L'Anse aux Meadows, Moose, and Icebergs. June 6
I have mixed reviews about the place we're staying at. First reaction is, this place is a dump. And I don't know whether the owner is a little 'slow' (asked me 4 times if he'd given us towels, and many times more, whether we'd like a tea or coffee) or whether he's really trying to be nice.
This morning, the power went off for two hours (found out later that the power failure covered a large area), which also meant no water because the water is pumped from a well. But he was able to cook breakfast on the top of the wood stove. You'd think that I ate so much that I could skip lunch but never works that way. He made bacon and eggs and something called white pudding. Had yogurts, jams, cereals and his mother's homemade blueberry and partridgeberry (had one) muffin. Didn't tell Michael the expiry date that was on the Cheerios box.
Beautiful weather today, but still cold enough that there's still some snow on the ground.
Michael relinquished the driving to me. because he was on high alert for
MOOSE. He says that he'll never get tired of looking for moose I'll ask him again in a couple of weeks.
So the 25 minute drive to the park took 2 hours. And before we got to the park, we saw the requisite moose in somebody's front yard.
We would also see fairly often, relatively small patches of earth, that are loosely fenced off. These are gardens that are formed, from when the road crews come along and dig up the roads and bring up a layer of earth that is hard to come by here otherwise. The road crew leaves piles of earth behind for people to make gardens. And they're not near any homes. I suppose the fences are to keep the moose out .
Finally got to the park,
spent a few minutes chatting with a couple who'd been sitting behind us at the show 2 nights ago 365 km away, and a little while longer talking to a park ranger that I had met way back, probably in 2005 or so, when I had come here for the first time. He's been working here since 1980 and even though the park closes for 7 months in the winter, he doesn't go anywhere. This is where he lives. He lived here as a child and was 11 years old when the archeologists first made their discovery of the Viking settlement, on the hills that he had played on.
They show a 17 minute film when you first arrive, alternating between the French and English version, and they had already started the English version. So we decided to go down to the village for lunch (no food available in the park) before touring the park.
Back at the park, watched the film, perfect for 6th graders and me, so I learned a lot. This park is at the very Northern tip of Nfld and the scenery was beautiful.
Depicts the arrival of the Norse and how they lived. First thing you learn is not to call them Vikings because these guys were explorers.They are the Norsemen. The Vikings were Raiders. What I also found of interest, is that they show the two streams of migration from Africa, all those thousands of years ago,some heading north to Europe and the others heading east to Asia and then North America
And then, the first intersection of these two groups would have been when the Norse met the Aboriginals here, in L'Anse aux Meadows.
There is a 2.2 km easy hike along the shoreline but Michael didn't want to go. So I decided that I'm going back tomorrow morning. Later on, he decided he'll join me tomorrow. Doesn't want to be left behind, I guess .
Once we left the park, we went iceberg hunting. That was fun. There were actually people kayaking beside the icebergs. We could have taken a boat tour but we've seen icebergs before. It was just nice to see some here .
Continuing to stop at every place of interest, we pulled into another craft gift store, and son of a gun, there was that Nisan Cube again!
That makes 4 times now that we've seen them! Had fun catching up with them once more.
Eventually, came time for supper
and we shared an appetizer and main plate. The appetizer was 2 spring rolls with Thai sauce.
Usually, Michael is unwilling to try anything new, but these were filled with moose meat. Waiter told us that his friend hunts the moose and sells the meat to the restaurant. Looked like really dark hamburger meat inside the spring roll. Michael said that it was delicious. I was just grateful for the sauce.
The main course was three salt cod/potato/fried onion lightly fried cakes. He loved them. I was happy that I had mustered pickles to smother over it.
Eating at the same restaurant, were people from a bus group that we had met while taking the boat ride on the fjiord.
On the way back to the hotel, saw another moose, but he was camera shy and galloped into the woods.
