In looking back on our August camping/fishing trip to Newfoundland, an old Roger Miller hit song keeps ringing in my ears, “If you want to go on a trip across the sea, take a tip from me, go to Eng -a-land, Oh Eng-a-land swings like a pendulum do…” Just substitute the word Newfoundland. Or as the Islanders themselves call this special place, “NewfoundLAND, the accent being on the last syllable.

Newfoundland wasn’t what I expected. During our trip planning, my mind’s eye saw a flat barren land with gravel highways, unending stretches of muskeg bogs and stunted spruce trees. This is what I saw in Labrador. (Pronounced LabraDOR). Newfoundland is not Labrador, not by a long shot.

Newfoundland is an uncommon place, unlike any that my wife and I have ever visited, and we have been to a few places. We were taken, captivated with the country and its people.The Western Penisula coastline, north of Corner Brook, is festooned with spectacular scenic vistas that rival the American West. The coastline is a diverse blend of vast rocky beaches, grassy, lime-green overlooks, black craggy ledges, distant mountains, fjords, fishing hamlets, and the most lush-green conifer forests we have ever seen.

There are numerous well-known Atlantic Salmon rivers flowing into the sea from Port Aux Basques north to Port Aux Chois, rivers with names like Humber, Portland Creek, River of Ponds, Deer Arm, Western Brook, and Torrent.

Newfoundland’s highway system is exceptional with smooth wide highways, intelligent signage, reasonable traffic, and safe drivers. There are two major national parks, Gros Morne and Terra Nova, one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast. There are provincial parks with camping accommodations scattered throughout the province. Without exception, all of these parks are strategically located near scenic areas. They are clean, well managed and maintained. Best of all the restroom facilities are spotless. There is also a relaxed, low-key management style apparent at these parks that we found to be a refreshing contrast to the intense, highly regulated atmosphere that pervades so many of our national parks in the states. Camping prices are very reasonable ($13 a night for a tent site).

To our total surprise, Diane and I agreed that the Newfoundlanders we got to know and their culture left the most indelible impression, not the fishing. And the fishing was good. But the islanders we met in the campgrounds, the tea rooms (restaurants), and the fishing villages were the warmest, most convivial, unpretentious “strangers” we have ever encountered. There is a going-back-in-time feel about Newfoundland that captures you, and the civility and comfortable way of the people there left us lamenting American modernity some.

Newfoundland writer David Jeans caught this essence with these preface words in a Newfoundland recipe book titled “Cookin’Up a Scoff.”

“The shared music and food were a means by which common folk banded together to tame their harsh environment, to ply their treacherous profession and to be comforted through their long, cold lonely nights. They are the Newfoundland soul; part of that which makes us different and unique. Today, amid the the new smothering fog of universal media that creates cookie-cutter personalities, we are striving to hold fast to the bedrock of our culture, and even claw back some of that which drifted away.”

As with any memorable trip there were litttle things that rate a footnote in your trip journal. Excerpts from my wife’s: “…just before bedtime, a fellow camper (a Newfoundlander) brought us a plate containing a sample of the island’s most popular meal, the Jig’s Dinner….a fisherman from Summerford took us out in his dory to visit an iceberg that had drifted into the harbor. Some of the iceberg wound up in our cooler. That night, Paul’s toddy, he said, was 12 year-old whiskey poured over a 5,000 year- old ice cube.”

Getting to Newfoundland from Maine is not as difficult as you may think. We drove from Bangor to the Marine Atlantic Ferry Port in Sidney, Nova Scotia in about 10 hours. An oceanliner-size ferry takes you and your transportation across the Cabot Strait to Port Aux Basques Newfoundland in about seven hours. The ferry crossing was smooth and pleasurable both ways, and the ship has excellent accommodations including dining room, game rooms, gift shops, sleeping berths, a bar, and a pleasant crew to look after you. If you are thinking about a trip to Newfoundland next year, you want to plan way ahead, especially your ferry booking.

The contact number for Marine Atlantic Ferry Service is 1 800 341 7981. For general tourism information call toll free 800-563-6353.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.

His e-mail address is [email protected].