Yesterday we drove from Gros Morne to L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern most tip of the island. This is where the Vikings landed 1,000 years ago, and it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We saw a display of such sites, and we were pleased to see that after visiting the Vikings we will have been to all of them in Canada except for the ones in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Labrador. The Viking settlement opens tomorrow, so later today there will be more arrivals, but in the meantime we have the B&B to ourselves. It has a separate cabin down the lane from the owner's house, with a cosy living room and dining area. Our room faces west, and we had a glorious sunset view over the water. The weather isn't looking great for today, so we might just hang out here for the morning.
Our drive here was fairly long, but we stopped on the way to see the Thrombolites, which are fossilized bacteria colonies. This is the oldest known form of life on earth, and the only other place where these are found is in Australia. They are clusters of rocks that look like large mushrooms.
Although our drive took us along the coast, we couldn't see much for a while until the rain eased up. We've been so lucky in that regard though, as our worst days have been driving days. When we arrived we stopped by St. Anthony, which is a more developed place than I was expecting this far north, and certainly bigger than any place we've visited except St. John's. We then headed for our B&B in the village of Hay Cove, just outside the L'Anse aux Meadows site. The rugged beauty of this area surpasses that of most of the places we've seen here, except of course for Gros Morne. It's a long drive to get here, but those who opt not to do it are missing the most picturesque side of the island in my view.
We had a fabulous dinner here, at one of the best rated restaurants on the island, and surprisingly not very expensive. They just opened for the season yesterday, and when I asked the server if they had Figgy Duff on the menu, she said that the chef was making it that evening, and it should be ready for lunch today. I've been wanting to try that for the whole trip, so guess what I'm going to be having in the afternoon! We don't go to restaurants for lunch, as breakfasts are filling, and we carry along some light food for mid day, but today will be a great one for enjoying tea and dessert! The restaurant had a small gift shop with crafts made by people from the area. We saw a book called "A Puffin Playing by the Sea," which is a Newfoundlanders' version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. It was written by the owner of the restaurant, and we thought it would be fun to sing with our quartet at Christmas. Apparently the author is working on an Alberta version, so we'll have to watch for it.
After dinner we drove around the area, ducking into each little cove that we saw. There was a pleasant surprise around every corner, with the water, the rugged landscape, the many pieces of icebergs and the setting sun. And by the side of the road we saw a moose up close - a truly amazing site!
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