The Flight of Bear Canada
Day 25 - July 26th
L'Anse aux Meadows NL to Terra Nova, NL
Today started with a ride out to L'Anse aux Meadows. In 1960 a pair of Danish archeologists discovered the site of a Viking Settlement. The site includes a museum, the original house sites, and a reconstructed site. I am amazed by the fact that the Vikings lived in sod houses in this barren landscape. The locals today have piles of firewood about as big as a house for dealing with today's winter. The sod houses were dark and smoky. And there was twenty-five guys and four women living inside. That does answer the question why they did all the marauding they did.
Viking Sod House at L'Anse aux Meadows.
Blacksmith's Shop. It was here that the first metal was produced in the Americas. All 2 pounds of it.
Park guide in viking dress.
Inside of the Sod House. It's nice and clear since they haven't lit the fires yet.
Another view inside the house.
The ride south was long. I did cover quite a bit of ground, ending my ride in Terra Nova National Park, only 200km from St. John's. But I still have to deal with assembling a tent in the dark.
The ocean near L'Anse aux Meadows.
Day 26 - July 26th
Terra Nova Nat'l Park, NL to Goobies, NL
Today was a mixed day. Terra Nova Nat'l Park is only 200km or so from St. John's. So I head east with two things on my to do list. One is to find a Suzuki dealership and get an oil change. The other is to hit Cape Spear. Well these things were easy to say while hard to do.
Finding a Suzuki dealership was kind of tough owing to the maze of streets in St. John's. Some of the streets had different names depending if you turned left or right. The midday heat was no help. I finally found a Suzuki dealership through a small magazine I found at a motorcycle accessory shop. But this dealership was closed. I found another Suzuki dealership but that was closed as well. Grrr. In Vancouver most bike shops are closed Sunday and possibly Mondays, but never Saturdays. But then again assuming thing are gospel in another region because it's in the same country, maybe wrong. I hit a Kawasaki dealership, I mean it should be good since Kawasaki had the KLV (V-Strom clone) But the dealership's sales department was open, but no luck in service. So I finally hit up a Honda dealership and at least changed the oil. Now the bike is running with a fresh sump full of synthetic.
Then the next find is to get to Cape Spear, the farthest east one can get in North America. I discover that my GPS map is useless, my road atlas is useless, my Canada map is useless. I finally find a detailed map in a gas station and find the road to Cape Spear. So at 5:00pm NT I finally hit the end of my trip. To the east of me, is the Atlantic Ocean. everything from this point is heading west. So that's the way I go.
One of the lighthouses at Cape Spear.
The view east of the Cape. The closest rideable roads east of here is in Europe.
The end of my day ends in a fog...literally. The road is socked in with dense fog. Also the sun is setting. I crawl through the fog and end the day in the first hotel that I find.
Contents Copyright (C) Michael Fodor 2012.