Port Aux Chois. Stopped at the visitors centre and looked at exhibits about the different archaeological sites, but it was raining, so we decided to stop again on our way back. they have a few trails and an excavation of a Paleo Dorset Site.
This picture is a bit blurry, but you can see that these are lobster traps. There are thousands of them sitting along the highway. These are spare lobster traps that the fishermen can go and get when their traps break, or swell up. There are not locked up, or behind a fence. Just sitting in the open.
Just like you can leave your spare traps around. You can leaver your cut wood. Every family gets a permit to log their wood for heating. They can cut 7 cords or a 100 logs. Usually, several families get together and have a logging bee. Log, split, and stack the wood by the side of the road. In the winter you would bring the wood back on the sled that is usually parked next to the wood stack. Lots of work, but it free. Only elbow grease.
The landscape is changing. Villages are more rugged and remote. Most of them were not connected to a road until the 1960s. The only way in and out was by boat in the summer and dog sleds in the winter.
Some of these harbours are very busy when the fishing boats are in.
Root cellar built into the hill and covered with sod.
L'Anse Aux Meadows area. Beautiful terrain. Coves and mountains. Meadows, rivers, ponds, ocean, rocks, cliffs, beaches, icebergs drifting into coves, moss covered hills, trails, tiny villages, friendly, genuine people, wildlife, history, art. All in different combinations. This place is truly amazing!
Yay! First iceberg. Now we need to find some moose!
Hi-Fi didn't go as far as our cabin. Me and a neighbour sitting by the office with our laptops...
Wildlife at the cabin. Close, but not moose...similar ears.
This is very special. It took us a few hours to figure out that the only radio station we were getting was a TV station...we listened to soccer, Jeopardy, and some children shows with lots of giggling. How bizarre is that.
First day of winter. Sorry, I meant first day of summer...hiking to L'Anse Aux Meadows. A beautiful hike towards the site where traces of viking houses were discovered in the 1960s
This statue greets you to the site. Very convincing.
This is one of the reconstructed structures. The site is from AD1000, a viking base camp. The walls are made of sod/moss bricks and were 6 feet wide.
In 1978 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
These are the mounds that remained after the village was burnt down and abandoned. About 25% of the site was excavated.
An archaic period excavation. The girl that was excavating wasn't getting much work done with all the tourists asking questions. I wonder if she is getting the usual "are you digging for gold/dinosaurs?"
The reconstruction. The interior was quite cozy and warm and the interpreters were really into it!
Norstead is another reconstruction of the site itself. It's a reconstruction of a trading site, which is what L'anse Aux meadows would have been if it wasn't abandoned after a few years.
Lambi. i think that this is his 'viking' name
He realy does think he is a viking. Too many drug in the 60s maybe?
Just a nice view form one of the structures. Not very viking, but picturesque none the less.
Some of the flora. No lupines here - more about that later.
The hike back.
Finally, moose! This is the first little herd of three that we encountered over and over again. They look pretty shabby. scarred, and mange stricken. They just move along, eating everything in their path.
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