Six things you must do in... Newfoundland
Newfoundland is the closest point in Canada to Britain, a five-hour flight away.
Gareth Huw Davies's list of things you shouldn't miss during a visit to this stress-free island includes mountain walks, whale-watching, icebergs and Viking remains, seriously fresh and tasty fish dinners - and a welcome that is second to none . . .
1: COLOURFUL HISTORY
We landed in the provincial capital St John's, a pretty little city of brightly coloured wooden houses built on steep streets spilling down towards the harbour. It is the oldest English-founded settlement in North America.
There are lively bars, good restaurants - the young waitress in Ches's Fish and Chips in Freshwater Road was one of the most helpful I have ever met - and homely guesthouses.
The big attraction in St John's is Signal Hill Historic Park. This is where, in 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless message - three dots sent from Cornwall.
At the new Johnson Geo Centre (www.geocentre.ca), there is an exhibition on the Titanic, which sank 350 miles off the Newfoundland coast in 1912.
2: WHALE WATCH
Out of the calm, grey water at Cape Spear came one of the most exciting sounds in the animal world - a whale spouting only yards offshore.
In Africa and elsewhere you usually have to go deep into the wild to encounter great beasts. In Newfoundland, you find awesome creatures within walking distance of the main city.
On another occasion we saw whales breaching - flipping out of the water - as we ate at the Lighthouse Restaurant, on a promontory above St Anthony in the far northwest.
The sun was also glinting on an iceberg. They drift past majestically all summer long.
We landed in the provincial capital St John's, a pretty little city of brightly coloured wooden houses built on steep streets spilling down towards the harbour. It is the oldest English-founded settlement in North America.
There are lively bars, good restaurants - the young waitress in Ches's Fish and Chips in Freshwater Road was one of the most helpful I have ever met - and homely guesthouses.
The big attraction in St John's is Signal Hill Historic Park. This is where, in 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless message - three dots sent from Cornwall.
At the new Johnson Geo Centre (www.geocentre.ca), there is an exhibition on the Titanic, which sank 350 miles off the Newfoundland coast in 1912.
2: WHALE WATCH
Out of the calm, grey water at Cape Spear came one of the most exciting sounds in the animal world - a whale spouting only yards offshore.
In Africa and elsewhere you usually have to go deep into the wild to encounter great beasts. In Newfoundland, you find awesome creatures within walking distance of the main city.
On another occasion we saw whales breaching - flipping out of the water - as we ate at the Lighthouse Restaurant, on a promontory above St Anthony in the far northwest.
The sun was also glinting on an iceberg. They drift past majestically all summer long.
3: THE OTHER IRELAND
Set aside a week to drive around Newfoundland in a rough triangle with sides 250 miles long (visit www. frontier-travel.co.uk for fly-drive ideas).
Easiest to reach, on empty roads south of St John's, is the Avalon Peninsula, where people such as Rita (she runs the Hagan's Hospitality Home in Aquaforte) speak with an accent fresh-minted in Limerick.
This is said to be the most Irish place in the world outside the Emerald Isle itself. Immigrants first came for the teeming shoals of cod on the Grand Banks, now tragically depleted.
When we checked out of Rita's hotel, she handed us gifts of home-made chowder and a jar of jam, made from the abundant local cloudberry.
We took a whale-watching boat trip at Bay Bulls and counted the puffins hurtling across our bows.
4: ONE TO CATCH
On our first visit to Fishers' Loft, a handsome and comfortable small hotel in Port Rexton, Dame Judi Dench and Kevin Spacey had just checked out after shooting The Shipping News.
We heard a wonderful story about Spacey sending his bodyguards home because there was nobody to guard against.
The movie, set on the east coast of the Bonavista Peninsula, makes this area look bleak and eccentric when in fact during the summer it's a pleasant stretch of little bays, inlets and headlands.
And you are guaranteed a welcome that humbles you. 'How have all you folks been today?' was a normal enquiry from complete strangers we met on a footpath.
Fishers' Loft (www.fishers loft.com), which has an excellent restaurant, is run by Englishman John Fisher and his Canadian wife.
Set aside a week to drive around Newfoundland in a rough triangle with sides 250 miles long (visit www. frontier-travel.co.uk for fly-drive ideas).
Easiest to reach, on empty roads south of St John's, is the Avalon Peninsula, where people such as Rita (she runs the Hagan's Hospitality Home in Aquaforte) speak with an accent fresh-minted in Limerick.
This is said to be the most Irish place in the world outside the Emerald Isle itself. Immigrants first came for the teeming shoals of cod on the Grand Banks, now tragically depleted.
When we checked out of Rita's hotel, she handed us gifts of home-made chowder and a jar of jam, made from the abundant local cloudberry.
We took a whale-watching boat trip at Bay Bulls and counted the puffins hurtling across our bows.
4: ONE TO CATCH
On our first visit to Fishers' Loft, a handsome and comfortable small hotel in Port Rexton, Dame Judi Dench and Kevin Spacey had just checked out after shooting The Shipping News.
We heard a wonderful story about Spacey sending his bodyguards home because there was nobody to guard against.
The movie, set on the east coast of the Bonavista Peninsula, makes this area look bleak and eccentric when in fact during the summer it's a pleasant stretch of little bays, inlets and headlands.
And you are guaranteed a welcome that humbles you. 'How have all you folks been today?' was a normal enquiry from complete strangers we met on a footpath.
Fishers' Loft (www.fishers loft.com), which has an excellent restaurant, is run by Englishman John Fisher and his Canadian wife.
5: VIKINGS'BRAVE NEW WORLD
We flew from St John's to St Anthony to see positive proof that the Vikings set foot in North America around 1003.
On the flat coast at L'Anse-aux-Meadows is the continent's only authenticated Viking settlement site, discovered in 1960.
We toured rebuilt turf-walled longhouses and a replica Viking furnace and collected pebbles on which 11th Century explorer Leif Ericson might have stubbed his toe.
At the southern end of Newfoundland we made our oddest day-trip ever. The tiny islands of St Pierre and Miquelon (population 6,125), a 90-minute ferry journey from Fortune, are an overseas French territory.
Islanders use the euro, gendarmes protect them and Nicolas Sarkozy is their President. During the Prohibition era, Al Capone trafficked illicit liquor through here.
6: MOODY AND MAGNIFICENT
You don't have to take the long haul to Calgary or Vancouver to experience Canada's mountain wilds.
Newfoundland offers an accessible wilderness in the Gros Morne ('Big Gloomy') National Park, 420 miles west of St John's.
Geologists drool over this big upsurge of rust-coloured mountains, lonely fjords and forest. Around 570million years ago, two land masses, driving at each other like rugby forwards, forced part of the Earth's mantle to the surface.
An area known as The Tablelands is the centre-piece of this Unesco World Heritage Site.
Take in the spectacular terrain by car, on foot, by bike or by kayak. Boats take you into the heart of this untamed place.
There is a good choice of hotels and inns in the area (see www.grosmorne adventures.com or www.newfound landlabrador.com).
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We flew from St John's to St Anthony to see positive proof that the Vikings set foot in North America around 1003.
On the flat coast at L'Anse-aux-Meadows is the continent's only authenticated Viking settlement site, discovered in 1960.
We toured rebuilt turf-walled longhouses and a replica Viking furnace and collected pebbles on which 11th Century explorer Leif Ericson might have stubbed his toe.
At the southern end of Newfoundland we made our oddest day-trip ever. The tiny islands of St Pierre and Miquelon (population 6,125), a 90-minute ferry journey from Fortune, are an overseas French territory.
Islanders use the euro, gendarmes protect them and Nicolas Sarkozy is their President. During the Prohibition era, Al Capone trafficked illicit liquor through here.
6: MOODY AND MAGNIFICENT
You don't have to take the long haul to Calgary or Vancouver to experience Canada's mountain wilds.
Newfoundland offers an accessible wilderness in the Gros Morne ('Big Gloomy') National Park, 420 miles west of St John's.
Geologists drool over this big upsurge of rust-coloured mountains, lonely fjords and forest. Around 570million years ago, two land masses, driving at each other like rugby forwards, forced part of the Earth's mantle to the surface.
An area known as The Tablelands is the centre-piece of this Unesco World Heritage Site.
Take in the spectacular terrain by car, on foot, by bike or by kayak. Boats take you into the heart of this untamed place.
There is a good choice of hotels and inns in the area (see www.grosmorne adventures.com or www.newfound landlabrador.com).
__________________________________________________
By Gareth Huw Davies - 27th September 2009
Original article from DailyMail.co.uk
www.crazyaboutnewfoundland.ca/newfoundland
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