Vikings!

I set an alarm for 6am yesterday! I knew I had at least 4 hours of driving ahead of me and wanted to get an early start. It took me a bit to get out of bed and I definitely debated with myself how much extra time I had and if I could stay in bed longer. I managed to hit the road by 7:30 though!

I was glad I had left early as it started raining pretty soon into the drive which meant I was going slower. I find the roads here have ruts where the tires have worn the road down and it fills with water. This made me hyper alert of hydro planning so I couldn’t drive as fast as I usually do. 

I noticed a lot of abandoned houses along this drive. It’s a strange sight as previous places I've lived I find they get torn down before they can look like that. I know they often get an unsightly warning and people can get fined if they don't act on it. It doesn’t really seem to matter here though and I saw way more than expected. There were also a lot of houses missing their front steps, they’d have second floor doors just hanging there going nowhere. 

*Edit: Apparently the breadwinner for the family goes out west to make money and when the rest of the family joins they just leave their house as is.

It was still raining when I got to L’anse aux Meadows so I did everything inside the visitor centre first. There was a little video that explained how they discovered the site and what they learned from it. The Vikings didn’t plan on settling here, and they used it as a trading outpost. There’s actually evidence to show that they either want as far as New Brunswick or at least traded with people from there.  They think they only used the site for ten years before abandoning it and returning home. There is no evidence that they left under duress, historians believe they left willingly. They took all their tools, weapons, and belongings. Some scholars actually believe they left because the area was too cold for them!

This is actually the first known evidence of European presence on this continent. They believe that Vikings from Greenland sailed here over 1000 years ago, and no (that we know of) Europeans returned until almost 500 years later. One thing I was interested in learning about was the name as it's a strange mix of French and English yet is a Norse historical site. They believe it was a fully French name originally, L'Anse aux Méduses, or Jellyfish Cove but over the years became more English to suit the meadows around the area.

After the visitor centre I went down to look at their recreation of the site. They built a house how the Vikings would have while living there, and it was really cool to see because I have seen similar Viking sites in Iceland. The whole crew of a boat would live in a house, usually 30 or so people. They even bring their wives on these explorations and settlements. The first child born here was named Snorri so there is a lot named after that around this area of Newfoundland. 

One of the interpreters there got a real kick out of Thor and helped me set him up for some fun photos. 

After I looked at the recreated buildings I walked along the ruins. I really liked seeing all this as I saw a lot of it in Iceland too. I like when I can make connections between places I’ve been and see the history behind it all. They speculate a lot as to why the Vikings chose this place to set up their trading post, and I think it’s since it looked so much like home to them. 

One of the following pictures is Newfoundland and the other is Iceland, can you tell which is which?

There was a 2.2km trail that ran around the settlement so I decided to do that next. I was informed they had 4 resident moose so I was extra attentive. 

It was still raining but I was wearing my MEC Gore-Tex jacket so my upper body stayed dry. By the time I was done the trail though my lower body was soaked. I sat in the visitor centre to use the Wi-Fi for a bit as the rain kept getting worse. Driving around Newfoundland and camping makes getting soaked a lot less fun. There's less places to get changed into dry clothes, and even less ways to stay dry as I explore.

Here's a photo of some of the ruins that influenced their recreations;

I told the interpreter I need something to do that was indoors and he suggested Norstead. He said it wasn’t as accurate as this site, but was interesting nonetheless. This is a historical site, a national park that is built around history. Whereas Norstead is more of a tourist destination and build for fun. It was right down the road so I decided I might as well go since I was in the area. 

I found this was very similar to the national site, but less accurate as he said. They made the house significantly larger than it would have been, with lots of extra details. It was still cool to look around and make connections to things I'd seen in Iceland. This site has a church and a blacksmith shop set up. It’s crazy to think of how they mined iron from the bog, a skill we’ve definitely lost. 

The coolest part about this site was that they have a replica Viking ship. It is made completely to scale which I found surprisingly tiny. I always imagined their ships larger, more on par with historical European ships. The ship is actually only 54 feet long and 8 feet tall. But it could hold 24 tonnes of wares for their voyages. They would put all the goods and supplies they were transporting under the deck and then they lived above for their whole voyage. I can't image never actually being able to get out of the elements to rest.

The ships would actually take years to build too, it was a real craftmanship. The size made me wonder how seaworthy they were and I asked about shipwrecks. The interpreter said there wasn’t much written about that part of history. But he did say that Leif Erikson was called Leif the lucky because he did the trip three times so I guess that does answer my question. 

By the time I was done marveling over the boat it had stopped raining and the sun was shining. I decided I would head to St. Anthony to do the Dare Devil trail. Katrina had told me it was almost 500 steps up, so it sounded right up my alley. 

The view from the top was amazing. It’s right near a point so you can see ocean in multiple directions. It was crazy windy though and I was nervous about blowing away. There was even one point that I couldn’t really stand up so I decided to go back down. Apparently this is a good spot to see icebergs and whales but once again I saw nothing. 

I drove to Pistolet Bay provincial park next as that’s where I booked a campsite for the night. Checking in was super quick and I did a lap to check out the campground. They have 30 camp sites and only one other one was occupied at this time. If they weren’t there I might have left...it definitely seemed like the start of a horror movie to be the only person there. 

This is going to be the coziest campsite I get to stay at so I need to make the best of it. I set up a large tent, had my winter sleeping bag, and a real pillow! So extravagant but I won't have any of that soon. I was working on dinner when I was visited by a cute little bird. I’d never seen one like him before and thought he was some cute. He kept landing on the table and was really curious about what I had inside my pot on the stove.

While taking photos of him a man walked by with his dog. I went over to chat since we are the only ones here. He’s actually here from Truro! He recommend I visit Twillingate, and I recommended he do Gros Morne mountain. The little bird came to visit us and he said it was a gray jay and they’re scavengers. So he was really after my dinner the whole time. 

After dinner I had a quick shower, and charged my charger then headed to bed! I think this should be my best sleep yet!