NEWFOUNDLAND – PORT AUX BASQUES EAST TO THE END OF THE ROAD.
Day 25 – As of this morning, the strongest winds will be tonight. They’ve issued a “WRECKHOUSE WIND WARNING” for the area. Here that means winds could be strong enough to wreck a house. We found out more about where this terminology came from later.
We slept in this morning; so did the girls. It was quiet in the campground. Evidently some people cleared out very early to beat the winds. Others decided to hunker down here. Either way, we sure didn’t want to be driving the RV in winds that “could wreck a house”. At 8 a.m. it was windy and 44 degrees. We left at around 10:30 a.m. for an exploratory drive. It was windy and that made it feel quite cold. There was light rain.
Channel-Port aux Basques, where the ferry came in, is located in southern Newfoundland on the Cabot Strait, not too far from where the west coast of NF meets the south coast and the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) heads north. The J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park where we’re camping is a little west of Port aux Basques, near a small town called Cape Ray. There’s plenty of driving that can be done north along the western side of NF. But the roads only go so far east out of Port aux Basques. Today we mostly drove east to where the road ends at the town of Rose Blanche.
First we drove through the campground checking out all the campsites. Very nice campground, we noted our favorite campsites. We will come here again due to its proximity to the ferry terminal, probably in August. (But after the little bit we’ve seen thus far, we could stay in Newfoundland & Labrador a lot longer.)
We drove beyond the campsites on a dirt road following signs for the beach. We were warned to be careful of the nesting Piping Plovers. A very isolated road leading to pristine sand dunes and a beautiful beach, there were some beach homes (probably mostly vacation cottages) and a few trailers that were parked near the dunes with incredible Cabot Strait views. They looked like they were here permanently. We’d intended to continue on the dirt road all the way back to the TCH, but we reached a spot where the road was caving into the water, so we turned back after Rob scouted out the road ahead & determined it was too unstable. Just before this, we came across piles of rocks that were along the water side of the road. Someone had painted various happy faces on the rocks. I love Canadians. Good attitudes! At the spot where the dirt road was caving in, we turned around & went back the way we came, through the campground, and out to the highway. Then we went east to Port aux Basques and passed the ferry terminal on the way to the Visitor’s Center.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
The Visitor’s Center was definitely worth the time. It was extremely well-stocked with all the information we could ever want on Newfoundland (NF) and Labrador, although when we get to Labrador, we may stop at their Visitor’s Center to see what they have. The wonderful lady who helped us spent lots of time telling us the best places to visit with the enthusiasm of someone who really loves their home. She told us the best places to see icebergs, whales, and maybe polar bears (although she hadn’t heard of any being spotted yet this year). They float down from the north on the iceflows. Beluga whales? Rarely seen here, But we also got information from her about her own personal favorite places that we may not have found out about elsewhere. And she recommended many historical places to go for Viking history, Island history, War history, and St. John’s, full of good places to go (although we may not spend too much time in a big city, we’ll see). She highly recommended the Gros Morne National Park and the boat ride through the fjords and the entire northern peninsula (her favorite place).
We asked her about the WRECKHOUSE WIND WARNING. Here’s what she told us: drive on the Trans-Canada Highway west, then head north. Soon you will see a sign on the right side that says “WRECKHOUSE” and a large parking lot. Blink and you will miss it. This is the place where Lauchie McDougal & his family had a home. In this area, the mountains funnel the wind over the highway & out to sea. In the past, the wind gusts could top out at 160 km an hour. On two occasions Mr. McDougal phoned St. John’s (the big city on the east coast of Newfoundland) to let them know the winds were too high & the trains should be stopped. They didn’t believe him. Who was he anyway? The trains continued their routes and were derailed. Lauchie McDougal then was offered a job with the railroad to predict the high winds. It was said, “He had a nose for the wind”. The parking lot is where the McDougal’s house was once located. (Maybe it blew down?) And a Wreckhouse Wind Warning is what these high wind gusts are called when the warnings are issued. (We were also told that these warnings are not to be ignored by the truck drivers since many a trucker has lost control of their vehicle and over-turned during these winds. AND it was mentioned with great concern that the winds have been increasing every year lately, at some times up to 190 km, and that climate change is the cause.) We were glad we listened to the Wreckhouse Wind Warning & elected to stay for a few days at the campground rather than venturing on.
She told us about upcoming “Come Home Year” festivals. She said in every town we’d see signs that said Come Home Year, and a specific year. This is the year when all the people from this town come home for a town-wide multi-family reunion. She said we should try to be there for one of these if we stumbled on a town with signs that said their Come Home Year was 2019. We will definitely look for that. Also, she warned us that the campgrounds & motels & inns at these Come-Home-Year-2019 towns would be booked well in advance. There is also an Iceberg Festival in St. Anthony’s on the northern peninsula every year. Ten days long, the Festival is about everything iceberg, and everything about community and Newfoundland. This year it is June 7 thru 17. We decided to go. So exciting. I mean, why not?
Heading east we were no longer on the TCH as it goes from here, west then north. We were on a fairly bumpy two-lane road. It took about 45 minutes to reach the end of the road. From here to go further east along the Cabot Strait, you must take a passenger ferry. On our way to Rose Blanche, the town at the end of the road, we passed by a turn-off for Margaree & Fox Roost and decided to go that way on the ride back and have a late lunch. A seafood restaurant on this road at the beginning of the town of Margaree, the Sea Shore Restaurant, the had been recommended to us. Continuing on the road, we got to Isle aux Morts. This area of the southwestern coast is known as the Granite Coast. It kinda reminded us of some of the areas where we live in NY and places we’ve seen in Maine and New Hampshire with the rock walls with waterfalls flowing down to the water pooled below. There are mountains here with snow on top of them still. The waterfalls were pretty. And the pooled water below really was lakes that the waterfalls were flowing into. I mean, could you get any prettier?
Isle aux Morts and the Burnt Isles were fishing towns. We love how the Newfoundland people paint their cottages so colorfully. The trees here, and so far everywhere we’ve been in NF, are mostly Spruce’s that look very old & resilient, dwarfed somewhat by the winds. At times it seems tundra-like. We mentioned this to the lady at the Visitor’s Center and she said it was true, due to the winds and the cold temperatures. Also, many of the rocks are bare. It looks quite wild here and we want to see so much more!
When we reached near the end of the road, it split two ways. We first took the road to Rose Blanche and the lighthouse. The sign said, Come Home Year 2006, population 620. Thanks to the lady at the Visitor’s Center, we knew what Come Home Year meant. The dirt road to the lighthouse was full of pot holes. We gave our new tires a workout. It was worth it. There was a park which wasn’t open yet, a B&B overlooking Rose Blanche and the incredibly scenic area below, with a nice wrap-around deck (see picture with deck), and wonderful views of the coast, a hiking trail, and the fishing village. Rob hiked the trail with one camera; I took the phone & my cane and took pictures with the phone of the view from above at the park. The other road took us a short distance to Harbor le Cou. Another small village, I guess you could say it was also at the end of the road.
We turned around and drove back towards Margaree where we stopped at the Sea Shore restaurant. What we really wanted was Seafood Chowder and Garlic Bread, but they’d run out of the Chowder the night before. We got the Garlic Bread and I got the Fried Shrimp; Rob got the fish Cakes. Fish Cakes are big in Atlantic Canada. We hadn’t tried them yet. They’re made from line-caught, fresh Cod, potatoes & onion, and made into a fat patty and pan fried. Everything is fried. The food was good. Not great as we’d heard. But good enough to satisfy us until a late dinner at the RV. The restaurant was located on a hill overlooking the water and decorated with local crafts. Cute. The waitress was a local, living at the end of the road in Rose Blanche. She told us the story of the Wreckhouse Winds, similar to the story we’d already heard, but she also mentioned that “these young truckers don’t believe the warnings about the winds that come through and there’s been accidents”. AND she, too, mentioned without prompting, how much stronger the wind is these days and it must be due to climate change, with a very worried look on her face.
On the way back to the campground, we stopped at the only grocery store for many miles around – in Port aux Basques – at the “Mall”. We found a barely acceptable head of lettuce & some frozen broccoli (no, it wasn’t organic). We’d been told the grocery store was located at the Mall. The “Mall” was four stores, once of which was a rather large liquor store. Nearby were one fast food restaurant (Tim Horton’s) and two gas stations. Life in the big city. Back at the RV we settled in and relaxed. It rained on and off all day, but the rain really picked up in the evening. The winds continued and we were very glad to be in a protected area. Really high gusts. No thank you.