Here we are for another day planning on traveling to Fogo Island tomorrow. As so often does we are heading to Tilt Cove and Round Harbour 45 miles eastward when a tantalizing sign diverts us to Fleur de Lisle and where an ancient people mined soap stone to create cooking pots. This was 40 miles to the north. As we are heading to the soap stone quarry our eyes catch a sign talking about the French Oven in Couchmans Cove. Yet another diversion. We are in the mood for French bread. It’s more or less in the same direction. The road twists down to a harbor with a few dozen homes. We follow the signs through the village to the French Oven. There it is, an outdoor domed oven where many years ago French people baked bread. No French bread for us today. The views are amazing and Wells pulls out his camera. After a bit we are on to Fleur de Lisle. It to is a small fishing village but it’s larger than where the French Oven resides.
We check out the soap stone history museum and learn about how it was discovered and the archeological research being done there. From the museum there’s a hiking trail to Spotted Point that is about 2 hours in length out and back. It traverses the hills near the town passing through bogs and windswept stunted growth. Eventually it ends at an overlook point a few hundred feet above the ocean. Whales are usually spotted here but for us it was not to be. Where is that 9 year-old girl from yesterday’s ferry?
We make it back to the village midafternoon and look for a place to eat. There are two places to eat in town. One is closed and the other, Sam’s Place, opened for business just last week. It’s named for an eleven year old girl, Sam, that tragically died 12 years ago. Her mom designed this place in her daughter’s memory. It is a place where you can talk about losses and we felt comfort there. It’s a beautiful building over the water in the harbor. We enjoy a nice lunch.
After our late lunch it is finally time to drive to places we had originally planned to visit. It’s late enough that we are not sure if we can see much but we start the trek south then east. The eastward road is one we are happy the trailer is not with us since it is full of potholes and bumps. We make it to La Scie, a larger fishing village. After exploring here a bit we now head out to Round Harbour. It’s an abandon town built along a cliff with no streets just walkways to get around. It takes a bit to find the right road and it is extremely rough with sharp rocks. The truck starts acting up where it runs fine then it mis-fires and starts idling very roughly. The only way to drive again is to turn off the engine then start it again. It runs fine for a short while then repeats the same action. We decide to turn around before we reach Round Harbour. As we head back to camp the issue continues, sometimes after a mile or two and sometimes after 5 miles. We limp back to camp wondering what the best course of action is for tomorrow.
Seeing North America 