Janie and I were up early, and after she pushed the last clothes through the dryer we headed for a trail located at the end of our street. This little fishing community, like Canso, was up and at it by dawn, and our morning walk saw trucks, bikes, boats and I'm sure some things we didn't see! We selected a trail that overlooks the Bight, basically a barrens area near the lighthouse. It was a leisurely walk. We checked out by 8:00 AM en route to visit another Newfoundland National Historic Site, L'Anse aux Meadows.

Located about 35 minutes from St. Anthony, L'Anse aux Meadows is the only confirmed Norse site in the New World. I'd been keen to visit this site since my days working with Parks Canada in the early 1990's. L'Anse aux Meadows is remote, really one of the islands most northerly reaches of land, but has as commanding view of the narrow Strait of Belle Isle, entry to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

When arriving at the site one heads for the Visitor Centre, passing by monuments designating this area as both a National Historic and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were early into the Centre, and the park attendant collected our family rate fee and got us moving with a very well done introductory video on beginnings, findings and the Park's significance. We then set out to tour the grounds, especially the recreated Norse camp of Leif Erikson. Upon entering the stockade and the hut we were met with an animator that we settled in with for about 15 minutes (we snuck out ahead of the tour and lots of time with him). We asked about life there... what winter must have been like, about the artefacts in the camp, the role that geography played in selecting the site. The animators were great... And the kids were free to touch and even try on the artifacts in the building... swords, helmets, clothing were all fair game. All in all we spent about two hours and were very glad that we'd taken the time to go up the coast and visit L'Anse aux Meadows.

Turn around time, back down the western side of the island, was roughly 4 hours so we hit the road making a rainy Rocky Harbour and our destination, Gros Morne Cabins, at 5:00 PM. We were fortunate to see (and not hit) moose along the Viking Route both moving north and south on this route. Huge animals that seem to be moving about Newfoundland however and wherever they please. We learned that the moose is actually an invasive species, introduced to the island from Nova Scotia and later New Brunswick. Highways are well signed with warnings, but (other than a short stretch near Stephenville) they haven't taken the more drastic step of moose fencing major traffic arteries as they have in the Province of New Brunswick.

We settled in to very nice accommodations again on Day 9, as the cabin had two bedrooms and a great living area with a complete kitchen. Further, the Office and Convenience Store stocks a wide variety of necessities and even T-Shirts (Monica had one of those pretty quick)!!! All hands showered while Janie cooked up a scoff for supper. Relaxing evening with a fun bottle of red/blueberry wine from Twillingate. I'm thinking we should have stopped at that winery (the Auk Island Winery) while we were there and maybe bought shares! All hands turned in by 10:00 PM for a comfy evening on the harbour.