Stormy Weather, Newfoundland

Our plan was to head to Gros Morne since we left there at the start of the trip thinking the weather would be better later.

At our stop along the way for the night, we met Nicole and Marcel, a nice couple from Quebec. Marcel is from Saguenay and wasn’t surprised that our visit there was uneventful. It is not somewhere he would go back to. Good to know.

After spending a nice evening with them, we headed to a campsite close to Gros Morne only to discover that the weather had taken a turn for the worse. The forecast indicated that there would be rain for several days, so, we decided to get a ferry to Nova Scotia the next day.

It wasn’t meant to be. We received a message saying the ferry sailing had been canceled due to stormy weather. We had to cool our heels for two days to wait for the weather to ease up.

We made good use of our time. We did what any happily married couple would do to pass the time holed up in a camper… we played cards.

Not relishing the idea of being couped up for hours on end, we ventured out. We visited Isle aux Morts, so named for the many shipwrecks in those trecherous waters. You will hear the Harvey Story.
In 1828, the Harvey family, with the aid of their Newfoundland dog, “Hairyman”, rescued 163 people from the sinking brig “Despatch”, shipwrecked on the rocks off Isle Aux Morts. They made another daring rescue in 1838, saving 25 crew members from the Glasgow ship, the “Rankin”. The ‘Hairymen Safe Haven Cafe’ (named for the Newfoundland dog) was closed when we went by.

Then we went to check out Cape Ray and stayed a stormy night there on a cliff.

The next day, we headed past Isle aux Morts to Burnt Islands. So named because when the first inhabitants arrived, they thought it looked all burned.

After going through the little island connected by a causeway, we visited the Hook and Line Interpretive Centre at the Burnt Islands.

Well, it looks like the storm had subsided and we are off too catch the ferry.

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