Since childhood, I have dreamt of visiting Canada: dreamt of this half-continent of waterfalls and cobalt summer skies, of lakes dammed by beavers and trappers with frozen beards toiling in fractious, salty winds. In my dreams I was always farther west but then I never knew about this easterly gem, and when my plane comes in to land at Deer Lake, over rampaging forests of pine and fir, silver rivers scribbled between the trees, I am utterly undone.
Newfoundland is probably Canada’s least-known province. Settled over 5,000 years by people from Indians to Inuit to Irish, its cultural history is rich and yet it is extraordinarily empty. Only half a million people live here, on an island nearly twice the size of Britain.
I am staying in a self-catering cottage in Norris Point, a fishing village situated on the broad ocean inlet of Bonne Bay, not far from Rocky Harbour; all of it in the imposing wilderness of Gros Morne National Park. A Unesco World Heritage site comprising 700 square miles of coastal mountains and forests, it is named after Gros Morne mountain, a solitary chunk of Arctic tundra far south of its usual range; the name literally means Great Sombre.
Norris Point’s air is cool but its people are exceptionally warm. Painted wooden houses and small local stores are strung garland-like along the shore. Men repair boats under skies so moody that they look like feverishly executed oil paintings.
Norris Point is the perfect place from which to explore the park: to climb Gros Morne mountain, hike to where the land has been ripped apart by the gigantic fjords of the Long Range Mountains, and kayak among migratory whales on Bonne Bay, where immense icebergs arrive annually from Greenland.
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Doing it alone is possible but having a guide is better. Which is where Kathleen comes in. In her twenties, strong and capable, Kathleen shares my love of the great outdoors. She grew up across the bay in Woody Point, where there were eight children in her school year, and she thinks nothing of kayaking an hour across the ocean to work.
We begin with a precipitous 700m (2,297ft) climb into the Tablelands, a range of “inside-out” mountains created when the seabed was inverted by glaciers during the last Ice Age. These flat-topped, treeless orange monoliths are more suggestive of North Africa than North America: desolate, unforgiving, and incongruous above evergreen forests, where Arctic terns and rock ptarmigan make their homes.
I am awestruck. The landscape is astonishingly beautiful, the terrain tough and the weather challenging. Today is still and humid but the winter winds are so strong that 50-year-old juniper trees grow only to knee height, while pitcher plants and bog laurel cower a centimetre above ground between rocks the size of armchairs.
The following day we stay low, pushing deep into forests of stunted, pale-barked trees to clearings bursting with flag irises, marsh marigolds and orchids. On another, we hike through riverine thicket to the colossal Baker’s Falls, and are eaten alive by blackflies on the steep trail to Little Lookout — worth every bite for the panoramic views.
When we want a good bite ourselves we eat out — an indulgent part of the guiding package. This area is blissfully quiet but there are eateries dotted about. At the Old Loft Restaurant at Woody Point, we watch whales tracing arcs in the bay at sunset, over a supper of exquisite cod and homemade chips.
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At Java Jack’s in Rocky Harbour, run by Jacqui Hunter and deservedly fêted for its great food and convivial atmosphere, we feast on shrimp noodles and curried scallops: caribou lasagne is also available. A former park guide, Jacqui is optimistic about the area’s future: she fills me in on local economics and gossip while showing me her new kitchens.
On the one day that it rains hard I seek alternative nourishment. The park attracts writers, musicians and artists, so there are plenty of studios to visit. From one, I buy two wood engravings. I also visit the fascinating Bonne Bay Marine Station, which attracts students from across Canada. I learn a lot, including the fact that a female cod lays nearly five million eggs, of which barely any survive.
At the lively theatre in nearby Cow Head, Kathleen and I see a play about a ship wrecked off this coast in 1919: a Newfoundland dog reputedly played a heroic part in saving its 90 passengers. Having stopped en route to see what little is left of the wreck, on a gorgeous beach dotted with lungwort and rock campion, the play is especially poignant.
You can see beaches from the top of Gros Morne mountain, too, when it isn’t enveloped in clouds or snow. This is not a mountain to be undertaken lightly. The trail is 16km long, and within the capabilities of a fit hiker but it takes more than six hours at a cracking pace: one 500m climb up a precipitous gully takes an hour. Temperature changes can be rapid, winds high, rains horizontal or the Sun blistering.
As we enter the gully we see a huge moose above us, grazing. Around the summit there are views of the spectacular glacially-carved landscape: the deep fjord arms of Bonne Bay and U-shaped trough of Ten Mile Pond.
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Upon reaching it, we toast each other with tea and look nervously into the watery abyss. Suddenly, we spot a baby Arctic hare, the most elusive of creatures, feeding nearby, unconcerned.On the way down we see beavers. I am ecstatic. Newfoundland has only 14 native mammals and I have seen lots of them.
There’s breathtaking marine life, too. We spend two magical days kayaking out into the ocean, pulling up on Bonne Bay’s beaches. With porpoises for company and bald eagles eyeing us from above, it is my first serious kayaking adventure: the superior boats are new (Bob and Sue replace them every season), the sky turquoise and the bay silent.
Later, as the Sun sets in magenta stripes, I think of my children and husband. At home, I loom large in their lives but here, refreshed by rocks and water in this beautiful, boundless landscape of my dreams, I am diminutive; cut down to size beneath the zinc and purple clouds.
Need to know
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Gros Morne Adventures (001 800 685 4624, grosmorneadventures.com) has week-long all-inclusive tour packages including hiking and sea kayaking from C$1,845 (£1,190) plus taxes, based on double occupancy. The price does not include international flights.
Join the stampede to follow the royals
Montreal and Quebec City
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Summer’s a great time to explore the two cities that are early stops on the Duke and and Duchess of Cambridge’s current tour. Departing on July 22, you can spend two nights at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. Mooch around the restaurants and bars of the old port, shop in the Latin Quarter and jet-boat down the Lachine rapids. Fly on to Quebec City for two nights at Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. Don’t miss the Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara, on the edge of the city. The cost is from £1,719pp, including Air Canada flights from Heathrow, domestic flights, room-only accommodation and private transfers.
Details 0844 5573865, virginholidays.co.uk.
Prince Edward Island
This is the setting for Anne of Green Gables, one of the Duchess’s favourite childhood novels. Known as the Gentle Island, because of its old-fashioned pace of life, it has miles of sandy shores and you can still see the rural landscape and communities that inspired the book’s author, L. M. Montgomery. On a seven-night fly-drive holiday you’ll spend one night in Halifax and then drive north to the island. The next six nights are at the Delta Prince Edward Hotel in Charlottetown. The cost is from £999pp, including flights and car hire.
Details 020-7616 9933, canadianaffair.com.
Northwest Territories
Here you’ll find the ultimate romantic hideaway in Blachford Lake Lodge, where the Duke and Duchess are staying. On the banks of the 12-mile-long Blachford Lake, teeming with wildlife — loons, bald eagles, muskrats and beavers — there is accommodation for only 35 guests in five lodge rooms and five log cabins. Paddle a canoe to one of the islands for a picnic and catch a fish for supper. Late August is the time to go for a good chance to see the aurora borealis. Frontier Canada offers a two-night package to Blachford Lake Lodge, including floatplane flights from Yellowknife, full board, snacks and use of canoes and kayaks, from £950pp. Flights to Canada are extra.
Details 020-8776 8709, frontier-canada.co.uk.
Calgary, Alberta
The final stop on the royal tour takes in the the first day of the famous stampede in Calgary, gateway to the Rocky Mountains. Established in 1912, the world’s largest outdoor rodeo is now a ten-day event every July. It opens with the stampede parade, led by a showband on a three-mile route through the city, and includes the rodeo, chuckwagon races, concerts and pancake breakfasts. Book now for the 100th anniversary, stampede, July 6-15, 2012. A package of five nights’ room only at the Ramada Hotel Downtown Calgary, with three full days at the stampede and flights from Heathrow, is from £1,475pp.
Details 0800 3160194, bon-voyage.co.uk.