The province of Newfoundland and Labrador was on my “Canada – must see” list long before the amazing tourism commercials made everyone fall in love with it.
With place names such as Heart’s Desire, Happy Adventure and Come By Chance and their very unique use of the English language it’s hard not be charmed. “How ya gettin’ on, b’y? Best kind”
We only had one week for our itinerary so I focused on the west coast and plotted out what I thought was a good overview of the area. We flew into Deer Lake, picked up the rental car and started driving up the Viking Trail – in the rain . . . and fog.
Everything you read online about Newfoundland and Labrador weather makes it sound pretty grim. It wasn’t all day, every day rain and fog but it was an influencing factor. Where I might normally have jumped out of the car to get a picture, I thought twice about the cold rain and flat sky that was waiting for me outside. Oh – and did I mention there was still snow?
St Anthony and area
St Anthony is at the northern end of the Great Northern Peninsula. We stayed two nights here so that we could hunt icebergs, visit L’anse Aux Meadows and explore the surrounding areas.
On our way north, we spotted 4 moose and our first iceberg. Then another variety once we stopped for lunch in St Anthony.
There was a short trail in Saint Carols that I was thinking might lead to a good iceberg spotting area. The snowpack, however, was still about three feet deep here.
We drove on, stopping to exploring Great Brehat. This is another area of potential iceberg sightings along a trail that looked more accessible (not covered in snow). There were just a few too many steps for my ruined knee. Well worth the drive in though.
I was referencing the website IcebergFinder.com to help us in our quest. Both of these small villages had seen icebergs drifting by within the past few days.
Goose Cove was our final exploration stop for the day.
L'anse Aux Meadows
L’anse Aux Meadows is the only confirmed Viking site in North America and a UNESCO world heritage site. Our first glimpse of the Viking settlement was shrouded in fog. June is an unpredictable month for weather, but one bonus is that it isn’t yet crawling with tourists!
The sod huts have been re-created, complete with role-playing actors inside. It is quite an interesting experience and rather amazing that this site was only found in 1960. The structures are all made from the earth and return to the earth, leaving nothing but a small mound.
Immediately after leaving L’anse Aux Meadows, we spotted a berg in the fog. I think it was the biggest one we saw – that we could stop and take a picture of, anyway.
In Raleigh, we spotted another one that looked like it had just recently split in two.
All along the highway, in the middle of nowhere and closer to towns, sit patches of mounded earth. Some have fences and some do not. We hypothesized about their use and it was later confirmed that these are gardens. Why take up space putting a garden in your own yard when you can use the roadside? After all, the highway crew has already moved all that dirt for you when they built the road.
As we headed back south, we stopped in Eddies Cove for our final iceberg sighting of the trip. It was also the end of our moose sighting. We were now up to 8.
We had passed Flower’s Cove on our way north and I’d wanted to stop for a closer look an island there. The weather wasn’t cooperating that day, so I waited, hoping it would be better on the way back.
There was also a sign here for a Thrombolite walking trail. I had to look that one up since I had no idea what that even is. I still don’t, but the gist of it is that these are extremely rare examples of some of the earth’s most primitive life forms. These unicellular critters aren’t exactly fossils but are evidence of biological activity that occurred between 3.5 billion to 650 million years ago.
Our final stop for the day was at The Arches Provincial Park for a quick picture in the rain before spending the night in Cow Head.
It turns out the weather didn’t really hold me back from taking pictures. There are so many I want to share, I had to break this post into two parts. Next up – exploring Gros Morne National Park.
