I loved Joanne’s bread! All dinners were made with full consideration of our collective food phobias. All home made. All nutritious. All with plenty of quantity. For lunch, Joanne would prepare perfectly portioned fixings for wraps that we could assemble in-situ wherever we were. Always with some fresh cookies. All with plenty of quantity. We went for the experience and the food made it so much better. I failed to take pictures of the food.
After our dinner we relaxed on the porch overlooking the harbour. We had some wind so the biting insects were kept at bay.
After a wonderful sleep and breakfast we headed out for our first full day of paddling. Despite being windier than Tuesday, we felt we could circumnavigate the larger western island. What’s an adventure without adventure? Off we went heading east to go clockwise around the island.
Like the day before, the geology of the coast was amazing. We stopped twice at beaches on this paddle in order to stretch and have some light refueling snacks. Our guide, Dirk, continued to be amazing at pointing out the geology, flora and fauna of the area. As we rounded one of the points we were treated to 3 bald eagles. Two mature, one immature. It was the first of many sightings of eagles on today’s paddles. We also saw some capelin (whale food) in a few of the coves, giving us hope we might see a whale or two.
We passed underneath the island’s lighthouse which is now owned by Paul and Joanne. We were in awe as Dirk explained how supplies were delivered back in the day and how they do it today. I couldn’t do the descriptions justice. Let’s just say it’s a lot of hard work mixed with some physics.
We stopped for lunch and a rest at the beach in front of Dirk’s house. Dirk and RM escorted DBM back to base camp while I chatted with a local fellow on the beach. Nice to meet you, George.
We completed the circumnavigation (mostly) after having covered 13km in 4 elapsed hours. We dealt with some headwind getting back into the harbour.
Once the escort party had returned, we headed out counter clockwise around the east island. We did not think the wind would be favorable for a circumnavigation, but we had to see the sea state. The paddle out was somewhat wind assisted. We stopped in some coves to have a look and eventually had enough information to know that turning back was the prudent option. This turned out to have been a great decision. The track in the image below is truncated. We paddled 2 Km from the point of the green dot east to the launch point. The red blob in the middle of the track is where we saw the whale.
At dinner the night before, we had somewhat jokingly asked Paul for a guarantee we would see whales. He pressed his imaginary (or was it?) “whale guarantee button”. It worked! We saw a minke whale not long after we turned back. It surfaced a few times nearby and the. We saw it head offshore. I like whales and they like me! Sadly, DBM missed this sighting.
Fully motivated by the excitement of spotting a whale, we headed back to base camp. Unfortunately, the wind was fully motivated to make this hard as possible. With every turn, the winds turned too as they followed the shore. Conventional wisdom says you quickly forget the tailwinds, but never forget the headwinds. I won’t forget. It was a tough slog as we leaned forward, reduced the pace of our strokes and put more power into each one. Eventually we got back to the beach where we had lunch and took a break. Only 2km left. Oh, my Apple Watch ran out of battery just before we got to the beach. Time for a Garmin? Recharged we headed back through the harbour towards base camp. A very difficult paddle into strong winds funneling through the harbour right towards us. Glad I was partially fueled by my stash of M&Ms. Back at the dock we secured our boats and walked over to base camp. We had kayaked another 10.1 (ish) km this afternoon.
Upon return, in order it was: change out of wetsuit, drink a liter of Gatorade, have a shower, eat dinner.
RM broke the news to DBM that we had seen a whale. He took it well.
Dinner was chicken risotto au gratin with carrots on the side. I believe there were dinner rolls and sourdough garlic bread too. But I was exhausted and my brain may have forgotten the bread details. Date squares followed for dessert. In the evening we enjoyed the porch while discussing the plans for the next day. The forecast was for increased winds so we planned a hike as planned B.
I had one of my highest sleep scores that night.
Cameras. I always seem to bring the wrong camera and end up using my iPhone almost exclusively. For this trip I brought my older Sony super zoom point and shoot and brought that in a dry bag on the deck of the kayak. Too bothersome to remove and use on kayak. I also brought my insta360 X3 and a clamp-on mount. Wrong mount for the kayak. Not used while paddling. What I should have brought is my older waterproof canon camera and put that in a pocket.
On the third day, we hiked. And we hiked. Our goal was the lighthouse 4km away. On other trails 4km is about 45-60 minutes of hiking. On this trail it was 2 hours. The elevation gain was 269 meters. The trail travels up and down following the terrain which includes low lying wet areas as well as some dense bush. While it was very windy out, the trails were sheltered giving the deer flies and mosquitos plenty of opportunities to focus on us. Fortunately we were fairly well covered and they weren’t actually biting us that much. Eventually we reached the lighthouse and it was well worth the trip. We explored around, had lunch (Dirk had carried that up) and tried to not get blown off the island by the wind. RM and Dirk went down the stairs that are used to get down, and back up, the 130 foot cliff. DBM and I stayed up at the top and marveled at how strong the wind was coming up the gulch.
We headed back down the trail. RM and I had decided to veer off the trail and head up a side trail to the highest point on the island. Dirk gave us instructions before he headed back to base camp with DBM. The instructions were: “head up the gulch, you’ll see a sign where the gulch forks, stay right. When you emerge from the gulch head left until you hit the rock. Mark your spot so you can find the trail on the way back. Head out on the rock and you’ll see the cairn.” Those instructions were pretty much bang on. This trail is not used very much and included much more scrambling and a fair amount of elevation. It was well worth the climb. On the way down we got “sidetracked” a few times but never really lost. Dirk had come back and met us at the junction of the trail.
Back at base camp for the same routine. Change, drink fluids, shower.
Funny story? When I awoke that morning I had just slipped my pants over my cotton sleeping shorts. I wore those all day wondering why my “underwear” was absorbing so much water. Oops.
Dinner was a wonderful moose stew with “pastry”. It was delicious. Desert was ginger cake with partridge berries and a rum sauce. Mmmm.
This was our last night. We enjoyed recounting our adventures with our hosts. We packed and agreed to leave the island at 0930. Despite the fair weather forecast we experienced significant headwinds into Lewisport. Why always a headwind? We stayed mostly dry.
We met our cab at the marina in Lewisport and headed to Gander where we diverted to the “All new Rosie’s” for lunch. From there we walked the 2.4 km to the airport. I was curious as to whether anyone would offer us a drive. This being Gander. We were offered a ride by two kind soles but we declined in favour of getting a walk in. Our suitcase wheels mostly survived the road walk.
After hanging out in the international lounge at Gander airport we flew home mostly on time.
Want some history of the Exploits Islands?
Memorial University page. Manuel Family History. There is a bunch of info on the Adventures NL website, here is one page. Or, just google it!
If I wrote reviews, what would my review of Adventures Newfoundland be. Keep in mind that nobody reads long reviews and you probably gave up reading this blog way up the page.
Adventures NL is a company that never acts like a company. They are the people they are and those are good people. Paul and Joanne always go out of their way to make sure you are comfortable, getting what you want and/or need and enjoying yourself. The equipment is great. Our guide was fantastic. The accommodations wonderful. The food is worth going for even if you don’t want to paddle. They did all of the coordination with local transport and really accommodated our schedule change when we failed arrived a day late. Hats off to them! No regrets. Expensive? I don’t think so, not for what you get. We shared many stories and laughs with them. No hesitation, highly recommend. Would I go back? If I can convince my son or some other friends to go to introduce them (and give me a reason to go), absolutely I would go!
