So here it was. After over half our stay, we had done NONE of those things! Many other things intervened. For one, we hadn't realized we would be in the middle of Iceberg Alley near the height of the passing icebergs. For another, we hadn't realized what gems of hikes are available at each of the little towns dotting the shore of this Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. For another, the culture is rich and the museums many.
But, finally, on Monday, June 25, 2018, we set out to do the three things we originally planned to do. By the time we started on our season up here, we had added a fourth goal: to take a look at the replica Viking ship that our friend Randy Lagman from Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana had helped build in the 1990's.
All of this we hoped to achieve in one mammoth day. Luckily, we are camped not far from Quirpon and L'Anse Aux Meadows, so we didn't waste much time getting to our goals.
Our first stop was at Quirpon. We had since learned that the Quirpon Lighthouse is on the far end of Quirpon Island, which is accessible only by boat from the dock in the town of Quirpon. We arrived at the harbor and realized immediately that Quirpon Island is so large, we would never be able to hike the full length of the island after finding a boat to take us over. So, we scratched the lighthouse. However, that didn't dampen our spirits or spoil our day, because Quirpon Harbor boasted some pretty amazing icebergs!
We also learned recently that Quirpon has an original French Bread Oven, which was a common fixture of the fishing camps established by fishermen visiting the French Shore of Newfoundland seasonally to fish for cod, having left their homes in Brittany, in northwestern France:
No matter how small the temporary communities, the inhabitants were willing to bring with them or send for special bread oven bricks, in order to build bread ovens and establish a favorite taste from home.
Driving around the harbor, we saw lots of little pieces of iceberg or sea ice - which we like to call "berglettes," and which the locals call, "bergey bits." One of the most diverting was this 3-D diamond made of ice. It seems to be floating on its point, but, of course, it is attached to the remaining 80% of the bergette, which floats just under the surface and stabilizes it
Looking up to the top of a nearby mountain, we saw what looked like an observation deck and drove over, looking for a trailhead to climb to the lookout. Unfortunately, the trail wasn't documented in a very complete pamphlet describing unique trails in each local town. However, we found the trailhead easily, and it wasn't long before we had marched up the hill, across an old wooden bridge spanning a drainage, and gained a view of Quirpon Harbor:
From the bridge, we saw theat we would continue to climb, up some rickety stairs, to the platform at the top of the mountain:
Getting to the rickety stairs, we saw just how rickety -- i.e., collapsed -- the stairs really were. Kathy was at a loss for how to proceed:
We finished our climb, enjoyed the grand views, and returned to our Jeep. We decided it was time to fetch lunch before our afternoon adventures. The Norseman Restaurant, in L'Anse Aux Meadows, came strongly recommended by everyone we met, so there was little debate where we would eat. David enjoyed a veggie burger with a large, fresh garden salad (rare in the Maritimes), and Kathy finally got her meal of snow crab.
Munching our lunch, we looked out the restaurant window, and happened to spot the memorial to Leif Erickson, the Viking leader who landed at L'Anse Aux Meadows and established his camp here!
We had to walk over and admire the full statue, which stood and gazed out across the harbor toward Leif's home of Greenland:
Having digested our lunch, we drove over to the main attraction: the L'Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site where archaeologists discovered, then expanded their understanding of, Leif Erickson's camp on the edge of the mythic "Vinland" of Viking sagas.
Archaeological research shows that up to 100 Norse people, under Leif Erickson's leadership, established a village at this location for not more than 10 years just before the year 1000 A.D. They estimate that most of the inhabitants were Norse seamen. A handful were women - probably the wives of the leaders. There were a number of servants and slaves who also helped with work around the camp.
The settlement was comprised of a handful of buildings, including lodges of varying sizes constructed primarily of 6-foot-thick walls of sod from the boggy lands where the settlement was built:
The longest building housed most of the inhabitants. The reconstructions we saw are said to be "90% accurate" - the chief difference being that the originals did not have holes in the rooves for smoke to escape from the kitchen fires inside:
One of the buildings was a reconstruction of the blacksmith shop, where, it appeared, the inhabitants forged nails from up to 2 kilograms of iron smelted from the "bog iron" that the settlers found in the bogs around their settlement:
Archaeologists believe that only 2 kilograms of iron were smelted, apparently because it was too labor intensive for a group that was focused primarily on hunting and securing wood, grapes and other natural resources to take back to Greenland for the Norse settlers there - who themselves only numbered not more than 500, including the 100 who had temporarily moved to this northern tip of Newfoundland.
Historians believe that the numbers of inhabitants explain the fact that this settlement lasted not more than 10 years. The parent Greenland settlement was barely self-sufficient with all 500 inhabitants, and it probably could not withstand the permanent loss of the 100 people it would take to make the satellite settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadows succeed. Eventually, the labor in keeping up the Vinland colony was too much for the Greenland home community to support. Finally, the evidence shows that the Norse deliberately abandoned L'Anse Aux Meadows, taking most of their possessions with them, never to return. This suggests that, while the Norse people may have ventured as far south as New Brunswick, which is the nearest region where they could have found the grapes and butternuts that they obviously obtained, they probably did not go further south. And, indeed, they may never have circumnavigated Newfoundland or realized that it was an island.
After touring the archaeological site, we hiked out to the point of land, where we discovered some Red Chairs! And we could see some errant icebergs come down from Greenland, the beautiful Belle Isle in the near distance, and even Labrador, some 32 kilometers away, clearly visible with its hills and mountains still sporting snow from the winter:
We pondered the things we had learned about the Norse people (the only ones called "Vikings" were the few men who embarked on raiding expeditions). We thought about the fact that the Norse people continued to harvest timber from Labrador for another 250 to 300 years after L'Anse Aux Meadows had been abandoned. We decided that Labrador is a place we'd love to see.
But it was getting late, and we needed to move on. We drove over to Norstead, a reconstructed Viking village established by a private commercial venture. It is staffed with re-enactors who, as we toured the village, would explain to us what life was like for the Norse people who inhabited such villages.
Our primary reason for visiting Norstead was to visit Snorri, a full-scale replica of a Norse ship, which, as noted above, our friend Randy had helped build. This was our first stop in the village, and we found Snorri berthed in a large, sod-sided boat house:
The boat was built in the original style and according to traditional Norse designs, with iron nails and fittings:
After admiring Snorri, we continued our walk around the village. We noted that it included a church and a blacksmith shop which were built more in the style of those in Scandinavia, where wood was more available, than the style of L'Anse Aux Meadows, where wood was relatively scarce:
We had a chance to sit on the "throne" of a Viking leader, to taste traditional Norse fry bread, and to learn about the knitting and other tapestry arts of the Norse women. Having encountered the proprietor of the trading post and discovered that we had nothing that a Viking would consider worth trading for, we bade our Viking hostesses adeiux and headed on down the road, looking for our last destination: the end of the International Appalachian Trail in Newfoundland, nearly the very end of the trail.
Of course, as we learned belatedly, the International Appalachian Trail, which stretches from the end of the U.S. Appalachian Trail at Mount Katahdin in Maine, north through New Brunswick, across and along the Gaspe to Gaspe Point, and then through Prince Edward Island, down through Nova Scotia and up into Cape Breton, leaving Cape Breton to cross the Northumberland Strait into Newfoundland at Channel-Port-Aux-Basques and up the Long Range Mountains to Raven's Head near L'Anse Aux Meadows -- the trail actually continues onto Belle Isle Island, situated a boat ride out into the Belle Isle Channel between Newfoundland.
When he learned we were interested in the International Appalachian Trail, our national park guide at L'Anse Aux Meadows reported that, as far as he knew, only one person had traversed the entire trail, even across Belle Isle. That poor fellow apparently, after being dropped off by boat on the uninhabited Belle Isle, hiked up to the true end of the Appalachian Mountains in North America (before they reappear again in Scotland, moving down through the United Kingdom into Europe), but didn't return to his pick-up point in time to meet his boat. He had to survive 9 days on Belle Isle, with only pools of fresh water and wild berries to sustain him until the next boat arrived.
Hmmm...Maybe we'll defer a visit to the VERY end of the International Appalachian Trail. We'll be satisfied with hiking the end of the trail in Newfoundland.
And, this we did. With the aid of locals, we found the trailhead of the Cape Raven Trail, the last section of the International Appalachian Trail. Here, Kathy poses, looking very Appalachian, at the beginning of this esteemed trail:
We started up the trail, but immediately were startled to find this moose (him/herself also clearly startled by our appearance) standing in the very middle of our trail:
With a little gentle persuasion, the moose trotted down an electric line easement toward the village of Straitsville, while we continued up the trail. Here is what we -- and probably the moose -- saw of the village of Straitsville, complete with its own beautiful iceberg en harbour:
Up and up we went to the final observation point on Raven Head. On our way, we reached a set of wooden stairs. Kathy paused at the bottom, with Straitsville in the background, before she climbed them to hike on to the top of the head:
We reached the top of Raven Head, and had the opportunity to take a 360-degree video of our view. Unfortunately, we can't share that with you yet, because we don't have enough internet bandwidth. But, as soon as we've got the internet, we'll insert a link to the video RIGHT HERE.
We both agreed that the big lesson we learned from this part of our trip, is that things as you plan them are never the same as the things as they turn out to be. The reality is both more -- and less -- than you imagine. But to understand the richness of the place, you must -- you MUST -- abandon your preconceptions, and simply enjoy the magic of what you find. It will all be worth it in the end.
Well said friends.....what a great adventure this has been.....and it's not over!
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