We traveled north on the western side of Newfoundland to the village of Quirpon and stayed at the Viking RV Park. There are several small villages in this area that are a great place to do an iceberg expedition or learn about the Vikings who landed here almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus set sail.

St. Lunaire-Griquet

St. Lunaire-Griquet is a quaint fishing village that happens to also be on Iceberg Alley. This refers to the stretch of coastline along the northern and eastern edges of Newfoundland where 10,000-year-old icebergs drift south from the Arctic and Greenland every spring and summer. Depending on the weather and temperature, these icebergs make it all the way to Nova Scotia. However, the largest are in the northern and eastern part of Newfoundland. St. Lunaire-Griquet is also where we spotted our first iceberg!

Norstead

Norstead is home to The Norseman Restaurant as well as the statue of Lief Erikson, the Norweigan explorer who first set foot on this island around 1,000 years ago. We took a picture with the statue before going across the street and having an amazing dinner at the restaurant. And you can’t beat the view from our table.

L’anse aux Meadows

The next day we bundled up and headed to L’anse aux Meadows to explore this national historic site where Vikings once lived. This UNESCO World Heritage site is the only authenticated Norse site in all of North America. Along with locations of where archeologists found relics of buildings that once stood in the exact spots, there is a replicated village with “villagers” telling the story of how life was so many years ago.

Back to Norstead

A short drive away from the national historic park is Norstead – A Viking Village. This is a privately funded museum that also shows what life would have been like.

In addition to various buildings, this park is also home to life size replica of an original Snorri Ship.

Constructed by master boat builder Robert Stevens, the Snorri is an open-deck boat 54 feet long, 16 feet wide and 6 feet deep. It was constructed of oak, pine, tamarack and locust woods, and iron rivets.

Read more about this fascinating piece of history and the journey it took to get to this location here

Icebergs!

Along with learning about the Vikings, we also were in search of icebergs. We drove to the neighboring village of St. Anthony and hit the proverbial iceberg jackpot!

However we weren’t done! The next day we set out on a raft with Dark Tickle Expeditions in search of more icebergs. After suiting up in wet suits to keep us dry and relatively warm, we boarded the 12-person raft along with a couple from Australia and set sail. This was another test for my Scopolamine patch, and I’m happy to report I did not “feed the fishes”.

We found this smaller iceberg and were able to get close enough to see part of it under the water, but kept going in search of one that our great guide knew was further out.

And after about 1/2 hour we found the mother of all icebergs! Our guide estimated this iceberg to be about 80 feet high. We think he meant from the base under the water to the top, but we aren’t sure. In any event, it was impressive!

Becoming Honorary Newfoundlanders

How do you become Honorary Newfoundlanders? A Screeching In Ceremony, of course!

I’ll just say that this involves kissing a frozen cod (although since Covid, we only had to pretend to kiss the cod), having a taste of Newfoundland delicacies like capelin and bread with a molasses like spread, and then the main event. You take a shot of Screech Rum. If you make it through all that and repeat some Newfoundland sayings, you are an Honorary Newfoundlander. Oh, and you have to wear the official Newfoundland hat as well.

Conclusion

Here was our one wildlife siting! He even turned around so we could get a great picture of his face.

Our drive from Gros Morne to Viking country was not the easiest. The roads were pretty rough in spots and we had rain for the entire over 200-mile trip. However the experiences we had while in such a remote area were worth the trip. We did cut our visit short by a day because the weather forecast for our extra day was 40s and rain. We chose to drive again in that rain and head back to the Gros Morne area for a few days to dry out and get some chores done.

Twillingate is next!

We’re Mike & Jennifer Skinnell, and together we are The Rambling Quilter. We travel the country full-time in our 42 ft. fifth-wheel pulled by our F-350. Jennifer writes our blog, travel articles, contemporary romance, cozy mysteries, and “Don’t Wait – Our Full-Time Journey Through Breast Cancer”. Our blog is purely for information and entertainment purposes. However, if you’d like to support Jennifer’s writing career, her author link to her books is below.