day 7- july 7:

an interesting day to say the least… was out of my room at the crack of dawn. last night’s fog was not evident this morning. i headed to fox point (aka fishing point) at the end of west street (on the coast) in st. anthony.

another presumed highlight of the trip was the forthcoming visit to l’anse-aux-meadows, the famous archaeological site offering proof of norse or viking settlement in north america (outside greenland).

so my interesting day begins… the roads in this part of the province are very spotty. apparently winter of 2013-14 has not been kind here either 😉 as i make my way to l’anse-aux meadows along Route 436, i find myself dodging potholes rather frequently. alas, one gets me and blows out my right front tire by damaging the aluminium rim! without cellphone service and no means of contacting roadside assistance, i proceed to change the tire using the spare doughnut in the trunk. fun, fun, fun!

about an hour later, i am back on the road and roll into the parking area at l’anse-aux-meadows. i borrow their phone to make a couple of phone calls to the car rental agency and the insurance company to report the incident. i decide that i will visit the attraction and then head back to st. anthony to have the wheel serviced at the gm dealership.

this morning, before the incident with the flat tire i had stopped in at the visitor centre serving the st. anthony area and booked myself into an iceberg/whale watching boat tour. it was scheduled for 4pm but i had no idea what i was in for at the dealership nor how long it would take, so i cancelled this boat tour and planned on doing it the following day. i drove back to st. anthony and stopped in at the gm dealership: bad news. the rim was not repairable (aluminium rims rarely are) and a replacement was not available in short order. thankfully, the service person i was dealing with – jordan m. – was able to help and figured a way to make the car roadworthy again. I could not very well make the 1100km drive back to st. john’s (via corner brook) on a spare doughnut! with the car rental company on board with his solution, i was to return in the morning for the repair.

it was now 3:45pm and i thought i would try to make the boat trip after all – made it by the skin of my teeth, as it were…

as you can see, the light is a bit harsh – but yet again, this was the last tour of the day… early evening upon us, i headed back to my room with a bit of dinner and decided to call it a day.

back at the room, my internet connection gave up. after a few consultations with the front desk, i gave up – they could not fix the issue. heading back up to my room, i met a fella named alex in the hallway. he was carrying his laptop, so i asked him if he was having problems with his connection also? his was fixed, he said, and proceeded to introduce me to his friend. robin – a computer whiz – had me up and running in no time and we chatted for what seemed like a couple of hours…

robin works for a private contractor monitoring fishing vessels for the fisheries ministry. has a number of university degrees and is knowledgeable about just about everything. what impressed me most about him was his deep love for his province and his knowledge of virtually every corner of it. he lives in a very small community on the east side of the great northern peninsula and offered to give me a tour of a few locales when i was ready to leave the day after tomorrow (on day 9).