In the Land of the Vikings

Monday, July 19—Day 22

After a warm breakfast of oatmeal, bananas, and peanut butter toast we leave foggy Port au Choix and make our way north to L'anse aux Meadows. Going up Route 430 we come the the Strait of Belle Isle and pass through numerous villages: Black Duck Cove, Deadman's Cove, Nameless Cove, Savage Cove, Flower's Cove, Shoal Cove East, and Green Island Cove.

Commercial cod fishing has come to a complete halt in Newfoundland, but the there is still limited cod fishing called "food fishery." With a fishing license each person can catch 5 cod a day during the two-week cod fishing season. Beyond that, commercial fishing is allowed for lobster, capelin, hake, and mackerel. The capelin is a small fish (about 6 inches long) and it draws the whales to the coast of Newfoundland. Humpback whales eat huge amounts of capelin and often when you see them breech in the water it is because they have just swum straight upward with their mouths open to catch a mouthful of capelin.

Along the sides of the Route 430 we see numerous stacks of lobster traps tucked into the woods. The shore is so narrow that there is not room to store the traps along the beach so the fishermen bring them inland for the winter. We also see large stacks of wood along side the road and small garden plots (about 20 feet by 40 feet). These stacks of wood and garden plots aren't close to any houses—they just seem to be randomly placed in the middle of nowhere.

As it turns out, the Newfoundlanders can apply for a logging permit that allows them to cut 8 cords of wood each year to use in their home fireplaces for heat. Many of the wood stacks have a number attached to them to show the cutting permit number. The wood is left stacked for a year to dry before being used for firewood. Not all Newfoundlanders bother to get the permit and enforcement apparently isn't very strict. Once the snow has come, the wood is hauled home on a sledge with snow runners on it.

With regard to the garden plots, Newfoundlanders can pay a small fee to grow a garden plot along side the road where the dirt has been turned by the road crews and is easier to work. The ground is mainly peat, which isn't very good for growing garden plants, but the road crews have to bring in soil, sand, and

gravel to build and maintain the roads and these get mixed in with the peat to make garden friendly soil. We are told that the fee for the garden plot permits had just recently doubled to $10 per year, which came as a surprise for most people because they had never bothered to pay it! Some of the garden plots have wooden fences or scarecrows in an attempt to keep the moose and caribou out.

At Eddie's Cove Route 430 turns east and we head inland and then north on Route 436 to L'anse aux Meadows. We pass through Griquet, St. Lunaire, and

Gunner's Cove before we reach L'anse aux Meadows. The drive is lovely as we pass by the small fishing villages. In L'anse aux Meadows we check in at the Viking's Nest Bed and Breakfast, our home base for the next three days. When we get to the B&B Thelma, our hostess, is making blackberry jam and baking bread. The house smells wonderful! We unload the car and make our way to the L'anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.

When we arrive at the Viking site we are disappointed that the regular visitor's center is closed for renovation and the information center is in a temporary trailer. However, when we speak with the interpreter (similar to U.S. National Park rangers)

we find out that the grand opening for the center is scheduled for Wednesday, only two days away and we'll still be here! The interpreter tells us that the building is behind schedule, so even through there will be a grand opening, not all the displays will be ready. We are able to see the new Viking sculpture at the top of the hill, though.

Before going to see the Viking ruins area and the rebuilt Viking long house and community buildings we sit down at a picnic table and eat our picnic lunch. The black flies are happy to see us, so we end up putting on some bug spray, which keeps the flies away quite well. After lunch we catch the shuttle van down to the ruins and go on the guided tour.

L'anse aux Meadows became a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage site in 1978. The site, located on the very tip of the Great Northern Peninsula, dates back to the year 1000 A.D. and represents the earliest European exploration of the North American continent. It is the only authenticated Viking site in the New World. The Viking site was discovered in 1960 by the Norwegian husband and wife archaeological team Helge and Ann Stein Ingstad. They had followed the sagas of the Iceland and Greenland Vikings and with the help of a fisherman in L'anse aux Meadows, George Decker, they were able to uncover the remains of eight Viking buildings.

L'anse aux Meadows is important not just because it is the earliest known European contact with the New World, but also because the contact with the North

American native cultures was the first time humans reconnected after following different migration paths around the world. The North American natives had come from Aftrica north and then across the Bering Straits and the Viking ancestors had migrated up through Europe to Scandinavia and then through Iceland and Greenland before reaching North America.

While significant excavation has been completed at L'anse aux Meadows there is more to be done. Excavation is expensive and at this time there is no excavation work being done. To preserve any remaining artifacts the ruins have been recovered. We see the areas where excavation was done and also where the remaining ruins have been recovered with sod. After walking around the ruins we cross the creek that runs through the historical site. The water in the creek is brown as all the rivers and creeks are in northwestern Newfoundland. The water filters through the peat and turns brown.

When the tour is over we go to the long house that has been reconstructed to represent the original Viking village. There are docents dressed as Vikings who tell us about Viking society and how and why the long house is build the way it is. The walls of the long house are well designed. They are 6 feet thick with a 2-foot core of stone and 2 feet of sod on either side. The roof of the long house extends only as far as the rock core so that as the water drains off the roof it goes into the rock core and is drained away from the long house. This wall design kept dry the inside of the long house in the very wet and windy climate.

The docents explain to us that the life of a Viking was short and not terribly pleasant, especially for the girls and women. As soon as a girl was able to give birth that was what she was expected to do. Women were expected to give birth to a child every year at the same time they were maintaining a garden, gathering food, tanning hides, spinning and weaving, making clothes, and cooking in the smoke-filled long houses. Most Viking women didn't live past the age of 30. Viking men generally lived to 40.

After seeing the long house we decide to walk back to the visitor's center parking lot via the coast trail. We walk along the beach and the climb the low cliffs to the peat trail. The peat is very spongy to walk on and because it has rained the last few days there are sections of the trail that are flooded. We make it through by wading and then as the trail turns back towards the visitor's center parking lot we reach a board walkway that circles Skin Lake. The lake gets its name from the practice of soaking skins there to remove the fur in the tanning process. We pass some women who live in L'anse aux Meadows who are out looking for bake apple berries and partridgeberries.

We get back to the car and then head back to the Viking's Nest B&B to clean up and have dinner. When we get to the dining room Thelma has prepared a delicious moose pot roast dinner. With the meat we have cabbage, parsnips, carrots, and potatoes. Thelma serves her homemade pickled cabbage to go with the meat. For dessert we have partridgeberry pie and coffee. What a meal!

After dinner Marshal and the girls play games with a girl named Elizabeth who is visiting L'anse aux Meadows with her family from Ottawa. I go for a walk on the beach near the B&B. The Atlantic Ocean is a beautiful blue and teal with large waves rolling in over the shale beach. It is a lovely evening.

When I get back to the B&B Marshal and I visit with Elizabeth's parents while the girls play. About 10:00 p.m. we call it a night and head to bed. Tomorrow we're going into St. Anthony's!