As we drove north on the upper Northern Peninsula, clouds increased and temps dropped. The first part of the drive was beautiful along the west coast, then we turned east to our campground near the east coast of the northern tip of the peninsula. We reserved a campsite for two nights at Viking RV Campground because in this remote area, there are only two campgrounds with electricity and one Provincial Park with no hookups at all. We are halfway between St Anthony where icebergs have been reported and L'Anse aux Meadows - site of two Viking attractions. We plan on enjoying some iceberg watching and visiting the Viking attractions.
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| A friend in the Viking Campground |
Not so fast....weather deteriorated to drizzle and fog and temps in the low 40's that continued through the night into the morning. My kind of weather for hiding in the motorhome with furnace blasting. Weather improved slightly late morning, so we decided to take the ride into St Anthony to go iceberg hunting. We did find a few icebergs and a couple of "bergie bits", but nothing like what we saw when we were here seven years ago. We didn't realize then how lucky we were with blue skies, temps in the 60's and humongous icebergs. (If you want to read the blog from that trip and/or see the photos, click on the 2017 trip on the right side of the blog.) We did some errands in the town of St Anthony with a population of a couple thousand - huge for this part of the world and the only town for hundreds of miles in any direction with more than a few hundred people..
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| Waves crashing in St Anthony Harbour |
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| A Bergie Bit |
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| We saw many more of these dilapidated structures last time we here. This time we saw a lot of new, large homes! |
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| This large iceberg was far from shore |
We are enjoying seeing folks working in their peat bog garden plots right along the highway (2 lanes but very tiny shoulders). Most had been turned over revealing dark black soil and a few had some large greens that looked ready for harvesting. The short growing season and cool temps limit their gardens to cool weather, fast-growing crops like greens, radishes, and maybe some root crops?
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| Don't know what the fence is for as it isn't going to keep any animals out. It was turned over a while ago as the soil is not that jet black color |
We also saw all the wood stacks on the sides of the road. Locals get an annual wood allowance that they cut mostly in winter and pull the downed trees from the forests out to the roadsides on sleds pulled by skidoo's. They cut it up and let it season on the roadsides before splitting it and taking it home. All that nicely cut wood just sitting roadside would certainly be a temptation in many places, but here it is all on the honor system.
The weather again deteriorated over night and we woke to drizzle, fog and cold temps. We tried driving to a couple of spots where icebergs had been spotted (icebergfinder.com) and we did find a couple small ones, but the big one that we knew was out there somewhere was engulfed in fog. We stopped at the Viking Village in L'anse aux Meadows, but it was engulfed in thick fog and it was drizzling. We opted to not do the Viking outdoor attractions because of the weather, and headed back south the same way we came (no other option). On our way, we did spot a large iceberg and a couple smaller ones. We stopped to explore a couple of the small villages spread around the small bays and coves along the western coast.
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| Lighthouse and Keeper's Cottage on a small island in the Harbor of Flowers Cove |
Stopped mid afternoon at the same Oceanside campground we had stayed at a few days prior. Weather is in the 50's, no fog, but cloudy and the wind is very gusty, preventing us from sitting outside along the beach. But we can enjoy watching the ocean and seagulls right from the comfort of the motorhome.
Tomorrow, we will continue to head south to Deer Lake to pick up Route 1, that runs East/West through Canada and into Newfoundland. We will drive east, and then north on smaller peninsulas that make up more of Iceberg Alley as the Labrador current pushes these icebergs that have broken off glaciers in Greenland years ago south along the northern coast of Newfoundland.
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