The Edge of the Earth
We made a relatively early start from Dildo Run Provincial Park to get the ferry to Fogo Island, about 45 km. away. We were actually looking for a coffee stop along the way, but nothing appeared. We arrived at the ferry dock while the ferry for Change Island and Fogo Island, the second ferry of the day, was loading. We got in line behind another camper van and three small cars. They were able to load the cars, but not the vans, so we were waiting for the next ferry.
While waiting we started chatting with a couple from New Jersey, Steve and Marcie, who had pulled up behind us. It turned out we had come across them before at both Red Bay and Pinware Provincial Park in Labrador. They have a Promaster similar to ours, customized by a small company in New Jersey, Sequoia and Salt. The workmanship was quite good, but it was much more basic than Speedy.
We were practically first aboard the 11 a.m. ferry direct to Fogo Island and 45 minutes later we were first off and on a new island. Our first stop was the Fogo Island Visitor Center, which was also the first stop for about 20 other arriving vehicles. After getting the local brochure and downloading the quite good Fogo Island app, we had lunch in the parking lot while all the other visitors pulled out.
Our next stop was the Saturday Fogo Island Makers Market, which was posted in the visitor center, where we ran into Steve and Marcie again. They were coming out with some tasty looking scones. The market was a bit disappointing with only about ten vendors, only three of which had food. There were some good looking pies, but too big to store in Speedy. The scone maker was all out, but we did buy one of her rye shortbread cookies.
It was on to the settlement of Fogo in the northwest corner of the island where the Brimstone Head RV Park, run the Lions Club, is located, our destination for the next couple of days. While going through town we stopped at Punch Buggy Pizza and Coffee, a takeout place with excellent coffee and scones, where we met Steve and Marcie again.
Properly caffeinated, we arrived at the park and took our previously reserved site 9, right on the water, at the end of a line of closely spaced small sites. It is a really nice park with two rows of electric and water sites on the water and a field with additional sites for tents and RVs further back. The view is pretty nice. The weather was also nice so we quickly set up and headed to the Brimstone Head Trail to hike to the top of Brimstone Head, right next to the campground.
On the way to the trailhead, we stopped to talk with a fellow from West Virginia with a fully farkled Toyota Tacoma with a bed-top tent. He runs Mountain State Overland and guides overland tours and, of course, produces YouTube videos. He had some pretty nice gear including an interesting Starlink mount attached to the truck.
The hike to the top of Brimstone Head was short, half a kilometer but straight up. Fortunately, there were several series of wooden steps as the underlying rocky slope was quite broken up. It was extremely windy at the top where there is a platform looking out to the north and the Labrador Sea. It was also posted that Brimstone Head is one of the four corners of the Earth, as postulated by the Canada Flat Earth Society. We were unsure whether they were serious or not.
After we returned to Speedy, the wind picked up even more and it began to shower as we had dinner, cheese tortalloni with home-made basil pesto. It is supposed to blow overnight, with rain showers, but tomorrow was forecast to be sunny. We planned another hike, the Joe Batts Point Trail to see the Great Auk. We also got a chance to see the Fogo Island Inn which is at Joe Batt's Arm. Ellen had read about the inn and wanted to see the architecture.
Some photos by Ellen:
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