We left Rocky Harbour this morning headed to the Northern end of the peninsula and the town of St Anthony. We are here to visit the L'Anse aux Meadows archaeological site of the Vikings town that was the first European settlement in North America.
On the way up the French Shore of Newfoundland we stopped at Port au Choix to visit the National Heritage Site that was a large settlement of the first residents of Newfoundland.
The Atlantic Archaic people occupied the northern peninsula 5500-3200 years ago because of the large population of seals who were trapped on the jammed spring ice flows in the Straits of Belle Isle and the Caribou who crossed the frozen Straits in winter from Labrador. These food supplies sustained the Archaic and the Palaeoeskimo who followed them 2800-1300 years ago. The last of the native peoples were the Beothuk who occupied Newfoundland 2000-800 years ago as the seal population declined in warming weather and lived by hunting Caribou. The excavations at Port au Choix includes two large towns of their whale bone huts as well as a large find of artifacts that helped reconstruct the life of these early residents. 
Jeff's goal was to also photograph the fossilized sea life at nearby Point Richie’s limestone shoreline. He was the only visitor who wanted to endure the 50mph winds that were pelting the shoreline with spray but after more than an hour of scrambling over the shoreline he settled for ONE fossilized shell! 
Everyone will probably tell him exactly where the big finds were but the opportunity is gone! 
We arrived at the Triple Falls RV Park outside St Anthony a little after 5:00PM and got settled before leaving for town and a very good dinner at the Fishing Point Restaurant at the St Anthony Lighthouse. 
We stopped for Jeff's first Tim Horton coffee in a week and headed back to the campground. We are really roughing it up here while out at the park: no cell phone service, no WIFI, and one snowy TV channel to watch the Olympic closing ceremonies tonight.
Jeff plans on going back into town to post this and check emails in a little while using the library's WIFI from the parking lot.
