NEWFOUNDLAND – FRENCHMEN’S COVE TO BURIN.
Day 71 – Partly cloudy this morning & a little hazy, 54 degrees at 7:30 a.m. Rob went kayaking to a different area of the Bay this morning, also encountering protective Gulls & their chicks. Even though the weekend is here, we still don’t have people camped around us; it has been nice & quiet. We packed our lunches & headed out for more exploring.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
We drove south again along the west coast, passing where we’d left off yesterday and turning east along the bottom of the peninsula.Along the way, we stopped to view Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, which are French territories just off the coast.
Next, We stopped at the town of Lamaline to visit the Lamaline Heritage Museum. It was located in a small, very old building that had been nicely maintained. We’d both wanted to visit this specific area of the Burin Peninsula since we both read the book, Tsunami, The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster. This building was once a family home that was picked up & carried out to sea by the 1929 Tsunami. After the wave brought the house back in to the Bay and dumped it back down, it was lovingly restored & moved, and it now acts as the home of the Museum. The whole story of the Tsunami & artifacts from the time period are available to see during the tour of the house.
Lamaline was not the only small fishing village virtually destroyed by the earthquake & subsequent tsunami of 1929. As we drove the lower coastline, many of the small towns had memorial plaques & displays. And you could absolutely see how this could have happened. In several locations the Ocean comes into bays through relatively small openings between two rock cliffs. Homes, at that time, were put up at water level close to the fishing equipment each family used. The water suddenly was sucked out of these bays & soon came roaring back in through these narrow openings, the water 30 to 50 feet tall in a big wave, which picked up everything in its path. Families were taken while inside their houses and swept out to sea, only to be returned (in some cases) and dropped back down in another location. 28 people died, including almost entire families. This happened in November. The weather was freezing. People lost everything. And at that time, there were no roads leading from one city or town to another.
We continued on our trek. We visited several charming towns like, for example, Allen’s Island, Taylor’s Bay, Lord’s Cove, and the incredibly beautiful town of Lawn; all had been adversely effected by the Tsunami. We passed through the larger city of St. Lawrence, then began heading north, back up the peninsula, until we reached the city of Burin.
Burin is a decent-sized city. It’s spread out and has many faces. When you think you’ve seen it all, there’s another road to take that leads to an older area. Or another road goes up a hill by lovely churches. Or a road wraps around the harbor & has a wonderful boardwalk. Or there’s the older historic homes overlooking islands in the bay. It was a quirky town with painted homes or sidewalks or benches. When you first pass the “Welcome to the Town of Burin” sign, the homes are newish and fancy, nothing to get your juices flowing. But then you enter another section of the town and you’re in a different world. After the Tsunami, Burin was the focal point for the ships coming in from St. John’s with help & supplies for the ravaged towns. Their telegraph was the hub where information was passed on to other areas of the world.
A very interesting day. We will never build a home at the same level as the water, that’s for sure. We got back to the RV around 5 p.m., went out to the tent for a little bit, then had dinner – still eating that Chili. The high today was a wonderful 74 degrees inland; along the coast it was around 59 degrees. There is still no one parking near us at the campground. Tomorrow, more exploring.