Essentials

Mike MacEacheran was a guest of Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism (newfound landlabrador. com) and Destination Canada (explorecanada. com). Westjet (westjet.com) flies from London Gatwick to St John’s, between May and late October, with fares from £319 return. Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland (marriott.com) has doubles from £119, room only.

Catholic. People were drawn to the seas and to the cod; today, the fish is still a blessing.

That afternoon, in the toy-town suburb of Quidi Vidi, I stopped long enough to meet the makers of the Quidi Vidi Village Artisan Studios next to stilted fishing stages on a thread of water. At Quidi Vidi Brewery next door, owner Justin Fong told me he had recently served Charles and Camilla before the Coronation. Or nearly did. “They poured their own from behind the bar,” he said, correcting himself. “Did a good job, too.”

The whales I mentioned earlier are drawn to the waters around St John’s by vast stocks of capelin and, on my last day, I signed up – perhaps optimistically – for a wildlife safari in nearby Petty Harbour, a fishing village hemmed in by cliffs.

John Olivero of Ocean Quest Adventures greeted me at the end of the dock, and pointed to the heavy fog surging in across the bay. “It’s too rough and ragged today,” he explained, apologetically. “If you don’t like the weather out the front door, as we say, go out the back. Today, it’s best to stay inside.”

You learn in Newfoundland that the grand travel plans you have in life don’t always pan out.

To banish the cold, I headed instead for a last supper at Chafe’s Landing, a former fishing shed. Lobster, trapped the day before by the oilskin-wearing owner, was a fitting alternative. I slurped an iceberg lager as I ate, and felt as happy as a clam. No proliferation of puffins or whales today, but the seabirds and cetaceans would be there all summer, along with a spectacle of icebergs. In St John’s, the process of arrival never really ends. And, quite frankly, that is reason enough for me to return – to “come from away” – another time.