20020605

June 5, 2002

Day 27

Start: Triple Falls RV Park, St. Anthony, NF
End: 
Miles: 0

The low last night was 41f and the high today was 63f in nothern Newfoundland. The skies started out sunny with high clouds but changed gradually to mostly cloudy. No rain yet, but that’s in the forecast for tonight.

We hopped up after breakfast to go do our tourist duties. First, to the Grenfell museum in St Anthony. Sir Wilfred Grenfell was an Englishman, son of a church man, who found he wanted to be a medical missionary. He decided on the Labrador coast and Northern Newfoundland as the place to serve after a visit here.

He was one of those who did everything, and well. He founded something like five hospitals, nine nursing stations, captained the medical ship that traveled the coast regularly to treat the ill, and so forth. He received many honors for his efforts. He died in 1940.

We saw the museum that contains many of the stories, photographs, and items related to his service. We went to the rotunda of the local hospital (his, upgraded since) to see some very interesting murals. Then we hiked up to his St Anthony house and wandered through it, looking at more parts of his life. The house is a nice, large place with a sun porch around two sides that must have seen a lot of use.

Afterward, we returned to the museum building to attack the gift shop.

Then we turned our attention to the Vikings. The site at L’Anse aux Meadows, almost at the tip of the northern-most point of Newfoundland, is recognized now as having been a Viking settlement. It is thought to have been Leif Erikson’s wintering-over place during one or more of his exploration trips. It is also possible it was a settlement by unknown Norsemen of the period. The year of its use has been established to be very close to 1000AD. On display in the visitor’s center are various artifacts found on the site.

It was blowing quite hard when we set out across the bogs (tundra?) on the boardwalk to the site from the visitor’s center. Five buildings have been constructed with native material as it is believed the buildings the Vikings had were built. The lower walls are six feet thick; two feet of the local peat, then two feet of local gravel, then two more feet of peat. “A”-shaped roofs rest on the gravel part of the wall; they’re covered with sod and a layer of birch bark, then more sod. A hole in the roof provides an exit for the fire’s smoke. They are amazingly warm, even on this windy day, due to the construction.

A couple in one of the buildings switched back and forth from first to third person in discussing the buildings and what the settlers would have brought with them. He was using an awl and linen thread to make a pair of shoes while he talked. One of the things he was quite clear on was that the wind is a blessing in summer – it keeps the black flies away. Here, they are small but have a fierce bite. They come a little later in the month.

We left the buildings and walked around the remains of the actual Viking huts. The lower peat walls still remain. The architectural digs have been restored to as-found condition (they took place from 1961 to 1968). Of course we took pictures of all this, and of the site as a whole – with its view across to Labrador, the icebergs in the bay, and so forth.

We stopped in a local establishment that makes jams and jellies from five local berries. They sell these all over Newfoundland. Most are relatives of berries we know. Dolores picked up some as gifts.

On the way back to St Anthony, we saw a moose at the point where we saw the last moose last night. Same moose? 

One thing I didn’t mention yesterday – garden plots on the highway right-of-way. The right-of-way is cut back many feet to the brush line. The soil outside the towns next to the roads is often very black and rich. So folks put in garden plots on that land after registering with the road department. They pick a place with good drainage and water supply, and tend them regularly. 

We fueled for our trip tomorrow. With our decision to not go to the Labrador shore, we have more time to spend that isn’t yet planned. Further, the weather tomorrow looks to be rainy. We think we’ll drive half way to Gros Morne and look at things there, then go on to Gros Morne the next day, and do the boat trip the day afterward. Then we’ll go on with what we’d intended.