July 20, 2009 St. Barbe to St. Anthony

After the night in the motel, we head out to our destination of yesterday, St. Anthony. Again we travel through crummy weather, mostly cloudy and foggy. There are many small towns along the way until we turn inland to cross over to area where St. Anthony lies. We are at the most northern part of Newfoundland. We get to our campground before noon and set up, go into town to provision and then head out to L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. This is quite the amazing place and is dedicated to a Norwegian couple, Dr. Helge Ingstad, a historian and his wife Anne Stine Ingstad, an archaeologist. They were determined to prove the North American existence of the site spoken of in the Norse Sagas. They spent years searching the North Atlantic coastline. A local fisherman notices unusual grassy mounds and the rest is history. What followed was 12 years of archaeological research which showed remnants of eight 11th century Norse buildings. Well before Columbus. The original excavations have been returned to grass covered mounds and there are reproduction buildings with re-enactors giving you the story of day to day life in this community.

The Parks Canada guide was excellent. There is a piece of artwork called the meeting of the two worlds. They represent the first contact between the European and North American Aboriginal cultures. Crossing the world in different directions. It gave you food for thought. Another idea mentioned by the guide was that if the Norse who had settled in Greenland for over 400 years had held out just a bit longer, they may have made contact with the Basque who came to fish the whales in the 1500's. It was an enjoyable afternoon. But I should mention it was getting cold again.

Let me just mention the moose. We have seen quite a few now. As we were entering the Information Center there were three of them off in a grassy place. On our way up and back to L'anse aux Meadows we saw them along the road. So we feel that our moose deterrent has dissipated.