CFRNA* – June 7 – Ken

As you can likely tell from my previous posts, Newfoundland is an incredible place.

Gros Morne, with all its geological formations, is stunning. It is interesting to hear the stories of the people. And, the kitchen party and screech were very fun.

If you look at the pictures posted on the first page of the blog you will see pictures from our overnight stay in Red Bay Labrador. The pictures are of the icebergs in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence taken from the ferry; of fishing villages along the road north, of the houses, boats, the village of Red Bay and the building in which we spent the night – the boathouse like structure, which is right beside the Parks Canada building housing displays about the UNESCO World Heritage site at Red Bay.

Red Bay Labrador

Saying that we were in Labrador and going to the UNESCO site are the main reasons we took the ferry across. Red Bay is home to one of the most well-preserved fishing encampments in Newfoundland.

In the mid-1500’s, Basque fishermen from the North of Spain setup a whaling station in the bay. Used for over 70 years, the site was used for the production of whale oil for Europe. All facets of the production happened in and around the bay. From the catching of the whales, to the butchering of the animals and the rendering of the blubber to the making of the barrels to hold the oil for shipment happened in the bay.

Unfortunately for the whalers, but fortunately for historians, one of the ships was caught on the rocks during a storm and sunk. Parks Canada historians have preserved the site and, over time, have developed techniques to catalogue and preserve artifacts from the site.

So, on site, there are articles of the clothing that were worn, pottery, red tiles from the building roof’s, casts of parts of the actual ship, and a full-size replica of a slice of the ship.

Fortunately, the weather was fairly mild although the wind was quite chilly.

Red Bay is a truly unique part of the world’s heritage and it was cool to be able to stay right on the water beside the Parks building.

Icebergs

Our first encounter with open sea icebergs was slightly south of the ferry that took us to Red Bay. Fortunately for the ferry the icebergs were relatively small and slow moving. All along the Labrador coast from the ferry terminal to Red Bay, the bays were filled with small bergs.

While we didn’t see any large icebergs, on the ferry ride back to Newfoundland we did see icebergs with seals on them. Unfortunately, the seals mostly fled to the water as the ferry passed by. However, if you look closely, you can see seals in at least one picture.

St. Anthony

Our last stop on the northern peninsula is St. Anthony for the “Iceberg Festival”, which is a week-long event celebrating, yup, you guessed it, icebergs.

While not large, the St. Anthony area has a number of events for the festival including boat tours, local music events and even an embroidery class. However, the events are fairly few in number and spread out over the north coast, so it is hard to do more than one in a day, and we are only here for a day and a half.

With the fog, it has been impossible to see anything in the ocean. So, while the community may be celebrating Icebergs, if they are out there, they can’t be seen. Good thing we took the ferry!

*CFRNA

Every trip needs a theme. For our time in the US, our theme was “finding the warmth”. Regrettably, as you have seen from our posts and pictures, we were unable to find the sustained warm weather we were looking for.

The theme for this part of our trip has become CFRNA.

So, what exactly is CFRNA?

It stands for “Cold Fucking Rock in the North Atlantic”. You all know we have traveled to Iceland and the weather was crappy. We traveled to Norway and the weather was crappy. Now, we are in Newfoundland and the weather has, once again – turned crappy!

Today the high temperature was 3C, with a fog and strong wind. That is the forecast for at least the next 5 days. I have said to Phyllis, “We need to start going to WFRAs or Warm Fucking Rocks in the Atlantic.”

Anyone want to join me in the Canary Islands?

L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site

One of the more interesting things we have done on this CFRNA is to visit yet another UNESCO World Heritage site at L’Anse aux Meadows. It is the only documented Norse landing site in North America.

As you can imagine there is not much in the way of actual relics as most items from 1000 years ago have rotted or disappeared in time. Three main artifacts that have been found on the site are a bronze, ring-headed pin of the kind Norsemen used to fasten their cloaks, a stone oil lamp and a small spindle whorl, once used as the flywheel of a handheld spindle. These show the visitations along with the remains of earthen structures. However, Parks Canada have reconstructed a number of period buildings made of sod and gravel and they have staffed the building with people dressed in period costumes, who are knowledgeable about the ways of the Norseman. As the one fellow said; “This is a museum where you can pick things up and handle them.”

I was enthralled with one of the interpreters and his version of what life on the site may have been like.