6th June 2016
Whales, icebergs,
Vikings, Icebergs, and Moose !
What a day ! While I was packing up, one of the campsite
guys came over and said they had been some whales feeding out at the lighthouse
on the point that may be worth a look, and he told me how to get there. How nice is that ? So once I was all done, I set off, but since
it was more than half an hour since the guy had told me, I didn’t get too
excited.
But I should have
– When I got to Point Riche (as it is called), I could not only see a couple of
whales but also hear more as they blew on surfacing – They were just off the
rocky shore ! And I was the only one
there to enjoy it ! What a way to start
the day !
I spent about 30
minutes watching them and trying to get a photo – If you have ever tried to
photograph whales you will understand how difficult it is to get a good
one. You never know where they are going
to surface next, or whether they will leap right out of the water or just kind
of porpoise, so you just kind of point and hope you get a good one ! After a while I ended up just watching them
because there were probably 15 or more humpbacks out there, and I think a
couple of
After an hour or
more I realized I could just sit there all day watching them, so decided to
start heading north. Just off the point
there was a display so I went over to look and found that Point Riche is where
the Dorset Palaeoeskimos lived here from 2100 to 1200 years ago, and used to
hunt the harp seals in the area, and probably watch the whales as well ! It was an interesting and informative display
– Everywhere I go there is just so much history around here, and I am learning
so much about an area about which I really knew nothing.
Once back on the
main road I headed north with the Gulf of St Lawrence beside me, and Quebec /
Labrador visible in the distance on the other side of the Gulf, but shrouded in
fog. I continue to find it odd to be in
these places that I only ever heard about at school, and marked on an
atlas. I find it really weird now to be
actually driving up beside the Gulf of St Lawrence – And many other similar
well known places along the way ! It
gives me an odd feeling.
Forest and Lakes
again to my right – On one scenic lake there was not only an idyllic looking
house, but I suddenly noticed a couple of float planes sitting on the bank –
They would be the perfect way to get around up here due to all the lakes to
land on ! I always had a soft spot for
float planes – In my next lifetime, maybe !
Wood is a big
thing in Newfoundland – A lot of people have wood stoves so they all have to have
a good stock of wood before winter comes – Like good little squirrels gathering
their acorns ! As I move north I am
seeing more and more of the wood gathering processes in the forest, whereas
further south I just saw all the piles of wood outside people’s houses. And how to transport the wood in winter
? On a sled, towed by a skidoo, of
course ! I passed a number of these
rough looking sleds waiting by the woodpiles for some snow so they can be used
!
Quite high hills
to my right – The Long Range Mountains I believe they are called, with peaks
mostly between 600 and 700 metres. There
was still snow visible up in some of the more sheltered areas. I then drove
past St Barbe from where the ferry to Labrador departs, so I dropped in to get
the sailing time details for the next stage of my journey in a day or so, and
then carried on up the road to Anchor Point.
Coming in to Anchor Point there were a LOT of woodpiles beside the road
– Busy little squirrels up here !
After the
brightly painted little town of Anchor Point, I stopped in Flower’s Cove to
have a look at some Thrombolites. We
have these in Aus (called stromatolites – Not sure what the difference is,
although I think these ones are officially dead, where as the Aussie ones are
still living.) Having parked, it was a
600 metre walk in the cold wind out to the Thrombolites, passing over a little
bridge that was once the only way for locals to get across the creek ! Saw lots of scallop shells on the beach –
Unfortunately all empty ! As for thrombolites,
they are rather special being so old and so rare, but they are basically just
rocks now, so they aren’t too exciting, and within a few minutes in the cold
wind it was time to head back to the car !
There were some good sized icebergs out to sea past the thrombolites…..
There was a
definite line of blue sky ahead, but it seemed to keep moving away from me
! I stopped for a sandwich somewhere up
near Sandy Cove, and by the time I got to Eddies Cove, where the road turns
inland, I had almost got into the blue sky, although it still wasn’t much over
8 deg C ! Where the road crosses from W to E across the top of this Northern
Peninsula, the landscape varied very quickly – One minute it was bog with lots
of small ponds, the next it was broken rock everywhere, almost like crossing a
lava field, with hardly any vegetation at all.
And then as we dropped in toward St Anthony it was back into the forest
again – Although at least by now I had caught up with the blue sky !
Another local
habit here is creating little vegetable allotments alongside the road where the
soil is suitable. They just put a bit of fencing up, and dig over the land, and
plant whatever. I kept passing cars that
had just pulled over on the side of the road while the owner worked in his “allotment”
! At the turn off to L’Anse aux Meadows
there was a massive pile of grit for the roads, and under a covered area piles
of, I presume, salt. More squirrel
activity – I guess they really have to have everything ready for winter because
they never know when the first snows are going to arrive.
I crossed a river
where a fly fisherman was trying his hand, and past some other lakes of deep
blue reflecting the sky above, and then I arrived in the little township of St
Lunaire, and all sorts of things started happening very quickly – This next
sequence of events all happened in the space of 10 minutes, and remember that I
stopped several times in that 10 minutes to take in the view or take photos !
First were some
delightful little bays basking
Driving up the
hill from the moose house, the sea fog suddenly appeared, and within 100 yards
I had very restricted views, and could hardly see a group of several smaller
icebergs (growlers ?) in the next bay.
Then over another hill, and the sun came out again, and there was
another moose running down the road in front of me ! He had obviously spied
some good grass on the other side of the road, but he had to run past a length
of Armco barrier before he could get off the road and into (yet another) timber
It was then on
through some more misty patches until I got just a short distance up the road
to Noddy Cove which had the most scenic little cove, with a big iceberg
crossing the entrance (and more further out to sea), and then just 2 minutes
further the next cove, Spillars Cove, had a bigger iceberg in the bay, with the
island hill behind shrouded in sea mist.
All quite spectacular.
Finally I reached
L’Anse aux Meadows at the very top of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland,
and there I found the Historic Site of the first Viking settlement in North
America, in 1000 AD. There is a large Information
centre which has an excellent display of everything, and then one goes out the
back of the centre and down a walkway that leads over the bog and out to some
recreated sod buildings as well as well marked depressions where the original
buildings used to be, and where they have excavated and found lots of artifacts
and tools which have enabled them to accurately date the settlement.
These 60 – 90
Vikings had come from Greenland (with the help of the currents, like the
icebergs) under the leadership of one Leif Eiriksson, to over-winter here and
explore the south via the Gulf of St Lawrence.
However, once they started exploring they came into contact with the
local Innu, Beothuk, and Mi’kmaq peoples who were far more numerous, so after a
decade or so the Vikings burnt their settlement and headed back to Greenland.
What was particularly interesting was that they managed to extract and smelt
iron from
Once again,
fascinating for me as it tied in with the museums we had visited when Janet and
I were in Oslo. I was very impressed
with the sod huts – They would have been quite warm and cosy in this bleak
climate up here.
By now the afternoon was wearing on, so I
started to think of stopping in a camp site just down the road in a little
village called Quirpon. On the way there
I passed more blue bays with misty hills and big icebergs – It is really
totally unnecessary to go out in a boat to see icebergs and whales round here
!! I passed a big bronze statue of Leif
Eiriksson down by the water’s edge, and then headed into Quirpon where the sea
mist had really come in strongly, and the temps dropped to about 3 deg as I
drove around the little fishing village before heading back to the camp site
for the night.
It was quite
chilly sitting around, and a couple of the camp sites were still inaccessible
due to big piles of snow, so once again I was very happy to plug into the mains
and use my little electric heater to keep me warm inside while I ate my
supper. Rain is supposed to be around in
the next day or so, so I set up camp prepared for some during the night – and
was glad later that I did so.
What an amazing
day, with so many expected sights and things happening. Newfoundland continues to delight me.
Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6293238918843844417?authkey=Gv1sRgCLKk-r7Q4-q4ywE
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