Viking Land and the Western coast

Sitting in a little cafe at Rocky Harbour, in Gros Morne Park...just a few hundred metres from our wonderful bed and breakfast. We have travelled much since the last posting. First we spent a little bit of time at the most northern area of Newfoundland where the Vikings landed. Seems like a few of them are still there employed by Parks Canada to show one around their sod huts, and demonstrate making nails from the bog iron and boats from wood. They certainly have adjusted though, as one was able to take me to a back room and sell me his latest CD of newfie music sans tax. I guess a thousand years is ample time to fit right in.
The northern coast has vicious winds at times. Locals said in the winter at St Anthony's you can see the blue sky above, but the whiteout on the ground blocks out everything in your view. We were glad it was summer!
We had enough time to take a little detour to Labrador and do the coastal drive. The ferry lands on the Quebec side of the border after crossing Straits of Belle Isle. We were able to tell it was Quebec by the roads...they improved enormously as we crossed into Labrador. But the fog was the same in both places...couldn't see a thing so we pulled right over to a hotel in L'anse au Clair. Lots of French names on the coast as the French did a lot of fishing there...starting way back in 1542 or so when the Basque whalers landed in Labrador. At Red Bay, the end of our drive ( and the paved road) we visited the National Historic Site dedicated to the Basques. They supplied all of Europe with oil for their lamps with their whaling for close to 100 years by catching whales off the coast of Labrador, rendering the oil in big bronze cauldrons over outdoor fireplaces, putting it all in barrels assembled on the shore and heading back to Europe in the Fall. This was only discovered in the 1960's when someone read about a ship that had sunk in the New World called the San Juan in Red Bay Harbour. They dove in the harbour and found the ship perfectly preserved by the cold water and mud and then were able to find the evidence of the whaling on the shore. Up to 1000 men spent their summer there. At the end of the era, those pesky Norse and Danes had taken all the Basque skills and learned to catch whales in the Artic waters a lot closer to Europe. And also they suspect either the Basques overwhaled and depleted the species or climate change moved the whales elsewhere...how history repeats itself now in newfoundland!
We then came back down the coast of Newfoundland once again to Gros Morne and our favorite bed and breakfast.
So, back at Dot and Walter's place, we feel like family. Even went to their daughter's 25th wedding anniversay last night at Norris Point...lots of friends, family and food. Drove over with Dot, Walter and Dot's 98 year old mother..she is a great-great-grandma now.
This morning we went on a hike to Baker Brook Falls ...on the way we saw a bull moose munching away..What a sight! saw another on the way back..maybe the same one..but Jurg says he has seen 9 moose and 1 bear on the trip so far. Quite the count for one trip.
We are starting to sound like newfies now...day don't have a th sound..and day drop der 'aitches on a lot of words and put em where dey hain't. Der English sounds a lot nicer dan ours, but we can't understand all of it...
Sue and Jurg