NFLD Day 11

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The weather has turned. It's considerably warmer this morning. Blue sky with high clouds, and very windy.

We eat a home-cooked breakfast, individually prepared by Cassie, in the B&B dining room in the company of our new friends from last night. After breakfast, we check out.

We head over to the L'Anse aux Meadows Visitors Centre. We have a few minutes to review and complete our perusal of the exhibits before the first tour of the day starts. One theme that pervades the exhibits is "completing the circle." The idea is that modern humans spread out from Africa some 100,000 years ago and gradually spread all over the planet. When the Vikings met the aboriginals at L'Anse aux Meadows, as we know they did, this marked the closing of the circle of migration. An intriguing idea. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, we also know that the two groups did not get along.

At 10, Clayton leads our group of eight down into the barrens along a path and boardwalk towards the Viking village. Clayton is a gold mine of information about the Vikings, the archeological exhibition that discovered the ancient settlement, and life in general in the area. He has a unique perspective. As a child, he played around what everyone called the "Indian mounds". Later, in the 1960s, he was hired to help Norwegian archeaologists Helge and Anne Ingstad to excavate the mounds, which, as we know, turned out to be the remains of the first permanent Viking settlement in North America. Later, Clayton was hired by Parks Canada and eventually became an interpreter for visitors.

We pause at an intrigng sculpture along the path symbolizing "east meets west." Then we visit the mounds explored by the archeological team. The digs have all been filled in to preserve them for future research. There is one major structure, where the leader, presumably Leif Erikson, lived, and several smaller huts that served as living quarters and storage. One of the most interesting finds is a forge, where bog iron dug from the surrounding area was smelted down into iron for nails. This was the first iron forged in North America.

Finally we pass through a palisade of stakes and arrive at the reconstructed Viking village. Exact replicas of all the buildings have been erected. They are all built from slabs of carefully tailored peat moss, then covered with sod. We enter the main hut through the rough-hewn wooden door. There are real Vikings inside! The two men and one woman are sitting around the fire. We are greeted warmly–and in English, yet. Our hosts describe the daily lives of members of this lonely outpost. One Viking, whose name turns out to be Wade, picks up a lyre and strums a tune. He and the others raise their voices in song. When I compliment Wade on his musicality, he lets drop that he has recorded a CD of traditional Newfoundland songs that is available at a store called the Hut.

We explore the rest of main house. We have some fun with the various items of Viking apparel at hand. Then we walk around outside and examine the other buildings. At the rear of the main hut, I discover a couple of workmen repairing the back wall. They are using slabs of peat cut locally. The slabs are fashioned to fit by saws and large knives, then hammered into place with large wooden mallets and secured by spikes. This technique is believed to correspond to the way the original buildings were constructed.

We return to visitors centre via the path. As we leave for the parking lot, I climb the hill outside for a last look at the Viking silhouettes on the peak.

Time to hit the road. In town, we stop at the Hut and buy Wade's CD. We end up in a lively conversation with the man minding the store and when Vi admires a moose bone needle but is put off by the price, he tells her to take it free. These people are crazy nice.

Before starting the long drive back, we take lunch at Northern Delights. Gayle is pleased to see us and immediately wishes Vi a happy birthday.

We start the long drive south. It's extremely windy. Our poor little Mazda is buffeted constantly and I notice that the gas mileage is taking a hit. We stop briefly at Flower's Cove, where I am hoping to see the famous thrombolites. They are the fossilized remains of extremely ancient one-celled organisms from about 650 million years ago. There are only two place in the world where these fossils have been found. But the boardwalk is closed and we are out of luck.

We do a pit stop in Port au Choix. An ancient burial mound was discovered here in the 1960s. It is believed to belong to the first people to settle in this region some four thousand years ago. But–same story–everything is closed for the season. Move along, folks; nothing to see here.

We are driving through Gros Morne as the sun is starting to set. Yet another incredible sunset. I'm starting to think that Newfoundland does the best sunsets in the world.

The last leg of the drive is in the dark. We try to be on the lookout for moose. Originally I thought that the danger of moose was sort of similar to that posed by deer, in that the animal will be on the road and will just stand there until you run into it. But Wayne, the owner of one of the places we stayed, freaked me out by explaining that the moose is usually on the run, going 50 k/h, when he bursts out of the bush and runs straight into your car. Nothing you can do. That's really scary. So I grip the steering wheel tightly and scan the sides of the road till my eyes hurt.

We finally we pull into Deer Lake about 8 pm. This time there is room at the Holiday Inn. We have a decent supper at the Deer Lake Hotel down the road. I am very pleased that we completed the drive down the finger. Tomorrow it's the TCH east towards St. John's.

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Photos

"East Meets West" statue on path to Viking village
L'Anse aux Meadows NFLD

Entrance to Viking village
L'Anse aux Meadows NFLD

Main building of Viking village
L'Anse aux Meadows NFLD

There are real Vikings inside!
L'Anse aux Meadows NFLD

Heated Viking battle
L'Anse aux Meadows NFLD