Conclusion - Monday, August 4th 2003

François to Burgeo, on the Marine Voyager

Clear skies, light wind, Southwest swell.

François Bay in the early morning light - the Marine Voyager (bottom right hand corner) is warming its engines at the government wharf

It's a 5-hour trip, including a 15-minute stop in Grey River, between François and Burgeo. It took 5 small days to paddle our kayaks. Two groups of dolphins catch up to us to play in the boat's wake to everyone's delight, while the colourful coast line slips by in the distance. 

7 am, François awakens.

We strike a conversation with Noel and Sheldon, two nature lovers who spent the night in François. We talk of the contrasting impressions that this trip has left in our minds. Here, nature is as beautiful as life is hard. François and Grey River are two of the very few isolated villages still surviving today in spite of the departure of their young. They are a testimonial to the hardy souls who built them and to the tenacity of the roots they have grown in this infertile soil. We met some of them but we also met some much more recent arrivals who moved in, looking for a simpler way of life. We saw how those traditional communities are embracing the new technologies of Internet and satellite communication while still enjoying a quiet evening among friends around an oil lamp in an isolated cabin. They are now meeting their most serious challenge. In 2003, the SP3 fishing area (Burgeo to Hemitage) was the only place in Newfoundland left with a cod fishery, under very limited quotas. In Grey River, while local fishermen try to get by with ridiculous catching limits, the village must import frozen fish... All along the South and the West coast, we were told that there had been no caplin run this year. Meanwhile, bottom draggers are still raking the Grand Banks.

Short stop in Grey River, with our two kayaks on board the Marine Voyager

In Burgeo, right on the wharf where we unload, a small factory has hired a half-dozen employees to salt cod. One kilometre away, the fish plant still stands like a dark ghost over Short Reach. It used to employ 120 workers. Higher up behind the village, rows of glass greenhouses warm up Coastal Growers ripening tomatoes that can now be bought in large supermarkets throughout the Province. The cod in those same stores probably was taken from the water by Russian ships!

The end of our trip... (public wharf, Burgeo)

Back at the Sandbanks Provincial Park, we meet again with Derek Mercer to exchange warm memories of our trip.

We thought we would discover this short stretch of the coast in 5 day. A whole month would not have been enough!