L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, St. Anthony and other areas. August 26th - 29th

We were excited to get on the road again. It's a long drive today, with some stops in between our final destination of the Viking Village. We're all packed up and out the door by 7am. Started out cloudy but the sun broke through about an hour into our drive.

First stop, Arches Provincial Park.

The Arches Provincial Park is a public park on the western coastline of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada that features a photogenic rock formation. The park is north of Gros Morne National Park near Parson's Pond along the Viking Trail, and includes a parking lot, boardwalk, and picnic area. 

Pretty cool rock formations.

The Highway 430 is in pretty good shape. Mostly long straight stretches with lots of ponds on the side of the roads. Everywhere you look there are huge stacks of logs (only 8" in diameter and about 8 feet long) in various stages of being cut up and left stacked. Apparently each household goes through a logging truck full of these 8' logs per year to stay warm, about $2000. Electricity here is really expensive. They also have sleds by the wood piles to drag the firewood back to their houses via snowmobile.

Pictures from Google.

The trees here seem to max out at about 10 feet tall, very stubby.

Next spot is Port Aux Choix National Historic Site, near where you catch the Labrador Ferry (about 1 hr and 45 min across)

Port au Choix is a peninsula on the western coast of the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Discoveries as early as 1904 provide evidence that native peoples settled here, burials, structural remains, and artifacts such as points, tools, and bones of discarded food.

We drove out to the lighthouse hoping to see the caribou that visited yesterday, but no such luck.

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Next we stopped  at the Visitor's Centre and they have a lot of artifacts including this representation.

We got directions to the French Rooms Cultural Center & Bread Oven Program that cooks buns traditionally over a wood fired oven with homemade jam.

Ray chatted with the guy building the fire. Davey Jones, apparently worked on the Annasis Island Water Treatment Center and had lots to say about all the produce we grow in Vancouver area. He was astounded as they seem to grow only root crops in Newfoundland.

Back on the road. We stopped for lunch at Flowers Cove GNC Diner. Large portions, but the food is just so so. Newfie food is not big on spices so everything is a bit bland. Their brand of fish cakes is basically potato with a small portion of cod.

 

Fried Chicken

Fish Cakes

Back in the car and down the road a bit to look at Trombolites at Flower's Cove

What Are Thrombolites?

Ancient life: They are some of the earliest and most primitive forms of life on Earth, created by colonies of cyanobacteria and algae. 
Clotted structure: Unlike layered stromatolites, thrombolites have a clotted, unlayered internal structure that looks like rock-formed panini rolls. 
Rarity: Flower's Cove is one of the only places in the entire world where these ancient marine structures are easily accessible to view.

We took a short 200m walk and there they were!

They kind of look like a huge mud cake thrown down and spread out.

Back in the car again to our final destination ... our cabin next to the Viking Village called Norstead, a Viking Port of Trade. They pronouce it "lance a meadows".

Coming down the highway we passed Noddy's Bay. Very cute.

Finally we reached our cute cabin. The  replica Viking Village, Norstead is just over the hill behind the cabin. I waited a few days to take this picture as the contractor was putting new siding on it while we were here.

A short video of the view. (Don't know why it put close captioning into the video lol)

Lots and lots of berries here in the meadows. Had quite a few birds eating the red crack berries. Apparently they taste quite bitter and have a spongy center so no one actually eats them.

Two bedrooms with double beds. We each have our own room lol

View from the sitting room, where we spend most of our time. It's really windy here most of the time.

I'm tired after 7 hours behind the wheel of the car, so Ray decided to go to the Viking Village by himself as the sun is shining and tomorrow it could be foggy. This replica of a Viking Village is not part of Parks Canada and is a non-profit group, so they charge $12 to go in. This replica is fashioned after a Norse building in Iceland that was found partially intact. 

Everyone is in period costumes. I will go visit another day while here. Ray tells me after visiting that this is a huge replica, much more substantial than the Parks Canada one a short distance away.

Athough everyone calls this a "Viking Village" it wasn't, it's the Norseman who where farmers and fishers. The Vikings were the raiders and pillagers, that today would be called pirates.

Chicken Coop

The Snorri is a 54-foot replica of a medieval Norse cargo ship known as a knarr, built to retrace Leif Erikson's historic voyage to North America.

Apparently when the ship is fully loaded with tons of ballast, mast and sails and 8000 tons of cargo, this ship would have weighed over 35000 tons. Amazing that it only had 3 feet of draft with all that weight added. The open deck allowed for 4 rowers only and apparently they used tents on deck to sleep in. They also found a ship in Iceland that was halfways intact so replicated it in the Snorri.

These are the tents they would have used on the deck of the ship.

The tiller they used to direct the ship.

The longhouse with the trading post is made larger to be able to host the many tourists that come to see it. On Thursday they had over 1000 visitors from the cruise ship.

This depicts the area of the longhouse that's for sleeping, cooking and general gathering for 25 to 30 people. The "king and queen" sat on raised chairs. The King was in charge of all the men and the queen was in charge of the women. Each morning they would be given their chores for the day. They ate only 2 meals a day. The first one a couple hours after morning chores so the women had time to prepare and the second one after dark. If someone was found slacking they did not get fed that meal.

In this room they made all their own clothes, with making yarn for a loom and a style of knitting. These ladies are making things the traditional way. They also dye the yarn in various colours.

Relaxing in the sunshine before dinner next door at the Norseman.

We have dinner reservations at the Norseman Restaurant for 5:30, so off we went down the boardwalk from our rental.

They also have a stack of sleds ready for winter firewood.

Dinner was delicious. Pan seared scallops for me and Ray the Duck Breast.

The restaurant even gave me a small bag of iceburg ice for my drinks at the cabin.

After dinner we sat outside for a bit as the wind died off. It's good for awhile then the bugs came.... back into the cabin.

Fishing stages on the harbour front.

Thursday we woke up and saw a bunch quail in front of  our cabin. Still haven't seen any moose or Caribou.

Today we'd planned to go into St. Anthony .... until we saw this. Coming in and letting everyone off via tenders. Apparently there's another one in St. Anthony. We chose to go for a drive in a different direction. 1500 passengers on one and 750 on another.

They anchored and then the shuttle service began.

We decided to head to Raleigh, Onion Cove and Burnt Cape, on the penninsula on the other side of our bay.

Laundry being hung at Onion Point.

Top of Onion Point. We thought there would be a lighthouse here, but there's only a cemetary. One thing not to like with Google Images. Type in Onion Point and Images shows a lighthouse.... only thing it's a 45 minute drive away.

Next up the tiny community of Raleigh. Fishing stages.

The rental cabins have communal firepits on the ocean side of the road (Burnt Cape on the other side of the water).

Further down the road on the other side is the Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve that you can see. I hoped to drive up there but the road got really bad so you need a 4 x 4 and I'm not about to damage the rental car. Oh well. Burnt Cape in the distance below.

This part of the road isn't bad but it got much worse when it climbed up to the top. Looking at Google Map I can see we were only 1/3 of the way to to the trail head.

This is what I wanted to see. (from Google)

The ovens

The restaurant in Raleigh is now permanently closed, so we headed back to Gunners Cove and ate at the Skippers Hot Pub. Food's pretty good. Again huge portions of fries. Good thing we got there when we did, as a whole load of bus tourists arrived after we put our order in.

We poked our nose in at the Viking Store and saw this helmut. This is something Jason would wear for his medieval sword fighting.

 

Last stop of the day is L'anse Aux Meadows Visitor Centre.

L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is located near St. Anthony on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

We saw this cute vintage car and trailer in the parking lot.

The trail up to this lookout had wild blueberries. They sure are small.

We looked around the Visitor Center and onto their deck. The cruise ship finished boarding all their passengers and headed down the Gulf of St. Lawrence towards Montreal or Quebec City.

We took a short drive down another road from the Visitor Centre to walk to the Viking Village.

This village is where the original ruins of the Norseman Village  was discovered in 1960 by Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and local fisherman George Decker. Extensive archaeological excavations took place between 1960 and 1968, uncovering eight Norse sod buildings and numerous artifacts. It remains the only confirmed pre-Columbian European settlement site in North America outside of Greenland.

From their viewing deck I could see something brown across the bay, it looks to be part of a ship.

Parks Canada Viking Village. This replica has peat bricks on the bottom, then wood with a sod roof. 

The walk along the boardwalk shows the depressions of the old buildings. They could tell what the buildings were in the depressions from the artifacts they collected at the time.The Norseman probably chose this site as there is a nearby water source. Back then,there were tons of very tall trees.

Down to the replica.

Showing the peat construction of the foundations unlike the Iceland representation with foundations made of wood.

Trading Room.

The armour all made by the blacksmith.

After touring we were back at the cabin enjoying the rest of the afternoon sitting outside.

 We have leftovers for dinner, well Ray did. I've come down with his cold so didn't feel like eating. After dinner Ray drove down to the Lief Erickson Statue. 

Tonight, well early in the morning, we got up to see the lunar eclipse. A little fuzzy, but we were half asleep. :)

Friday, we decided to go to St. Anthony, a 30 minute drive from Viking Village. We  saw this plane once we arrived in St. Anthony. It turned out to be a Canso, used for maritime patrol for submarine detection in WWII. 

The Canadian manufactured version of the Catalina

Next we went to the Visitor Centre and the Grenfell Exhibit and the Grenvell museum.

An adventurer and selfless builder of health services in Newfoundland

When Dr. Wilfred Grenfell first arrived on the coast of Labrador in 1892, he was astonished by what he found in the remote fisherman community; with a population of 30,000 there was not a single medical doctor. Sir Grenfell quickly committed himself to improve the medical, economic and spiritual needs of the fishermen and their families. Eventually, he would build the region's first hospital and ultimately improve the social, health and economic status of those who populated the area.

Beyond his medical mission, Sir Grenfell also sought to improve social services and developed a small industry where none had existed before. This initiative enabled residents to sell homemade goods such as hooked rugs and knitted items in North American retailers.

We first went to the exhibits in the Visitor's Centre. The picture below is a sled he used to transport patients. Newfoundland's medical system to this day has a lot to thank Dr. Grenfell. St. Anthony's hospital was the best on the country many years ago.

A picture of some of his instruments. 

Laundry hanging years ago, certainly different clothes. Everyone here uses the wind to dry their things as it's always windy.

One of the ships he traveled on to various communities to see patients all over the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in the spring and summer. There's a hospital on board.

Next we drove up to the Grenfill living museum house, located behind the existing hospital today.

An example of the hooked rugs the Newfoundlanders still make.

Now to the Fox Point Lighthouse at the entrance to St. Anthony Harbour and the Lightkeepers Cafe for lunch.

Our lunch is the worst one yet. I ordered calamari which was so rubbery I didn't eat it.and sent it back. Fortunately the French Onion Soup was okay. Ray ordered the Moose Spring Rolls, which were delicious, but his main, the fried tacos were were tasteless. We ended up buying some Mary Brown's Chicken in town to take back to the cabin to heat up for dinner.

The have a functioning root cellar for their stuff.

There is a trail all the way to the top of this tower. There were actually a few people who hiked way up there. 

Back in the car for the 30 minute drive back to the cabin. Since it's such a lovely afternoon, I decided to get our laundry done at the cabin next door in preparation for Sunday's departure. I have found that when it's damp/raining outside the laundry takes forever to dry. Just as well I decided today as the person who lives in the cabin was there Saturday morning.

Another great day. Sure is unexpectedly warm at 24C. The locals tell us this weather is highly unusual to have that many days of nice weather. We spent a couple hours sitting outside.

Saturday, woke to cloudy skies as predicted. Glad we did all our touring in the nice weather. Today we went for breakfast at the Dark Tickle Cafe above their giftshop. What a cute spot. Great homemade bread for toast and their blueberry jam.

After breakfast we went back to Norstead, so I can see the replica of a Viking Village. This is a replica of a village discovered in Iceland, including the Snorri Ship. It's interesting listening to the people in period costumes telling the stories of the buildings as we were touring. Good thing Ray came on Wednesday with the sunshine as this morning it is cloudy and has started to sprinkle with rain periodically.

The King and Queen chairs, sitting above everyone else.

The blacksmith forge. He was telling us about the process for forging tools. They made everything, tools for cooking, tools for working and armour, shields and swords for fighting. It was days of work before they got a finished product.

Harvesting Bog Iron

Source: Viking smiths collected bog iron—reddish-brown nodules formed by iron-oxidizing bacteria in peat bogs.
Collection: Workers raked the iron-rich mud from shallow wetlands, typically in the spring when water levels dropped.
Preparation: They roasted the raw ore on open fires to dry out moisture and make it easier to crush. 

Smelting in a Bloomery Furnace

Furnace Design: Smiths built temporary clay-and-stone shaft furnaces, roughly 3 to 4 feet tall.
Layering Fuel and Ore: The furnace was packed with alternating layers of charcoal and crushed, roasted ore. 
Air and Temperature: Hand-pumped leather and wood bellows forced oxygen into the base to reach temperatures between 2,200°F and 2,500°F (1,200°C to 1,300°C). This often took 24 hours so they took turns keeping the bellows going.
The Bloom: Carbon monoxide from the burning charcoal stripped oxygen from the iron oxides, creating a porous, spongy mass of iron mixed with waste slag, called a "bloom". 
Shingling: Smiths immediately hammered the hot, glowing bloom to squeeze out trapped liquid slag and consolidate the metal.
Bar Stock: The cleaned iron was shaped into rectangular bars for trade or further smithing into axes, nails, and swords.
Carburization and Pattern Welding: To make steel for sharp blades, smiths added carbon by packing iron with burned animal bone or charcoal, and sometimes twisted multiple bars together in pattern welding for strength and flexibility.

Ray took another trip after this back to Park's Canada to get some more pictures of there replica. I added the pictures to the previous day's visit.

We decided to go back to the Norsesman Restaurant on site for our last dinner here. We had more visitors to our deck this afternoon, quail looking right at us through the door. lol

That's our adventures in the most northern point we are going in Newfoundland. Tomorrow we head back south to Deer Lake.

I posting this today as we leave early tomorrow.