At the very top of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula, where the land ends in low, windy moorland and the cold water of the Strait of Belle Isle, a handful of grassy mounds mark the only confirmed Norse settlement in North America. L'Anse aux Meadows was found in 1960 by the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, the archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, following local directions to some strange humps beside the bay, and excavation showed eight buildings of turf and timber from about the year 1000. It was one of the first places in the world to be placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, in 1978.
The site is looked after by Parks Canada, and reconstructed sod houses stand near the original foundations, with costumed staff who show how the Norse smelted iron and lived through the winter. The buildings are small and smoky and very quiet, and the wind here has a way of making the whole story seem very close. Nobody knows whether this was the Vinland of the sagas or a base for exploring, but it was clearly a place where people lived and worked, and it proves that Europeans crossed the Atlantic five hundred years before Columbus.
The Viking Trail, as Route 430 and 436 are known, runs for hundreds of kilometres north from Deer Lake past Gros Morne National Park and along the Gulf of St Lawrence. The road is generally good, with long straight stretches and wide views of the sea on one side and low spruce and bog on the other. Moose are a constant danger, especially at dusk and dawn, and every rider should slow down and watch the verges. Fog can roll in from the cold water without warning.
For fuel, the last real town before the end is St. Anthony, about twenty-five kilometres away, and it is the sensible place to fill up and eat. The site and surrounding villages have a few small restaurants and guesthouses, but services thin out the further north you go, and the season is short, with the site open only from roughly early June to early October.
In early summer, icebergs drift down from Greenland along this coast, and they can be seen from the headlands, glowing white against the grey sea. Dress warmly even in July.