Tag Archives: viking trail

Saturday 20th September 2014 – IN WHICH OUR HERO FINDS HIMSELF STRANDED

I had a really good night’s sleep last night which was quite a surprise seeing as I was only about 100 or so metres from the Trans Canada Highway.

And I was on my travels too last night. I was with the two lads with whom I used to play in a rock group in the 1970s, and I still had their gear from the 70s. I had a lengthy chat with Dave the drummer. He had forgotten about his Premier kit and had bought something rather lesser, and was still playing the drums today. Meantime I’d stopped for a coffee. there was an automatic machine that took two dollars, so I put in my two-dollar piece but nothing happened. Damm! Anyway, I became distracted and forgot, so a little later I put in another 2 dollars, and still nothing happened but about 6 2-dollar pieces fell out. So I stayed by the machine and said nothing to those people who were putting their cash into the machine, so they lost it. Every now and again I’d put 2 dollars in and all the cash that others had put in would drop out for me to collect.

camp site corner brook newfoundland canada september 2014And on that note I woke up. Nice and early which is just as well as I had plenty to do. But first, I had to take full advantage of the showers there at this camp site place. It’s why I had stopped here and why I’m not dossing on a car park tonight. It’s been several days since I’ve had a really good wash.

This is my spec at the camp site, the one on the right underneath the trees. Quite comfortable it was too.

I’d done an inventory of the foodstuffs last night and there were no tins of beans left so I had to wander off to the big supermarket at Corner Brook to stock up. And then off up the Trans Canada Highway.

I fuelled up at Deer Lake, as well as putting 20 litres of fuel in the can – I’ll probably need that around Labrador, and then headed off up the Viking Trail.

gros morne national park viking trail newfoundland canada september 2014The first 20 miles or so out of Deer Lake was very monotonous and boring, with nothing of any note, but all of a sudden I came over a rise in the ground and there was the most stunning view down into the valley

I’m about to enter the Gros Morne National Park which is one of the most beautiful parts of Newfoundland – at least, of the parts that are easily accessible.

newfoundland canada september 2014Entry to the park is free if one doesn’t use the facilities, which I don’t intend to do. But the place certainly was beautiful and I would have taken some marvellous photos had the weather been better. Although it’s not raining, the skies are heavily overcast and there is a very strong wind blowing up the valley

Then again, I don’t really have too much time for sightseeing as I have plenty of ground to cover today and not a lot of time to do it.

hurricane force storm rocky point viking trail newfoundland canada september 2014By the time I found the seaside the strong wind had developed into a full-blown storm as you can see from the sea here. It’s a real green sea out there, and that is all nothing more than about 100 metres offshore.

From there on, the wind worsened and on one occasion I was blown from my feet as I left the car to take a photo. I’ve never ever been in a wind that was quite like this.

I arrived at the dockside at St Barbe at just after 19:30 after my marathon drive up here in some of the wildest weather that I’ve ever experienced, to find that all of today’s sailings have all been cancelled due to the weather. There’s a queue as long as your arm for the sailings tomorrow. If there are any, that is, because the forecast doesn’t look all that good.

I’ve found a little spec on the docks and I’ll be staying here until further notice.

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Saturday 16th October 2010 – WE MADE IT TO L’ANSE AUX MEADOWS TODAY

l'anse aux meadows viking settlement norse newfoundland canadaThe view is spectacular and you can understand why the Norse chose this particular site.

There are two crescent-moon shaped bays, both well-sheltered, next to each other surrounded by cliffs to the prevailing northern side, and a low bank behind to stop the easterly winds. The boats could be brought right up to the village when weather conditions were right but a sandbank has intervened these days.

l'anse aux meadows viking settlement norse newfoundland canadaUnfortunately, the place was all closed up and locked, but having driven all of this way to get here, I was not going to be thwarted.

A visitor centre with a low roof miles from anywhere where there isn’t anyone about is not going to be a barrier to anyone who is sufficiently determined, and 10 minutes later we were in the park.

ruins viking norse remains l'anse aux meadows newfoundland canadaIt’s a little confusing at first – they have built some replicas of the Viking buildings, but these are some way from the remains of the original Viking ruins.

The remains of the original buildings are surprisingly open. They are not fenced off at all to anyone so you can wander around them.

bog iron l'anse aux meadows viking settlement norse newfoundland canadaThere are all kinds of traces of bog iron too just floating on the surface of the bog. The Norse travellers would have found this very useful to repair their ships.

But after that I had to clear off smartish-like because the heavens opened and I was soaked to the skin just walking back to the car. And I don’t have long here and I have a lot to do.

You may not think it but Newfoundland is huge, much bigger than it looks on a map and I have to travel from here, at the extreme north-east, down to the Marconi station at the extreme south-west, and its over 1300 kms, would you believe.

deer lake motel newfoundland canadaAnd so in a kind of minimalist mode I’ve made it this evening to Deer Lake where I can pick up the Trans-Canada Highway eastward.

The motel isn’t as cheap (by a long way) as I’d been hoping, but around here there are not so many choices. There was a cheap bed-and-breakfast but no-one answered when I knocked on the door. It made me wish that I had bought a mobile phone as well as a Sat-Nav.

beautiful scenery north west newfoundland canadaThe drive along the Viking Trail down from l’Anse aux Meadows to here was almost 500 kms, you know and we went through some wonderful scenery, because Northern Newfoundland really is beautiful.

There are some really nice mountains and massifs and had the weather been better and had I had more time, I could have taken hundreds of photos along here but I was in a rush.

moose newfoundland canadaWe also saw some of Strawberry Moose‘s cousins. One was quite a good clear shot which came out blurred due to the darkness that was surrounding me.

As for the second – there were about 3 vehicles in a line – I was the middle one – and in the darkness and we were travelling at speed, suddenly the front car slammed on his brakes and screeched to a stop, and we saw four long legs in the headlight beam disappear into the forest. He had just had a close encounter with a moose. It was noticeable that for the remaining 30 kms to Deer Lake his speed dropped from over 100 kph down to about 70 kph.

Tomorrow I’m back on the highway and I want to do all of it to Saint Johns in one go. If I can find somewhere cheap to stay I’ll do 2 nights there, visit Cape Race and the Transatlantic Air Museum, and then head back to the south-western corner (Newfoundland is like a big triangle) to my ferry Thursday night.

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