Here is the shipping news. Dense sea fogs are likely in coastal waters, and icebergs are expected to drift south in the spring. The great shoals of cod are still missing from the Grand Banks, but it looks like summer will bring a good catch of tourists.
The forecast for Newfoundland has improved with the release of The Shipping News, a £24-million film based on the 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by E. Annie Proulx and staring Kevin Spacey, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. The hapless hero of the tale is Quoyle, a hack journalist who loses a second-rate job and a third-rate wife in New York and heads for Newfoundland, the land of his forefathers, with an aunt and a young daughter (in the novel, two daughters) in tow. He ends up writing the shipping news for a local rag called the Gammy Bird, and in the process discovers a new lease of life.
So what's all the fuss about?
Arguably the real star of both book and film is the haunting backdrop of the island the locals call The Rock. The images portrayed by Proulx of mists swirling around lonely headlands and icebergs looming in the bays like ghostly cathedrals are true to life. There is an edge-of-the-world feel to the place. This is where Europeans first established a foothold in North America, and it has remained little more than that. It is a place where people begin to thin out, and nature rules the roost. Moose wander the highways, and there are bears in the woods.
Lasse Hallström, the director of the film, says that working on the island was the experience of a lifetime. 'You can't replace the look of Newfoundland, and the inspiration of that place. It feels like the last untouched part of the world.' One day, filming stopped when a pod of whales was spotted offshore.
What attracted Proulx to it in the first place?
Names on a map. Head up the rugged coastline from Come By Chance, and you'll come to Blow Me Down and Happy Adventure. Intrigued by these echoes of pioneering spirits, she discovered close-knit communities evocative of rural America two generations ago. 'Within 10 minutes of arriving I had fallen in love,' she recalls. 'I just listened. Drifted through. Sat around tables. Told ghost stories. Went out in boats. Hung out. Everywhere I went I fell into conversations with people. People there are good talkers and everybody's got stories.'
What's it really like, then?
Big, empty and wild. Newfoundland is larger than Ireland, with a population of around 550,000. Most live in coastal hamlets, called outports, established by merchants and fishermen from Bristol and Kerry in the seventeenth century. Town planning was never a priority.
Imagine brightly painted wooden houses and ramshackle fishing sheds straggling around inlets and wooded hills; big seas in stormy weather, and on calm days a profound tranquillity disturbed only by the cries of gulls and the endless sigh of the sea. Inland are hills and lakes, and immense forests of black spruce, pine and moun tain ash that provide building materials for everything from houses to churches and boats. The clapboard homes with lace curtains look warm and inviting, and make you want to live in them.
And the people?
A hardy race descended from fishermen, pirates and loggers, drawn to a place where men were ruled above all by the laws of nature. At the last count there were about 60 English dialects, many of them bearing traces of Donegal and Hardy's Wessex.
The people tend to be good-natured and hospitable, as 17,000 accidental tourists discovered when their flights were diverted to Newfoundland in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on America. Stranded for up to four days, the visitors were provided not only with food and shelter, but invited to homes and taken on fishing trips, hikes and picnics in the woods.
A Delta Airlines flight attendant recalls that when the passengers finally came back on board, it was as if they had been on a cruise. Everybody knew each other by name, and all were swapping tales of the good times they'd had.
How can you trace the film locations?
Head for Trinity on the Bonavista peninsula, an easy three-hour drive from the capital, St John's. Once a bustling fishing station, it was effectively a colony of Poole for 150 years and looks like it. Stroll along quiet lanes bounded by white wooden fences to the shore, and it's easy to imagine men in frock coats provisioning whalers bound for Labrador. In the film, the office of the Gammy Bird is located in the nearby outport of New Bonaventure, a haphazard settlement clustered around a small harbour protected by rocky headlands. A ramshackle quay is strewn with fish boxes and lobster creels, and there is a white wooden church on the hill. The place has a whimsical feel to it, as if Hollywood had created it as a microcosm of the history and evolution of the island, but this is just the way it is. I visit in autumn and it seems deserted. In the local store I meet a fish buyer who says about 70 people live in the outport and most of them still rely on fishing in one way or another.
Where to stay for star treatment?
Spacey and Dench stayed at Fishers' Loft Inn at Port Rexton, around the bay from Trinity: two handsome, traditional wooden houses overlooking a quiet inlet and a stretch of rocky coast. The air is so fresh it's like young wine. Owner John Fisher emigrated from England to Canada 30 years ago, and was enchanted by what he calls the minimalist landscapes of Newfoundland. After a couple of times in the local store, people called him John and knew the names of his dogs. 'I feel I got my first name back here,' he says. 'Those who stay on The Rock have a strong commitment to rural life. If you want to be reflective on progress, this is a good place to do it.' When you sit on the porch and look down at a cameo of peace on the edge of the world, you understand what he means.
What else?
St John's is a friendly little town with a lively arts and cultural scene and some of the best pubs and folk bands outside Ireland. I take a trip on the traditional schooner Scademia to Cape Spear - the most easterly point of North America - and enjoy what I assume to be a recording of an old English sea shanty as we hit the Atlantic swell. I walk to the back of the boat and discover it is being sung by a local lad with a guitar. In a convent by the cathedral there is an extraordinarily beautiful marble bust of the Veiled Virgin by Giovanni Strazza. The nun who shows it to me says: 'When we think of all the troubles in the world, we have to be so grateful for the peace here.' Amen.
Factfile
How to get there All Canada Travel and Holidays (08705 642642) has a week in St John's with direct Air Canada flights from Heathrow from £728 per person, based on two people sharing. Car hire is £120 for the week. Explore Worldwide (01252 760000) has a nine-day Newfoundland summer tour which takes in wildlife such as whales, caribou, puffins and eagles, from £1,299 including flights. North American Highways (01902 851138) has a 13-night self-drive Newfoundland itinerary, staying at lodges and inns for £650. The price excludes flights.
Fishers' Loft Inn (00 1 709 464 3240) has double rooms from C$115 per night (about £51). For other options, call the Canadian Tourism Commission on 0906 871 5000.
When to go
Winters are wild. Summer months are best for mild weather, go between May and July for whales and icebergs.
