Today started early. We spent the night right near the ferry office hoping to get in early when it opened at 6am so that we could be high on the standby list. The alarm was set for 5:30. We got up, got dressed, looked out the window and saw that the line already extended to the end of the building. I hopped right out of Speedy and got in line as people we arriving quickly. I guess we should have set the alarm for 5am.
When the office opened at six, we were number 13 on the list. They quickly called the first 10 and then it stopped. It was almost an hour wait from then on. At 7am, when all the reserved vehicles had to have checked in, they started calling numbers again. Speedy made it aboard with room to spare. In fact, everyone waiting made it aboard. They could have made things a bit less “interesting”.
We didn’t try to do any birding on this trip since it was pea soup fog when we left. We just settled into the cafeteria, had breakfast and read. The fog lifted as we approached St. Barbe and the skies were clear by the time we disembarked. It was time to head north.
Our first stop for the day was L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. It was about a two hour drive to the visitor center and we arrived at just about noon. After perusing the visitor center, we returned to Speedy for lunch. Then it was time to look around.
L’Anse aux Meadows is the only verifiable Viking settlement in North America. It was identified in the 1960’s by a Norwegian explorer, Helge Ingstad and his archeologist wife, Anne. He thought that the Viking site of Vinland was much further north than had been previously posited. While searching in Eastern Canada, he was told of an “old Indian camp” near the village of L’Anse aux Meadows. These mounds looked much more like buildings than an Indian camp. A series of excavations were made in the 60’s and 70’s by the Ingstads and by Parks Canada and nine buildings were identified and an exceedingly small number of artifacts known to be of Norse origin were found.
The inhabitants, from the written sagas, were Greenlanders who set up an exploration base and winter camp, but they probably left and returned to Greenland as it was too far to keep a trade route going. It is thought that the lack of artifacts is because they took everything of value back to Greenland and purposely destroyed the site. All that was left were bases of the sod buildings and any pieces accidentally discarded.
We walked the site. All of the excavations have long since been filled in, but the outlines of the buildings are still visible. Parks Canada has built a replica of the main building and serveral outbuildings next to the actual site, based on known Norse methods. It was interesting to walk through that as well.
After visiting the archeological site, we walked the path the runs along the water and across the bogs. It provided a great view across the Strait of Belle Isle to Labrador and out to the Labrador Sea. We could see the village of Red Bay that we visited yesterday and we could follow the progress of a lone sailboat out on the ocean side of the strait as it headed in the direction of a couple of distant icebergs.
It was time to move on. Having reached our northernmost point in Newfoundland, we were now heading south...but not far. Our overnight spot is the Pistolet Bay Provincial Park where we will probably spend two nights. They even had a two for one special, so it made that decision easy. We need a bit of rest and they have a laundry here...just no electricity, so it will be a test of the refrigerator.
Today’s birding was minmal, a few sparrows and gulls at L’Anse aux Meadows, but a big flock of Common Eider incuding about a dozen snall ducklings in a cove near the historic site and Red Crossbills and a Gray Jay when arrived at the provincial park.
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