We woke
to clearer weather this morning but it was very cold. We were all
steamed up inside Mortimer and it took quite a while for the windows
to clear fully. We left our campsite at Rocky Harbour and headed
north up through the National Park. It was still overcast but we had
clearer views of the scenery as we went. It really is something
quite special and rates highly on my list of spectacular "aaahhh's".
We were set for another long day in the car. Our aim is to get up to
the north western tip of Newfoundland to L'Anse aux Meadows. This is
a UNESCO World Heritage Site as they have found here the ruins of a
Viking settlement, the only one on North America. It is about
a 370km drive, a long way to go to see a museum but hopefully if
will be worth it.
Vikings. Unfortunately we
had to turn down
their invite for a little
impromptu plunder
I hate driving in silence and today managed to get Stef to tolerate
the radio. This was in part because he was fiddling around on the
laptop as I drove. We listened to CBC1, part of Canada's currently
beleaguered national radio network. There is an on running dispute
between management and part of the unionised workforce. From what we
have gleaned so far it seems to be that the former want to change
working practices to gain a more flexible workforce so that they can
easily tap in to the skill set they want. Understandably, the latter
are not happy as it means their employment basis would be changed
from permanent to contract, therefore resulting in less security.
Its a classic dispute and not an easy one to resolve. Its been
running for longer than we have been in Canada and there is as yet
no sign of a resolution.
Because of the dispute they do not have a full schedule of current
programmes and are running repeats. The first programme we listened
to was, I think, current. It was similar to BBC Radio 4's Woman's
Hour. The presenter, Sheila Roberts (?), had three interviewees all
women in their sixties and seventies. The first was a home
economics/cookery guru who had just won a competition dedicated to
cooking with buckwheat. She was passionate about it espousing the
health benefits as well as trying to convince us all that it was
tasty. Her winning recipe was a buckwheat, fruit and nut salad
"which is great for snacking straight from the fridge". She is the
author of an award winning cookery book, From the Ambassador's
Table, so I suspect she must know what she is on about.
Her second guest was seventy seven and a Union Psychologist. I am
not sure what that means but she seemed to be well and truly into
self discovery, inner strength, building self esteem and self worth.
She was talking about workshops that she runs that are about six or
seven days long. We both decided she was a bit of a cuckoo who had
hit on a great money making scheme. The final guest was an
ex-politician who has spent the last thirty years or so travelling
the world supporting aid projects and generally being a good egg for
mankind. She sounds like she would be a fascinating person to meet
and to talk to and that she has great tales to tell. Her thoughts on
India mirrored my own from when we visited there a couple of years
ago. Watch out US and Europe, India is coming and the energy and
drive the people there have will mean they will triumph in due
course.
The repeat was a programme all about workplace stress, the problems
it can cause and the stigma associated with it. A guest then joined
the show who traces the roots and origins of words and phrases. His
choice for today was "work life balance" which was first used in the
1970's but did not pick up steam until around 1970. This chap,
referred to as the Word Spy, then talked about other new work
related phrases.
Down Shifting is what people do when they want to have a less
demanding job and readjust their work life balance. The Rat Race
Membership Fee is all the stuff (clothes, cars, houses etc) people
have to buy and accumulate to show that they are a high performer.
(By the way, did you know that the phrase Rat Race originally comes
from a dance in the 1930's!) The Joy to Stuff ratio measures the
amount of enjoyment you forgo to acquire the stuff required to be
part of the rat race. Many people are now becoming Soul Proprietors,
setting up their own businesses but running them on their terms
which enable them to have the lifestyle they want.
He was an entertaining person to listen to and we will be checking
out his website (www.wordspy.com)
to find out more. He also has a daily email service which I reckon
would provide a welcome bit of light hearted relief on a daily
basis.
Weather-beaten shed
These programmes kept us entertained a fair amount of the way to
L'Anse aux Meadows. Rather than carrying on up the coastal route we
turned inland and cut across on the 432. This was a totally deserted
stretch of road. For over 100km we saw a few other cars and trucks
on the road but that was it. We passed no settlements and apart from
the road itself there were few signs of human habitation. The whole
area is full of more beautiful trees all now starting to change
colour. Patches we passed along the way have now turned into a
bright golden yellow, more evidence that a stunning autumn is just
around the corner.
As we passed Main Brook we did start to see signs of life. Along the
side of the road small plots of land have been marked out as
allotments and there were people tending their patches. The soil
looked rich and peaty and it must have been naturally moist as there
were no signs of any form of water supply for the gardeners to use.
The road to L'Anse aux Meadows wound through small villages until
finally we saw the sign for the Viking Settlement site. Here there
was a small visitor information centre with an exhibit and a video
explaining how the site was initially settled and how it was
rediscovered in the 1900's. The Vikings had basic navigational
tools. They would know roughly which way they were headed but would
never be more than two days from land as landmarks were central to
them finding their way.
Viking saga's, stories told and handed down through the generations,
told of how a Viking looking for Greenland got blown off course by a
storm and saw new land. He returned and told his tale and later Leif
Eriksson set off to try and find this new land. From the coast of
Greenland he knew he had to sail for a certain time and then he
would see land, a large beach that takes a day to sail from one end
to the other. At the end of the beach, another two day's sailing
takes you to the new land. This he found at L'Anse aux Meadows and
established a small settlement here. It was only populated for a few
years and historians and archaeologists believe that it was little
more than a staging post en route to somewhere further south.
In the late 1950's, a Norwegian historian, Helge Ingstad, decided to
pursue a theory he had built from reading the Viking Saga's. He was
sure that the new land they talked about was on the coast of North
America and set out to find them. He spent years touring the coast
asking the local people if they had seen any old ruins. When he
reached L'Anse aux Meadows he got his first positive answer and set
about finding out more. His wife, Anne Stine, was an archaeologist
and led international teams at the site for four years. Parks Canada
then undertook a few more years research before they closed the dig,
leaving 75% of it for future archaeological research.
The dig confirmed that this area had been a Viking settlement. They
found evidence of a smelting works, forge, large house and some work
sheds. The settlement was small, probably just consisting of the
crew of one boat. From beneath the peat the Vikings were able to
find small deposits of iron which they smelted into ore. The
archaeologists estimate that only 2kg of ore was ever used at the
site and as soon as I commented that it seemed a lot of work to
construct the smelting and forge sites for such a low quantity I had
the feeling it was one of those stupid questions. On the site they
found about one hundred iron nails, but the iron was of European
origin. Here they think that nails were the only thing made in the
forge and that they were needed for repairs to the boats to enable
them to make the return journey.
The peaty landscape has preserved archaeological finds well and they
could establish that at the site ship building or repairs was a key
activity. From wood shavings they have found they could establish
that metal tools were used. They knew that women were on the site
from remains of spinning wheels and needles. One thing they did not
find was human remains. This could either be that they were burnt or
that they were returned to their original homelands for burial on
consecrated ground (some of the Vikings were Christians).
Our guide for the first part of the tour was local, born and bred
and lived all his life in a house on the small peninsula which is
home to the village. It is a tiny place with probably no more than
fifteen properties. He could remember playing as a boy on the area
which is now the Historic Site and was himself involved in the
archaeological digs. He is very proud that one of the items on
display in the information centre is one that he found. It added a
note of reality to the tour. Often with things like this you are
believing what you are told but there is no actual connection
between the events and the person replaying them. Today, you could
almost sense our guide reliving his childhood as he shared his
knowledge and experience with us.
On the site they have recreated some of the buildings that they
found at the dig. They are simple structures with a frame made of
tree branches. On top of this was put a layer of peat bricks and
then a layer of turf so the outside of the buildings was green. The
peat was a fantastic wind barrier. Having been blown about for a
while outside, inside the building it was very warm and dry. The
real log fire has been replaced by a gas one (health and safety
rules) but you could sense how warm it would be inside the hut with
a couple of real fires burning. In true Canadian style they had a
few guides dressed up in Viking costumes explaining more about what
life was like back then.
We had made it to the museum knowing that we only had two hours left
to see it. This was just about enough time but it would have been
good to have a bit longer. As we were gently ushered out one of the
Vikings spied two moose, mother and calf, sitting at the edge of an
open area of land just watching us all go by. That has now taken our
wildlife total up to moose 3, caribou 0.
Leaving the site we drove down to L'Anse aux Meadows village. Very
small and simple it has fantastic views and a real end of the world
feeling. The skies had finally cleared and there was a promise of a
great sunset. We decided to explore more locally and went down past
the campsite to Quirpon, looking for the ferry that we had seen
signs for. Later I found the reference to it in the guide book. The
ferry goes out to Quirpon Island where there is a luxury B&B
($200-$450 a night) which you can only get to either by the ferry or
by landing on its helipad!
By the time we had got back to L'Anse aux Meadows the clouds had
rolled in and the sunset was not to be seen. We headed for the
campsite which was totally empty. We did not even get the expected
visit from the owner to collect our fees for the night. We hit bed
early, knowing we had an early start tomorrow and listened as the
wind started to pick up.
