Jun 11, 2025 On the Viking Trail

“You look like you could use this”, said our smiling campground neighbor as she handed me a piece of paper. It was her Starlink password, and she and her husband were heading out to do a little fishing for the evening, which left Vivian & I alone in the empty campground. Apparently she saw us struggling to get a signal on our devices and felt sorry for the two strangers from away. And that, on our second night in Newfoundland was our introduction to the lovely people that live here.

One day earlier, our ferry landed at Port aux Basques 6:30 PM Newfoundland time (that’s 5:00 PM Eastern time) where we began our clockwise tour of the rock. It was a very long day for us, so we pulled into a road side parking lot 13 miles from the ferry terminal. Several others were doing the same at this popular location for overnighting before or after a ferry ride across the Gulf of St Lawrence. By any standards, we were safe and slept peacefully on our first night in Newfoundland.

From there, we continued north along the Long Range Mountains, through parts of Gros Morne National Park and the western coast (which is where we met our generous camp neighbors), eventually to the most northern region of Newfoundland, the Great Peninsula. Along the way, we took advantage of our small footprint and pulled into the parking lot of Arches Provincial Park. These phenomenal rocks introduced us to Newfoundland’s amazing coastline.

We understood this trip would come with challenges (such as the roads, more on that later), some to be expected but always with a few unexpected as well. For example, Viking RV park near L’anse aux Meadows was kind enough to allow us in before noon. This was good for us as a very windy storm was following us up the coastal peninsula. Unfortunately, a house nearby burned to the ground the night before and somehow took out the power grid in the area; meaning the campground was without power, water, cell service and Wifi. No problem, we have water in the fresh tank and a propane heater.

Minutes later, 40-50 mph winds blew through with hard rain. From inside our warm Casita, I watched several RV occupants who were not so lucky set up in the cold rain.  Safe and dry we waited out the storm.  And typical for this region, it blew out as quickly as it blew in leaving us a good portion of the day to explore the area.

Did I mention we were wearing 2-3 layers of clothing, including wool cap and gloves? We enjoyed the very small crowds and practically zero traffic as Newfoundland’s short lived summer had yet to begin. But in return, we braced ourselves for the cold, the rain and OMG, the wind. Of the three weather elements, wind by far outpaces cold and rain here on the rock. 

But none of that would deter us from taking in all we can of Newfoundland. Our sightseeing excursions began in the Great Peninsula where we were introduced to the life of a Viking. At the L’anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site, we learn from Kayla, a local Newfoundlander, park ranger and folklore historian that it was only in 1960 when evidence of a 1000-yr old viking village was discovered there on the most northern rocky shores of Newfoundland.

Maybe it was Kayla’s Newfoundliese dialect tempered by her advanced education in English literature and folklore, or how she weaved her local knowledge with a history pieced together from artifacts found by Norwegian archeologist, but all of a sudden I found viking history to be fascinating, because I could have listened to her delightful accent all afternoon.

On our last day in the Great Peninsula and after a morning of iceberg scouting, we lingered to take advantage of precious wifi after finishing our cod chowder at the charming Dark Tickle Cafe. We actually had ourselves a very nice day with temperatures reaching the low 50s, so we indulged in a sculpin cone filled with partridge berry ice cream. On another day, we might rather enjoy one of their hot bakeapple drinks with screech added to it, or ramp it up with a shot of aquavit. Yes, we are in Newfoundland.

So, what do we think of it so far? As a local might say, we loves it. And we have embraced the cold temperatures, a welcome reprieve from what we left behind 3000 miles ago. As they say, “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”. We layer up and get out there to explore Newfoundland’s ruggedness and meet its weather hardened, yet warm and friendly people.

And we’ve only just begun to explore it. Stayed tuned, the best is yet to come.