Newfoundland's South Coast Adventure: Burgeo

Bleached tree at Sandbanks Provincial Park, Burgeo

The clock is ticking on Newfoundland’s south coast.

On June 1 of this year 59 out of the 77 residents of McCallum voted on whether to accept a government relocation package. Since 90 per cent of the population has to agree to resettle, this number was not enough for the government to allocate up to $270,000 per resident so they could move elsewhere. But like other isolated communities, it’s only a matter of time before the pro-resettlement people get their 90% and Newfoundland Power shuts the place down.

I remember in 2010 when the lights went out in Grand Bruit, west of McCallum. Grand Bruit never had cars and was only accessible by boat. But residents did have a school, post office and store. That is until the former fishing community’s 31 residents accepted a provincial government relocation program. Water was cut off, the church decommissioned, the ferry service discontinued, leaving a gaping hole in public transportation between Port aux Basques and Hermitage. Since 2010 residents and tourists alike have not been able to travel the entire south coast by government ferry. And if McCallum residents vote yes to resettlement, there’ll be a second hole in the ferry run.

Will that spell the end of tourism on Newfoundland’s south coast?

You already practically need a degree in provincial ferry schedules to work out a comprehensible itinerary. And what about that chunk between Hermitage and Pools Cove? No ferry there. No matter. This July I explored, with my husband and seven-year-old, the isolated communities between Burgeo and Francois. We had to… before more lights go out.

Burgeo Haven B and B

Sand Banks Provincial Park

You have to want to go to Burgeo. You don’t stumble on the place by accident. From the TransCanada it takes less than two hours to navigate the Caribou Trail. 

The road to Burgeo is quite pleasant. Suburban trailer parks – well, Newfoundland outport trailer parks - rise up unexpectedly at the mouths of rivers. One cabin a dozen moose antler racks adorning its eaves.

The surrounding scrub is littered with glacial erratics. Scattered caribou and moose will make you definitely want to concentrate on the road ahead of you. Avoid driving at dawn and dusk. The highway surface is not nearly as bad as some other secondary highways in the province – think the road to Twillingate.

Your arrival in the town of about 1,700 is marked by a monogrammed water tower. Then the ocean is everywhere – flat calm, protected by countless islands - sea kayakers’ paradise. The town I found is much more beautiful from land looking out at the ocean than from the ferry looking in. The inlets are flat calm with hundreds of islands making it.  

The cemetery at sandbanks Provincial Park is risking being swallowed by the sand.

Seven kilometres of fine sandy beaches at Sandbanks Provincial Park in Burgeo

We checked in to the Burgeo Haven B and B (886-2544) ($110 tax in includes hot breakfast) before walking across the street to a boardwalk lookout for a view of the bay. We then drove three kilometres to explore the seven kilometres of sandy beach at Sandbanks Provincial Park. $5 per carload for day use. Clean bathrooms, amazing boardwalk system with lookouts. The cemetery at the north end of third beach is risking being swallowed by the sand and the waves.

Piping plovers nest in the grass alongside the beach.

Three restaurants: Gillett’s Motel, Angela’s Seashore Diner and Sharon’s Diner.

Only a handful of people on the beach at Sandbanks Provincial Park in Burgeo

Hundreds of small islands shelter the ocean waters making them calm in Burgeo