Heading South!

After the tempest!

It always delights and amazes me that after Mother Natures throws a full-blown tantrum, oftentimes, the very next morning she smiles beatifically. The sunshine sparkled on the now navy-blue water, the lace-edged waves rolled lazily to shore, yesterday's horizontal grasses held faces to the sun...a world washed clean.

The flora of the limestone barrens

A surprise on the Port aux Choix walk!

After the usual hearty breakfast at our B & B, we drove the short distance to Norstead, the Viking village built close to the Unesco L'Anse aux Meadows site. Excellent research resulted in the locals creating an authentic feeling site with knowledgeable guides able to describe the way the original vessel the Snorri, was built as well as demonstrating the 11th century loom and one needle knitting called nalknitting. There was a sheep as well as several chickens which apparently would have been brought with these Norsemen as they sailed from landmass to landmass. This 1000 A.D. expedition was from  Greenland.The settlement was never intended to be permanent and was inhabited only for a few years. It's a long drive from Deer Lake if you want to visit this site but the highway runs a long a beautiful coastline for most of the journey and there are interesting spots to stop along the way.

Inside the Viking Chieftain's longhouse

A  Norse loom

Following that we travelled to St Anthony and visited the Grenfell site. Sir Wilfred Grenfell contributed hugely to the improvement of both the health and quality of life in northern Newfoundland and Labrador. His is a fascinating story.

We owe a debt of gratitude to this man!


We looked at a very long set of steps up to what I am sure would have a ben a marvellous overview of St Anthony. We opted to stay at a lower level and found some hert berries. These are new to me... similar to our blueberries but more oval in shape and sharper in taste.

Hert berries

On our way south, we stopped at Port aux Choix which was settled some 4000 years ago by the Maritime Archaic Indians. It has been inhabited ever since as a good place to find shelter, food and materials for tools and building. A lovely walk along the coast on the limestone barrens ( just like The Burren in Ireland but not as smooth-topped) but no berries anywhere.

No scallops at the Anchor Point Restaurant but we enjoyed a visit with other visitors and the great big bowl of mussels was delicious!
You may have noticed the number of French names I've encountered in the travels of the past 10 days. Until the treaty of  Utrecht in 1713 ceded the fishing rights to the English, the west and south coast of Newfoundland was fished by the french fleet during the summer fishing season. We English have  made  quite the mess of the French pronunciation. No Frenchman would recognize some of the names!
Foe example, Baie d'Espoir which translates as Bay of Hope,we pronounce Bay Despair!
For some years now Cow Head (Tête de Vache, the French called it because of the shape of the harbour as seen from the surrounding cliffs), has been home to Theatre Newfoundland & Labrador's Summer festival.  Judi & I enjoyed "Newfoundland Vinyl", a musical offering featuring songs written and originally performed by Newfoundland artists.  The young talent we saw did a fine job!
On Saturday I dropped Judi in Deer Lake and proceeded to dive for 3 monotonous hours to Gander. I did take a prolonged stop in Grand Falls-Windsor which helped.

I checked into a small country motel for 3 nights and am so very happy not to drive again until Tuesday!