So- another one . I don't like to write too much in one post because...............
I caught the bus out of Port aux Basque yesterday morning . It has been good to just have a backpack and have no real idea about how I am going to get from A to B but knowing the major area I want to see. Freedom is what it is called and my ties are to bus timetables and to banks( of which there are too few here).
I travelled to Corner Brook , which is a town on the way either over to Saint Johns or ont he beginning of the Viking Trail up to St. Anthony's. The town is siituated around a very deep anad very long harbour. There is some incredible number of Cruise Ships that visit each year, and the Queen Mary ahd been one ( much to the pleasure of some of the locals I was talking with) . The inlets are similar to the Norwiegian Fjiords I sailed down- I guess they ahve a similar geological beginning. I caught a Viking Express bus and decided to go to Rocky Harbour as it was right on the coast and in the Gros Morne National Park.
I saw the Gros Morne- this is one of the oldest known slabs of rock on our earth. Millions of years ago, after its formation , it was thrust by enormous forces up from the bowels of the earth, unitl it stood high above the surrounding plateaux. here it has given up some of the history of the earth to the people who seek such knowledge. CAn you imagine the force needed? Can you imagine the age of the land that I am walking on now? I am overwhelmed by the history of this land. This morning I am going walking around the coastline to find all I can about here. I want to find out more about the Beothuk people the only Indian group that ever lived on this island) The last two women died in the late 1800's, and there are no descendants as they didn't mix with the white folk.
This afternoon I am heading up to St. Anthony's and will go to the Viking area to stay at the Viking Village B and B . This is where I have been headed all the time. It is a good feeling to have achieved three major things in life - I have travelled now to the only areas that I have really wanted to be - Norway, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland- and I made it.
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2 comments:
Hi Liz.......i love the sense of history and 'ancientness'(if there is such a word) that your blog conveys. It sounds so beautiful. It is terribly sad about the Beothuk People, particularly that they were trapped on an island and couldnt escape. Kind of similar to our aborigines but of course our island is much bigger and they did mix with the whites. I wonder how desolate and empty in her soul the last surviving young woman felt to be the only person left from her whole family, community and race. So very very sad.
This sense of antiquity is the reason I have felt so strongly about this place- the indian group have a sad history - now place that in a geological environment of the oldest known rocks on earth- what sort of past does this land have? To be here and to be part of an as yet un touristy place allows you to merge with the surrounds in a profound way.
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