Happy Birthday, Duane! We hope you are doing well!
THE ROAD TO BURGEO.
Day 159 – Fifty degrees this morning with partial sun, the weather forecast said no rain & manageable winds; so we took the trip to Burgeo to check out the scenery and the rough road conditions. We’d never been to Burgeo because the drive is long, and because of what we’ve read and from what we’ve heard from numerous people about the road.
“Burgeo is SO very beautiful, but watch out for the horrible pot holes in the road! Be very careful,” was the most recent warning we got when we checked in at this campground. The 2023 traveller’s guide book said to be fully prepared before driving to Burgeo, have a full tank of gas and be ready for rough road conditions. (Also, to check with the Burgeo Town Office beforehand to make sure the road is passable; we didn’t do this.)
As it turned out, many of the deep pot holes in the road had been recently filled, and road work was ongoing in several locations along the road. Several miles of the highway were dirt/gravel, but they were graded and not a problem. We decided, with these recent improvements, we definitely could take the RV down to Burgeo the next time we visit Newfoundland. There is a popular campground nearby, Sandbanks Provincial Park, and we’ve read there are 30 unserviced campsites and incredibly beautiful sand beaches. Checking out this campground is one of the things we wanted to do when we visited today.
The scenery was really great, changing from heavily forested hills to mountains with lakes to flatter terrain at the higher elevations with boreal forests and rocky barrens that surrounded ponds with deep blue waters. At first there were dark clouds on the horizon and it looked like it was going to storm. The sun came in and out of the clouds and left shadows on the hills. Just gorgeous.
There was very little traffic and almost no sign of people for about the first hour of the drive. Then about halfway in, we came around a curve and there was a small village with trailers & campers & cottages & cabins, and a helicopter sitting in a parking lot where several pickup trucks were parked. It was pretty easy to figure out what this little area was since we saw something similar in northern Newfoundland: a sporting community, primarily hunters, and the helicopter flies them into the deep woods to hunt moose. This was also verified by the outfitters lodge/stores we saw when we drove by. It is moose hunting season right now.
As we got closer to Burgeo, we saw little clusters of cottages here & there by pretty lakes, and several plots of land with trailers or campers parked. Civilization! Then coming down from the top of a hill, we saw the Ocean and groups of islands. The sun was shining on the water and it was glistening, while the surrounding hills & mountains were dark, in shadow. At the water’s edge below was Burgeo. Wow.
The fishing village of Burgeo lies isolated on the southern coast of Newfoundland. There is only one road that travels there and there are no services or places to stop before arriving. There is a ferry terminal which takes passengers to several tiny outport villages which are not reachable by automobile; they do not have any roads. Many rocky islands are visible from Burgeo. One, Ramea, is a 1 ½ hour ferry trip from Burgeo and is inhabited by around 400 people. This is a journey we’d love to take the next time we’re here, and hopefully camping at Sandbanks Provincial Park.
While in Burgeo, we drove around and checked out the village. We stopped and ate our lunch of hummus & crackers in a grocery store parking lot. We went out to the Provincial Park, hoping to drive through and check out the campsites, and to see the beaches. The Park was closed for the season and was gated. Nevertheless, we will camp there with the RV next time. It’s a beautiful place!
We turned around and drove back, again enjoying the scenery, arriving at the RV around 4:30 p.m. It was a long day, but we had a good time AND the weather cooperated. The high temperature today was 58 degrees. Tomorrow morning we’ll be driving to our next campground destination, getting ever-closer to Channel-Port aux Basques and taking the ferry back to Nova Scotia.
For more detailed information about Dhoon Lodge & RV Resort, Black Duck Siding, NL., click here.