The Viking Trail

Corinne Canada 5 Comments

Having arrived in St. Barbe (pronounced “Barb”), we wanted to explore The Viking Trail. How about a map (from the last post) to remind you where we were?

We are were in the very northern part of Newfoundland…the part labeled “Very few people” and “Ferry to Labrador.”

The road up this peninsula is called The Viking Trail, because at the end of it, you come to the a 1000 year old archeological excavation site of a Norse settlement called L’Anse aux Meadows (translates from French to Grassland Bay).

With carbon dating estimates between 990 and 1050 CE (mean date 1014)[3][4][5] and tree-ring dating of 1021,[6][7] L’Anse aux Meadows is the only undisputed site of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact of Europeans with the Americas outside of Greenland.[5]

Thank you Wikipedia. Yes, this is the site of the first Europeans coming to North America, way before Columbus. 500 years before Columbus!

Quick note…the road in this area is called “The Viking Trail.” But in actuality, a Viking is a Norseman who raided and pillaged. None of that happened here. So this road should actually be called “The Norse Trail.” Whatever.

But how the heck to did the Norse get here? I couldn’t imagine sailing across the North Atlantic Ocean. This map explained it!

The Norse were already in Iceland and Greenland. One sailboat took a wrong turn and wandered over to the coast of Labrador. He told his buddies about all the trees that could be used as lumber (a scarcity in Greenland and Iceland). Thus, the Norse came and harvested lumber over the course of ten years.

In the 1960s, two very astute explorer, Norwegians, Helga and Anne Ingstad were shown the area by the local landowner. They recognized the grassy mounds for what they were, old settlements. The Ingstads led excavations from 1961 to 1968, finding the remains of eight buildings similar to known Norse settlements in Greenland and Iceland. After they left, Parks Canada took up the research.

After the teams were done doing their archeological research, they covered the sites back up. You can kind of pick out the foundations, especially in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

Parks Canada now had enough information to construct replicas of what the Norse buildings might have looked like.

The walls of these buildings were four feet thick and made of peatmoss and wood.

We were able to explore these reconstructions.

Come on in.
Openings in the roof (that could be closed) let in a significant amount of light and let the smoke out. With four foot walls, these buildings were considerably warmer than the outside air.

All in all, it was VERY interesting.

While we were on our guided tour, our guide (who happened to be the Great-granddaughter of the original landowner) said “What is that ship?” Indeed!

This is the Royal Danish Navy Thetis-class ocean patrol vessel HDMS Thetis (F357). It is built to bust through 31 inch thick ice in the Arctic region. (Thank you Google reverse image search.) We also spotted a similar ship from the Royal Canadian Navy and a Canadian Coast Guard Ship. Their appearance here was unusual as evidenced by our tourguide’s surprise!

Thrombolites

Not too far away from our RV Park in St. Barbe was a collection of Thrombolites. Thrombolites used to be living creatures that calcified and exist only here and in Australia. If you want more info, read the accompanying sign. The sign will explain it way better than I can!

For old creatures, they look pretty good!

On to Labrador

The time had finally arrived for us to depart Newfoundland and head over to Labrador. The night before our departure, I spotted our ferry boat in port. It was not nearly as big as the ferry we took from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. But then again, it was only a 1.5 hour ferry ride instead of a 7 hour ride.

We were up the at 5:00 a.m. the morning of our departure. The ferry sailed at 7:00 and we needed to be in line by 6:00. We got up and immediately proceeded to line up for the ferry. We could get ready and have breakfast waiting in line as easily as at the campground.

I took this picture while I was in the truck behind the RV and James. We had not hooked up the truck yet because we knew the long wheelbase on the Sandpiper could not handle the sharp turn necessary to get in line. James had to back up a few times to get the RV pointed in the right direction. I love how this picture shows the sunrise shining through the open bow and stern of the ferry.
Soon enough, we were on board. We clambered up to the top deck and took pictures of the last vehicles to come aboard.
Labrador, here we come! Good-bye Newfoundland, we enjoyed our time on “The Rock.”

I took another time lapse video of us getting on the ferry. This spliced together video shows us driving on. Then once we arrived in Labrador, I filmed us going down the stairs to get back to the RV, locating it and driving off the ferry. If the video below doesn’t work for you, click on this link. https://youtube.com/shorts/zFp_cXEomFA

We are in Labrador now. It’s all trees and very few people. More to explore!

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5 thoughts on “The Viking Trail”

  2. David

    We have really enjoyed all of your posts. We were not able to visit Newfoundland and enjoyed through your eyes. Also thanks for taking the time to write and photograph your adventures. The time lapse on the ferry is great!

  3. Linda n Al

    What Fun! Wow, to see such an ancient site that not many people get to visit! I loved that picture of the sunrise coming through the ships front too. I hope your next adventure is equally as beautiful, and you find lots of cool places…patiently awaiting the next blog…

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