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To my mind, Team Viking’s expedition has been a tremendous success. We were able to trace relevant sections of the route the Norse likely took around the tip of Labrador into the Strait of Belle Isle and along the coast of Newfoundland. We paddled right up to the Settlement Site at L’Anse aux Meadows. WeContinue reading “There & Back Again: A Viking Journey”

Fog is the atmospheric condition when the cooler temperatures and warmer environments collide to create particles of moisture. To me, nothing is more beautiful than to wake at first light on a mountain pass and to see fog in the valley and ravines below, with small peaks peering through and with the sun warming theContinue reading “Vikings in the Mist: Peering through the Fog at Silhouettes of Labrador and Newfoundland”

I woke up Monday morning in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, just a little over two hours’ drive from Port aux Basques, where the Marine Atlantic ferry departs for North Sydney, Nova Scotia. The overnight ferry doesn’t leave until 11:45 PM and normally check-in is recommended two hours prior to sailing, but the scuttlebutt around the campfireContinue reading “Homeward Bound: The Fast & Furious Return Voyage of Team Viking”

As I drove back down the Viking Trail alone the Sunday after John’s departure, I enjoyed stunning vistas of the sea for long stretches. Once Route 430 shoots west over to Eddies Cove, it hugs the coast of the Strait of Belle Isle for more than 20 miles, all the way to Anchor Point. ItContinue reading “Sketches of Vinland: Attempting to Catch Glimpses of Newfoundland through the Spy-Glass of History”

When I dropped John off at the airport last Thursday, the paddling portion of our adventure was well and truly over. My skills are not advanced enough to solo the most interesting water in the immediate vicinity of L’Anse aux Meadows, and the more placid stretches would just frustrate me. It’s also hard to loadContinue reading “Farewell to John: Team Viking on the Cusp of the Long Road Home”

From the moment that one exits Route 1 at Deer Lake and begins the 526 KM (327 mile) journey along “The Viking Trail”—as Newfoundland Route 430 officially is known—which takes one to the turn-off for L’Anse aux Meadows and eventually ends at St. Anthony, one begins to see growing signs of Viking branding and marketing.Continue reading “Visiting “VikingLand:” The Disneyfication of L’Anse aux Meadows”

Late one afternoon, after we had pulled out of the water at Pinware River Provincial Park on the South Coast of Labrador, I had an interesting exchange with a friendly traveler interested in our attempt to paddle In the Wake of the Vikings. You see, he was doing something similar himself, although in some waysContinue reading “Jens the Overlander: A Modern-Day Viking Voyage from Hamburg”

On the day that John and I paddled to L’Anse aux Meadows to view and to visit the Norse settlement site for the first time from the sea, we returned to pull out at a boat launch only a few yards from the feet of a statue of Leif Eiríksson. The son of Eirík theContinue reading “In the Shadow of Leif Eiríksson: “Luck,” Leadership, and Legacy in the Norse World”

As we’ve noted in earlier blogs, our rig has gotten a lot of attention on campgrounds, in ferry lines, at gas stations, etc. The comments vary depending on the configuration of our equipment and the interest of our interlocutors, but it certainly seems eye-catching, gets us a lot of attention, and makes us new friends.Continue reading “First in Class on the St. Barbe Ferry”

Having acknowledged in a previous blog the many positive impressions I have of the Parks Canada interpretation of the Norse Site at L’Anse aux Meadows, I do have some thoughts regarding significant short-comings in the interpretation of certain key aspects of the Norse experience in this settlement. The “Meeting of Two Worlds” theme, in particular,Continue reading “In the Shadows of the Vikings: The Storm Clouds Gathered over the Living History at L’Anse aux Meadows”