Canada, ah, the land almost synomis with Canoes...

we have chosen our destinations carefully.

Newfoundland: A Quirky Salt-Air Island

Rugged Faceoff Between Rock And Sea

We went to Newfoundland for many reasons. For one thing, we had never heard anything much about it, and what we found was a vibrant, quirky, Irish culture, with French, Scottish and English influences.  THE land and the sea are said to be eternally at war, but in Newfoundland it's more like a grudging truce. Having no recourse but to endure each other, rock and water, those ancient antagonists, have gradually taken on each other's features. The ocean offshore is slate gray, cold and hard, adamantine, polished; the foreshore, the shingle of beach, the steep headlands, border this with a fluid kind of acceptance, the pebbles as bright as sea spray, the boulders forged into breaker shapes, the cliffs leaning seaward. Watching from a distance toward where an impossibly high wave meets an improbably sheer cliff, their gray faces blending, it's hard to tell which element is hitting which.

History and geography explain the exotic flavor. Settled in the early 17th century, the French and English settled on the island to exploit the rich cod fishery, the island was left alone during its bitter cold winters by British governors from the early 18th century on. The English and Irish settlers seemed to like their independence and rejected proposals to join Canada in the 1860's. Eventually, Newfoundland became a self-governing dominion with its own stamps and currency until 1949, when residents voted to join the confederation by a slim majority.

And Wilderness Camping.