The roughness of the Cabot Trail was merely a warm up for the blustery 7 hour ferry crossing to Newfoundland! My land-legs are short enough but my sea-legs are unquestionably less than adequate. We were a poor lot by the time we landed in Port Aux Basque. In contrast, however, I've never seen more solid ground than that of Newfoundland.

There's a saying here, that God created the earth in six days. On the seventh, He sat down and threw rocks at it, and called it Newfoundland! Unfortunately, as we embarked on The Rock, we encountered "winter" in a harsh way. Considering we haven't been in a cold place since Fort St. John in April of 2011, we are quite chilled by the Northern air and snow capped hills. With the birds, we have migrated north from the Cherry Blossom Festival (where the cherries had already blossomed and leafed when we arrived) to the Apple Blossom Festival (where the apples had also blossomed and leafed), to the Iceberg Festival (where there ARE plenty of icebergs and the trees have NO leaves yet)... regrettably, my Florida tan is hastily fading!

Eden's birthday was celebrated in true Viking fashion in L'Anse Aux Medows. We ate at the Norseman and were entertained by a real live Viking whom we recognised from the Viking Village in Norstead. He sang some wonderful songs, including Happy Birthday, and many of his own. Our menu was also rather Vikingish. Eden had duck, Naomi and I shared the lamb, Tim had rabbit, and Eli had some sausage thing..? (sometimes it's best not to know all the details). Nevertheless, it was all very delicious. We also tasted ice from 1000 year old icebergs, some of which we had seen earlier on our way up the Viking Trail.

We heard that when Canada joined Newfoundland in 1949, it was the youngest of our 10 Provinces yet it has the oldest settlements. It is no doubt a tough rock to conquer! Even the Vikings didn't stay. After attaining the status of being the first European to discover America well over 400 years before Columbus, Leif Eriksson decided to abdicate his new colony to the aboriginal peoples who were here when he arrived, and he returned to Greenland to stay. Today, over 300 villages and settlements have been abandoned owing to the modern economics of this province. Yet the people are the hardiest and heartiest you'll ever know - God luv 'em!