The Harvey Trail, Isle Aux Morts

Isle Aux Morts, on the southwest corner of Newfoundland, is a small fishing village, just 8kms from where I grew up. The French named the town Deadman's Island (Isle aux Morts): we always said it was 'island of the Dead'. Its got this name from the treacherous coastline that caused many, many shipwrecks over the years.

The Harvey Trail is named after George Harvey, a local hero. He was famous for saving people from shipwrecks along this coast. Two of the most famous, are the Despatch (163 lives) and the Rankin (25 lives). There are interpretative signs on the trail, detailing these events, making it a nice informative walk.

I've walked this trail during the summer, when the seas were calm and there was not a breath of wind.

From Mild.....

And I've also walked this trail during winter, after a big southeaster battered the coast and it looked like this:

......To Wild

I could have stayed there all day watching the waves breaking. This coastline is brutal, and the seas can be very scary at times. I would not want to be bobbing around in my kayak on one of those days. Huge breakers were shooting up everywhere, and its hard to get a scale of how big some of the waves were, but here are some pics.

I took a few photos of some of the signs along the way, if anyone would like to read more about the Harvey family and the shipwrecks along the coast:

Information on George Harvey

Information on shipwrecks in the area

The wreck of the Despatch

The wreck of the Rankin