Harbour Le Cou, Newfoundland

Harbour Le Cou.

Upon returning to Port aux Basques from our trip to Gros Morne last week we found that our 10:00 a.m. ferry from Newfoundland back to Nova Scotia  was canceled, and we were bumped to the 7:30 pm sailing.  That gave us another whole day to explore western Newfoundland, and Dan suggested that we drive over to Harbour Le Cou about 30 miles east of Port aux Basques along the southwestern shore. 

Harbour Le Cou lies along the southwestern coast of Newfoundland about 30 miles east of Port aux Basques.

Dan was familiar with Harbour Le Cou from a Newfoundland folk song by the same name that he had heard since he was a boy.  Here's the first verse of the song:

As I rowed ashore from my schooner close by,
A girl on the beach I chanced to espy,
Her hair it was red and her bonnet was blue,
And her place of abode it was Harbour Le Cou.

You can check out the other verses at this this website.

Or better yet you can listen to the song on You Tube.

The road over was narrow, curvy, and hilly and passed through heavily glaciated areas, dotted with small glacial lakes and with barren vegetation on the rocky hillsides.

The little fishing village of Harbour Le Cou was charming consisting of small, colorful houses perched on the rocky shore.  There was no sign of a beach or sand as alluded to in the song, and Dan believes that the writer of the song probably never set foot in Harbor Le Cou. 

A colorful fishing village.

Houses in Harbor Le Cou.

I like the decorations on this little house in Harbour Le Cou.

In hindsight, we were pleased that our ferry was delayed, because we thoroughly enjoyed exploring this region of Newfoundland which was quite different from what we had seen along the northwestern shore.