Chillin' in Sleepy Cove

We arrived in Sleepy Cove after a 31.5 km paddle from Cobbs Arm.  The first order of business for me, on a sunny, dry day, is to get out of my paddling ear and into street clothes.  I find it a wonderful feeling of freedom.

We sized up the the camping situation and decided to set the tents up on a level shelf on the beach that we thought was above the high tide line.

Sleepy Cove is the site of a former copper mine started by ex-pat Obediah Hodder.  It was an unsuccessful venture (you can read more here) and some of the abandoned machinery was left behind scattered around the cove, now painted bright red and yellow ...

... standing as sentinels over the little cove where hopes for riches were dashed.

There is copper in the rocks that were formed by volcanic activity, just not enough to sustain a successful mine.

The cliffs of Sleepy Cove contain examples of pillow lavas.  Pillow lavas are created when lava is extruded under water.  The pillow lavas formed at Sleepy Cove formed some 500 mya when the Iapetus Ocean stopped opening and began to close.  A volcanic island arc formed where one oceanic plate was subducted under the other as the continents began to drift together again.

It look like a jumbled mess but near the top of the picture rounded forms of the pillows can be made out.

The tide was rising throughout the evening and at one point we wondered if the tents were safe.  We sized up the level of the sea.  Did we have enough room?  We weren't sure so we moved the tents up on the grass above the beach, probably where we should have set them up in the first place.

With the tents moved and now out of the reach of the tide we set up the kitchen and began supper.

It was a good thing too that we moved the tents, the water eventually reached the level of where the tents stood.

There wasn't much wood on the beach for a fire.  Nonetheless, we managed to scrounge enough wood and picked a spot to pile it ready for when it got darker.

So, we had our ritual fire on the beach, a few swallies and some light hearted comments and laughter.

We were on a kayak trip around New World Island and North and South Twillingate Islands.  The focus is on kayaks but for me a big part of the whole trip is the camping and relaxing after a day on the water.