North to the Norseland, Newfoundland

L’Anse aux Meadows

The world UNESCO site is a recent archaeological site at the very top of Newfoundland that was started in the 1960’s. In 1968 the discovery of a cloak pin and other artifacts supported the Norse Vinland sagas of Straumfjord and the existence of this 11th century encampment village. Further excavation revealed eight Icelandic Style buildings.

Evidently the Norse were in search of Vinland (grapes) which they found some in New Brunswick, but this village was thought to mostly be an encampment for further exploration. There was evidence of interactions with the indigenous people, but the abrupt abandonment of the Norse encampment is only hypothesized.

Maybe they didn’t like getting sleek ships all muddy from the Bay of Fundy massive mud tides in Vinland?

We did a “Hiking with a Viking” tour where we heard some of the Norse sagas as well as ghost stories of the area as we wandered around the grounds.

This was a tour sponsored by the annual St. Anthony Iceberg Festival and we even saw an faraway iceberg “Turtle” – I’ve started to give them names now.

Norstead Village

This is a private living history replica of the Viking Village (only $12) – learned that Vikings are specifically Norse Warriors, but certainly the media popularity of this term seems to overlap with the whole Scandinavian Norse Land and horned caps and shields.

Always fun to run around and see people of the period doing their thing and getting to chat. I guess they didn’t having the Viking warrior women cooking in those days.

Unfortunately, the iron forge guy was on a break when we went through because his fire was hot, but it was starting to rain and decided we should be getting along.

Both fires were actually inside buildings and the smokieness factor became a bit much after visiting the living quarters and sitting upon the sheepskin thrones of the leaders. Worth the $12.

St. Anthony

A cute little bustling town that hosts this Iceberg Festival with things like Viking tours, iceberg boat tours and other events. We were going to come to St Anthony first, but the Twillingate Iceberg scene seemed to be better, so we detoured and went there first.

It is much colder up here in the north of the Northern most peninsula. Add in a bit of wind and rain, and it is not so pleasant for hiking around. We could not find any music on these final two days of the Iceberg Festival; things seemed to be on the down turn. Many of these little towns seem to have no main street area to stroll or to find something on a Saturday afternoon. The only RagnaRoeck Brewery was permanently closed.

We drove out to the end of a peninsula at Fishing Point Municipal Park which had some nice hiking trails all around, but it was starting to rain so an Iceberg Beer and lunch at the Lightkeepers sounded way better.

The Lightkeepers had a beautiful view and atmosphere bright and cheery even in the rain; evidently they do some kind of a special Viking dinner as well. The chill and the projected more rain in the area, made us decide to head back toward Gros Morne where two sunny days in a row were forecasted – imagine that.

Moose – finally saw two

A five hour drive with the first two hours being quite rainy – and there in the middle of the 2 lane highway, something big and brown about 200 feet away. Luckily it was straight away and there were no other cars to be seen for quite some time. As we slowed and approached, he ran into the woods and we didn’t even get a proper photo. Many smaller Newfoundland Canadian highways are built up on ledges, and there are usually 4 to 8 foot ditches to fall into if you dare veer from between the lines. Usually there are no shoulders – about 2 or 3 feet from the edge and into the ditch you go. If someone has pulled over on the highway, it is not passable without getting into the other lane – not usually a problem because there is almost never traffic. We could have stopped safely right on the highway, but mister moose ran away.. Oh well, I had gotten a photo of a big rack at Norsted Village.

Maybe one day we’ll see the whole creature. We saw the second one near Gros Morne, again ran away before we could get a good glimpse.

Moose Burgers

Another perk of the Iceberg Festival was the special Moosberger offering at the Viking RV resort, perfect for a high energy meal before hiking with our Viking that evening.

We managed to get a spot with no electricity as this was really the only campground close site to L’Anse Meadows. It seems to be really popular for the Iceberg Festers. Others we met said they needed to stay in Pistolet Bay Provincial Park a bit further. The RV park had new bathrooms, kitchen/lodge etc but the actual park was a bit tight with no trees, a bit rough, but the fresh partridge berry pie and cookies for sale, mooseburgers and the extra nice owner will be what stands out for me.

Daniel’s Harbour

We left St. Anthony with the rain, with more of the same expected in the area for the next days, and also colder temperatures than down south. We are very aware of weather and our movement to the next place is certainly driven by it. Drove and drove headed for Gros Morne since the weather for the next two days there was sunny.

Thank goodness for Daniel’s Harbor because the day was still blowing clouds and rain in the distance, but there was a 1 km boardwalk to the harbor from the highway side parking area. Perfect for the body movement that we needed. And we even got a rainbow on our walk. We made the Elephant Head RV park in the Tablelands of Gros Morne at dusk.