Oh Canada! June 11th - L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland

Day 14 Monday, June 11^th 

 Today was a bit warmer, and after a good breakfast we had a nice hike up a bluff on one side of Hay Cove.  The trail literally started at the end of the clothesline pole at our B&B.  

And speaking of clothes lines.  Sheets were snapping and crackling on the line at Viking Village B&B

John says the overlook at the top is about 160’ above sea level.  It was a very nice view and an interesting terrain of sub-arctic tundra.  As cold an area as it is, there were many small wildflowers blooming across the landscape.

John starting out on our hike up the bluff on the north side of Hay Cove

Our B&B is the one story brown building on the right.

Yoo-hoo!

It's hard to appreciate the height and depth in a 2D picture.  Here is Chris near the top of the bluff.

Chris and John at the top of hike around Hay Cove.

After we returned from the hike and were walking back to the B&B, we met a young man who had tent camped beside the road.  He told us about initially trying to set up camp on the other side of the road, but a big moose came out of the trees and stared him down.  After doing the stare down for a while the young man decided to let the moose win and moved off to the other side of the road.

In the afternoon we drove to St. Anthony for a boat tour to see icebergs, and - hopefully - whales.  We did get up close to one grounded iceberg.  Our guide said the part sticking out of the water was about 100’ tall.  And it was grounded in about 240’ of water.  So overall it was about 340’ or about the size of a 34 story building. 

John boarding our cruise boat with Northland Discovery tours

Leaving St. Anthony's harbor

Hoping for a sighting!

This was taken just as a big roller swept the boat up in a pretty big tilt.

John checking the captain's sonar

And there she is!  Ain't she a beauty?   There is the most amazing blue color around the base of the berg.

This gives you a sense of where we are in relation to the berg, approx. 100' of which is out of the water.

The surface can get pretty dirty floating around the Atlantic for 3 years.

That's a wave splashing in between the main part of the berg and the little tip, or 'thumb' I'll call it, at it's right.

Saying goodbye to the berg

See how far off horizontal the boat is in relation to the horizon?  We were really rockin' and rollin'!

Coming back into harbor in St. Anthony.  These buildings still have the red color made from crushed ochre that was commonly used to 'paint' buildings in Newfoundland before modern paints were available.

See the pinkish water near the fence?  That's leavings from the shrimp processing plant and the gulls have a feast every day.

Here we are with our own bergie bit to take home.  Well, it lasted a day in the cooler at any rate.

THTUCK!!

 As mentioned in a previous post, we learned that by the time an iceberg gets here, it has been floating around the ocean for about 3 years, first floating north after it breaks off from the glacier in Greenland.  And then it last for only about another month once it reaches Newfoundland.  So we are seeing them in their waning days, but they are still impressive.

Alas we saw no whales that day, but we did see common eider ducks, eastern gannets and murrs.

While in St. Anthony we took advantage of a do-it-yourself carwash where John removed the bulk of  the Labrador dust from the Highlander.  It certainly looked better afterward.

Dinner that night was at Northern Delight, another of the restaurants local to L’Anse aux Meadows in St. Lunaire-Griquet.  Chris had a most excellent pan fried cod and John had deep fried scallops.  Another highly recommended place for food and frolics.

Enjoying dinner at the Northern Delight restaurant.

It was a special night with live music provided by two 60ish year old brothers who sang Newfie songs accompanied by guitar and small accordions.  Judging by the enthusiasm of the diners, they were obviously local favorites.

John also tried Iceberg Beer and liked it very much.  We brought some home to share, and the blue bottles were a plus for Chris who just might try to find something crafty to do with them.  

The restaurant was also visited by 3 mummers who entertained us with their costumes, dancing and pulling various members of the audience up to dance with them (including John and me).  This special entertainment was part of a weeklong annual Iceberg Festival which was going on throughout the area during our stay.

A fellow guest of our B&B who sat at our table with us.  Darn, that I can't remember her name.

Whoo boy, I'm glad THAT'S over with!

When the mummers had gone, John and I decided we'd take to the floor ourselves.  This was, after all, our 25th wedding anniversary trip.

Point of interest:  Who are the Mummers?

Mummers also called ‘Jannies’, have been a tradition in Newfoundland since colonists from England brought the custom at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Mummer comes from the old French ‘momer’ which means to wear a mask; pantomime. In particular, it refers to a masked or costumed merrymaker, especially at a festival.

Christmas revellers disguise themselves with old clothing and cover their faces with a hood, scarf or mask and go from house to house in their community sometime during the twelve nights of Christmas. When the householder responds to the mummers’ tapping on the door, the visitors using disguised voices ask, “Any mummers ‘lowed in?”

If they are welcomed in, they usually entertain their hosts with humorous antics and the musical instruments they carry, very often a fiddle. Some hosts offer alcoholic drinks and some serve cake or other sweets. A great guessing game ensues as the hosts try to guess the identities of the mummers. When correctly identified, the revellers remove their masks, but if not identified, they can keep them on.

We were told that the younger generations don't practice mummering so much as the oldsters do.  And there are those who fear the practice will die out with the passing of that older generation.  Sigh......

Oh Canada! June 10th - L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland

Day 13 Sunday, June 10^th

John was itching to see the Viking site, and so that was the first item on our agenda.  It is a pretty impressive place.  

  

At the entrance to L'Anse aux Meadows historic site

This sculpture is on a bluff at the entrance to the historic site.

Dr. Helge Ingstad and his wife Anne Stine discovered the site and led the original archaeological digs there. 

John at the entrance to the historical site.  Look at that cool rock behind him!

Starting down the path to the actual sites and the recreated village

Our guide, Clayton, is a local man who grew up in the very tiny village of L’Anse aux Meadows.  He helped during the original excavations and with building the historic site.  He was very informative, animated and looked rather like a Viking himself with wiry red hair and beard.  The park service used his picture on their brochure  - smart move on their part.

Our guide, Clayton, explaining one of the areas on the original sites.

The village of L'Anse aux Meadows viewed from the historic site.  

The village of L’Anse aux Meadows is not long for this world.  Clayton explained that there are only about 22 people still living there, and most are older folks.  As they die, or decide to move away the homes will be purchased by the province.  Ultimately the entire village area will become part of the historic site.  So on the one hand, it’s sad to lose the village.  On the other hand, it’s good that the land will be preserved.

The original dig sites themselves have been re-covered with soil to preserve them for future excavations when technology may be improved enough to learn more about them.  

Here is Clayton explaining about the furnace building and smithy forge - the original site laying, again, under a protective covering of soil and sod awaiting future studies as techniques improve.

The park service built several structures intended to replicate what the originals looked like – to the extent possible.  Much of it is based on educated guesses using, as guides, information from both this site and sites in Greenland.

Entrance to the recreated historic site

Here and below, the main house where the leaders would have lived with their wives.  Notice the sod construction.

It was interesting to note that there is evidence they brought women with them on their trips into the vast unknown.  Also interesting to me is that the Vikings’ sails were made of woven wool that was sealed with oils to make them water resistant. 

 

A reconstructed loom weighted with stones along with other women's tools such as butter churn and skeins of wool.

Here are some more shots of the recreated site for your viewing pleasure.

Sleeping area

Bjorn the Beautiful and friend

Beautiful view from inside the gates

Chris with a reconstructed boat

Back view of the main building

Reconstructed example of an anchor made from stones and wood bound with rope

L'Anse aux Meadow village in the background

After touring the site, we walked along the trails and enjoyed the views from the top of the bluff next to the site.  It was very cold and windy – something we’d learn to get used to here at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland.

Bergy bit just off shore

We were glad to find an interpretive sign telling us about the surrounding terrain.  We are in the subarctic coastal tundra area.

And of course Chris has to take pictures of the subarctic plants

We spent the rest of the day driving to Cape Onion which is next to Ha Ha Bay (I just had to see a place that was called Ha Ha Bay) and visiting the Dark Tickle shop where John was placated by an ice cream cone while Chris perused the goodies in the shop.  The sell a lot of locally made jams from locally grown berries, but the prices were a lot higher than the jars of homemade jams sold at our B&B.  So Chris didn’t get anything at Dark Tickle.

Picturesque wood pile and wood sled on the way to Cape Onion

My first glimpse of what turns out are eider ducks.  I learned they are as common here as mallards are at Joe's Pond.

John on a path around the coastline of Cape Onion

We found this great old cemetery on the high bluff at Cape Onion.  A view to die for, eh?

That night we had a very good dinner at The Daily Catch in St. Lunaire-Griquet (pronounced like cricket).  John had a huge lobster while Chris had cod tongues with scrunchions (salted pork fat that’s been cut into small pieces and fried to render out the fat) and a lovely carrot ginger soup.  An odd pairing, for sure, but both good.  Highly recommended if you ever visit the Northern Peninsula area of Newfoundland.

http://www.thedailycatch.ca/

The only other diner at the restaurant while we were there (again, remember this is pre-season) was a young man with whom we struck up a conversation.  Turns out he had also driven across Labrador.  He was traveling in his Ford Ranger sized truck with his German Shepherd dog and his bike strapped to the back of the truck.

He had the misfortune to have the entire back window of his truck blown out by a rock while on the trans-Lab Hwy.  He said there was no other traffic at the time, so all he could figure was that he kicked up a rock that ricocheted off his bike and struck the back windshield.

Then, as his bad luck would have it, he also ran out of gas coming down the Labrador Straights.  But his spirits weren't daunted, and all in all, he was enjoying his trip.

As we left to go back to the hotel, we saw his truck, back windshield covered in plastic, and a companionable looking shepherd patiently waiting for his owner to return.