Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!

Click links to jump to specific days: Start | Nerdy | Largest | Stranger Things | Stairs Stairs Stairs

May 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Jun 01 02 03 04

05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Jul 01 02 03 04 05 06

L'Anse aux Meadows 91.3 km. 1:43 hours. Elevation maximum 69 metres

Today we had a big walk around L'Anse aux Meadows - the historical site of the viking settlement in North America dating back to 1000 AD. This area was only discovered in 1960 and excavated during the 1970's and the first site of cultural significance to be placed on the UNESCO world heritage list in 1978! It was a big walk (18.6 km) with a lot of up and down and back and to (including a stop for lunch) so we are a bit tired now, but it was worth it as this is a very interesting place.

The site was discovered after research by a Norwegian couple Anne Stine and Helge Ingstad who asked local people if they knew of any unusual mounds or turf walls. I don't know if they asked a lot of people this question before they got an answer that resulted in finding this site, but it worked here!

The Visitor Center was closed until June (we have found that a lot so far), but there was also a walk to get to the other side of the site so we did that. Don't ask us what a Birchy Nuddik is - we still don't know even after the walk. But it was fun as we followed a boardwalk across some marshland, climbed a mound (maybe this was the Nuddick?) and then walked along the beach/clifftop. There was snow in places, but mostly Legolas snow so it was OK.

The track brought us round to the actual site of the excavation - which is still there as a number of depressions with the remnants of the turf walls. There were enough remnants found in the excavation that the researchers could assign functions to the various sites which allowed for a pretty complete overview of the settlement. Interestingly, there was also the remains of a kiln showing that the original settlers had even produced bog iron, although it only looked like they had used it once and would only have produced enough iron for a few hundred nails to repair their ships!

From this evidence - and using a lot of knowledge from other Norwegian and Icelandic sites - a reconstruction of the major buildings has been made a bit further along the path. Although the Visitor Center was closed, the main building was open and it was really interesting to go inside a sod-walled building. It was fitted out with a number of tools and household objects - many of which were quite familiar to Hild from Systog. It would have been pretty smokey though as there were only a couple of holes in the roof, but a number of the rooms had hearths for wood fires.

In the village down the road from the site, there is a statue of Leif Erikson who led the colony. It was conveniently located next to a large rock outcrop which made a nice windbreak where we could set up the Trangia and have lunch. Did we mention that the wind was blowing at about 40 km/h today? This was the forecast gale that meant the ferry from Blanc Sablon which we had got yesterday was cancelled today - and will be until Sunday. Anyway, it was OK to walk in, but not much fun to sit down to lunch so the rock wind shelter was much appreciated.

After lunch, we walked up to another site where a reconstruction of a viking village had been made as an interactive experience. In the summer (i.e. not now), visitors mingle with local people in period costume and try their hand at various activities. We couldn't go inside any of these buildings so it was just a look around and then followed a walking trail up the hill behind the site. We had hoped it was a loop, but the track ran out in a snow drift so we decided to retrace our steps back to the village and walked back along the road.

After s sit down (and another cup of tea) we jumped in Mary Jane to go hunting icebergs! The South-West wind had moved a lot of the pack-ice away from the coast and Hild noticed some icebergs listed as being close (on the website https://icebergfinder.com/) so we thought that a drive (as opposed to another walk) would be nice. Unfortunately, although we kept getting tantalising glimpses of bergs in between islands, we couldn't find a nice place to look over the sea from the car. We did find some smaller bergs in the bay at St Lunaire and had a nice drive through some smaller villages.

We figured after this we dseserved a nice dinner so we walked up the the pub and had fish and chips and moose poutine. It was very good - and there was a lot of moose in the poutine so Hild was happy!

Coming up: Driving down to Gros Morne National Park

Back | Top of page | Forward