Triple Falls
I am trying to catch up on my posts.
On July 30th, we left Rocky Harbour and headed north for our spot at Triple Falls RV, just outside of St. Anthony’s. We unhooked and drove into St. Anthony’s to see what there was to see. St. Anthony’s is kind of a funky place. We make a habit of stopping in at all the Tourist Info Centres we find and have collected quite the massive selection of brochures and maps. It really helps to choose what you want to see.
Triple Falls was our first back in site but it was spacious and flat and Don looked like a real pro backing in.
The next day we were up early for the drive to L’Anse aux Meadows, the landing site of the Vikings. Boy did we luck out! On our way out the door to begin our guided tour, the guide pointed out a cow moose in the meadow. She blended right in to the vegetation.
Our guide was a local man who was around 12 years old when the site was being excavated and the archaeologists stayed with his family. As a child he had played on the mounds where the buildings were located. Local lore was that First Nations people had lived there so it was a real surprise to find out that it was a Viking settlement. It was certainly an educational experience that was made even more interesting coming from someone who was there when the discoveries were made. We were left at the recreated Viking settlement and enjoyed the costumed docents. What was a surprise to me (and it shouldn’t have been), was that women had spent time at the settlement. It was such a harsh environment and they came across in an open boat using oars and sails and helped to establish a small settlement that was surrounded by hostile local people who eventually made life so difficult for them that they were driven away after a few years.
The Viking loom and the drop spindle were strikingly similar to the Navajo loom and drop spindle. Iron was found in the peat bog and that is what the Vikings used to make the replacement nails to repair their boats.
We hiked around the site and then headed to Norstead, another Viking settlement and saw the ship that had been built. The Vikings had come over in 9 days but the recreated boat took 21 days.
On the way to L’Anse aux Meadows, we had seen a hitchhiker on his way in. When we were leaving, there he was on his way out. We had just heard on CBC radio that it was illegal to hitchhike but we thought we would give him a ride. He was on his way to St. Anthony and we had to go there to fuel up and buy some groceries so he came along. He was from Lyon, France and was deaf but he could speak English – a bit hard to understand. He had to lip read. Amazing to lip read and speak two languages.
He asked where we were going the next day and we told him as far as River of Ponds. He was headed for Deer Lake and asked if he could tag along with us that far. We picked him up at Timmy’s the next morning.
