To the north! written on Friday, 19August

From Port au Choix, we headed north and then east to Raleigh, NL to stay at Pistolet Bay Provincial Park for a few nights while visiting the upper peninsula of Newfoundland.

We had made reservations using the online system, indicating that our motorhome was “over 35 feet” – it didn’t request anything more specific (which is kind of funny when I think of it now, we could have had a 65’ or 105' rig and they would have let me make the reservation). I had read reviews that indicated that it was a nice park, but no facilities (no hook-ups – no electric, no water, no sewer). They did have a dump station, and we could run the generator as needed except from 10pm-8am.

When we got to the checkin station, the ranger asked us if we were wanting a site or to just park in the overflow… I said that we had a reservation, and she suggested we go up and check the site before taking Miss Doozie up there. This is a small park – about 30 sites, and they really aren’t expecting big rigs. We drove up to the site we had reserved, and while we could have gotten into it, we estimated that we would have completely filled the space and had no room for the Jeep. The ranger had recommended that we consider parking in the day use area of the park instead – right by the checkin station and by a small lake. We decided that was the better option for us.

We have a nice view out the passenger side of the bus of a small lake – there is a playground and a swimming area down there… no one swimming that we have seen! The high temperature that we’ve seen so far is about 60 degrees, and the ranger told us that we might have frost tomorrow morning.

We are all alone in a large, relatively flat gravel lot. At least we don’t have to worry about anyone being disturbed by our generator, though we are observing the park quiet time rules.

This morning, we wanted to visit the Viking areas at L’Anse aux Meadows. But, the ranger who talked with us this morning talked about the Ecological Preserve at Raleigh, so we decided to drive there first. There weren’t a lot of directional signs, but we eventually found the Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve. We weren’t sure what to expect – the ranger had said that there were rare plants there that were only found in Newfoundland, and one plant that is only found on that reserve. The signs indicated that it had been a limestone quarry in the past but now was a preserve for the native plants growing there.

As we kept on driving into the reserve on a narrow rutted gravel road, we weren’t sure we would know when we “got there”. We stopped when we saw another car coming out and asked them if it was worth it to continue – they said it definitely was and shared a hand-drawn map that a fellow in Raleigh had drawn for them. So, we drove out to the end, and it was beautiful, in a barren-limestone-with-some-rare-plants-growing-on-it kind of way!

So maybe not beautiful…

You certainly had to admire the plants that were tenacious enough to live here…

If you can see a small vertical thing right at the base of that cliff, just to the right of center… that’s Dwayne.

Some of the flowers we saw – a Canadian 25-cent piece (about the same size as a quarter) for relative size:

These flowers looked like my hair on most mornings – all blown up over the top of their heads.

There are actually two different white flowers here – the one on the left is a small ball with lots of little blossoms and the one on the right (two flowers) is a daisy-looking one.

This was my favorite – a small purple flower.

Pretty reddish-orange.

From the front of the small purple one.

But – the best part was that we saw *ICEBERGS*!

We had heard that it was too late to see icebergs, though one person had said that the boat trips could take you out far enough to see them, but you might be on the boat for a couple of hours… and the seas look rough enough and it is pretty cold, that we didn’t think that was a great idea. But… when we stopped to talk to the couple who told us it was worth continuing on, we asked if what we were seeing was an iceberg, and they confirmed that it was!

They were pretty far out, so we couldn’t see them well, but here are a couple of pictures…

You’ll have to trust me, or use some sort of magnifying software, but there is an iceberg right about the middle of this picture. It just looks like a brighter spot on top of the water.

Using my phone’s camera zoom – you can see it a little better. It might look like a ship, but we used the binoculars and confirmed that it is an iceberg.

Dwayne had his long lens, so he got better pictures:

Wow – isn’t that neat???

This was another one that we could see from the Ecological Preserve.

Another view of that second one – Dwayne wanted a picture with the land we were standing on in the picture too. This is the picture he was taking when I took a picture of him way way over by the cliff (posted above).

This also shows the land we were standing on…

Heading back to Raleigh – this shows the town of Raleigh across the bay, and a little of the gravel road we were on – the road heading off on the far side would take us back to our campground and on our way to visit other things!

From Raleigh, we headed to L’Anse aux Meadows National Historical Site (once again, it is good that we purchased the National Park Discovery Pass as it covered our entrance fee). This site is at the location of an archaeological dig that discovered the foundations of houses of a Norse colony that they think, from descriptions in Icelandic sagas, was here for 3 years. The Norsemen, according to the sagas, came multiple times, but only once stayed more than a year. From the excavations, they have found evidence of metal-smithing, weaving, woodworking, and other crafts. They also see evidence that makes them think that women were with the colony. This was in the timeframe of 995-1015AD.

We got there just in time to join a tour led by a Park Service guide who has been involved with the site from the time it was originally being excavated until now.

A beautiful view off the coast.

They also had re-enactors who invited us into their Viking home and told us a little about their lives.

A view of the building from the outside. If I understood correctly, the walls were 6’ thick with bricks of peat on the outside and inside, and gravel in between.

They determined much of what they built in the reconstruction from the remnants of the buildings, but they didn’t know what the roofs would have been, so they have rebuilt as the houses would have been in Iceland at that time.

Dwayne was able to get a picture of another iceberg off the small town of L’anse aux Meadows.

May give you a better perspective of how it looked from where we were – it was reflecting the sun so seemed really bright.

 Just a note about the current village of L'anse aux Meadows (lance-a-meadows) - the park service guide that we had lives there. One of the other tourists asked one of the re-enactors how many people live in that town now, and he said 19. He also said it isn't really a "town" because it has no town government or services. He said it was more like a condominium association - if something needs to be done, they gather the resources (money, tools, equipment) together and get it taken care of.

One of the interesting artifacts found in the metalworkers area – a pin that would have been used to hold their heavy shawls closed, probably lost in the ash area of his workspace.

 

We enjoyed visiting this National Historic Site and particularly enjoyed the tour we were able to go on.

On our way back to the rig, we drove down toward Raleigh again, but took a road to Ship Cove. From there, we saw more icebergs.

In the closer in area, you may be able to see some fishing buoys… unfortunately, some others who were also there told us that a whale was caught up in the net – you can barely see it if you know where to look. Someone is supposed to be coming to try to release it tomorrow, but they don’t know if the whale will be able to last that long.

Final iceberg for today…