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Welcome to the mindbending Rock, where otherworldly geology is the backdrop for a heady mix of words + music during the Writers at Woody Point.

The surge and surface current slosh me around like laundry in a spin cycle. I’m scuba diving on Gadd’s Wall, a precipitous dive site in Bonne Bay, in Western Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park, that just may be one of the top dives on the Rock.

Trevor Pilgrim of Mayflower Adventures in Roddickton, NL, believes in giving his guests a hearty breakfast before he takes them out salmon fishing. One of his favourite haunts is Beaver Brook and its world-famous limestone cave, known as the Underground Salmon Pool.

Marble Mountain rises 1,700 feet from the Humber River, prized for its salmon (70,000 swim upriver annually) to just below what locals call the Governor’s Balls, two gigunda rocks overlooked by a Doppler radar tower. Views extend down river to Humber Arm and out to the Bay of Islands, framed by the alluring Rubenesque Blomidon Mountains, a line of rounded, downy peaks, all curves and cleavage, descending to the sea.

The perfect place to stay for this western Newfoundland golf adventure is the Humber Valley Resort, and perhaps the best golf to be played on this side of the island is the River Course at the resort. The resort offers both an inn and chalets with seasonal rates. The chalets offer options to house large or small groups with all the comforts of a world-class golf destination.

Forget the Rockies. Winter blahs melt away as you hit the gas on a snowmobile and blast along ancient mountain ridges or wander through pristine woodlands in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A vast network of trails sprawls across more than 5,000 kilometres of natural beauty. It spans the former Canadian National Railway route, follows the foothills of the Long Range Mountains to a glacier-cut fjord in Gros Morne National Park, and crisscrosses Labrador's rolling tundra.

When I ask the owner of a very local diner in tiny Port au Choix where the moose came from for the delicious moose burger I’ve just wolfed down, she tells me she hunted it herself. I clearly realize that dining in Newfoundland is not like anyplace else I’ve travelled before.

The perception most of us have of Newfoundland is of a scenic wonder filled with rocky cliffs, green terrain and quaint seaside villages. It is not known as a haven for winter activity, but a visit to Western Newfoundland will obliterate any notion that Newfoundlanders are not just as much fun in the cold as in the sun. Even the province’s jewel, Gros Morne National Park, offers visitors spectacular beauty when the temperature falls below freezing.

CONCHE, Newfoundland - I'm preparing to be drawn and quartered by my friends as we drive a long gravel road on the northeast tip of Newfoundland's rugged Great Northern Peninsula with no idea how far it is to the French Shore tapestries in Conche, an outport of 200 that had no road connection with the rest of the island until 1970.

If you have only a week to travel in Newfoundland, you must explore the Viking Trail.

(What I'm really thinking: Silly you. Why go all the way to Newfoundland and only stay a week?)

Big mountains, fjords, polar bears and Outpost Magazine = Summer 2012 Adventure Overload in Torngat Mountains National Park.

“What kinds of pie do you have tonight?” the man sitting by the window asked. He and I were both eating dinner in a café in the outport of Cow Head, N.L.

I heard the couple from Alberta grumbling about the Green Garden Trail a minute or two before I saw them.

“This is kind of rough going, isn’t it,” the man was saying to his significant other.

The woman agreed, but their voices trailed off suddenly as they saw me limping along with both knees heavily wrapped and leaning with determination on two walking poles.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Viking Trail celebrates the place where the first Europeans to make landfall in the Western Hemisphere, Leif Erikson and the Vikings, came in contact with North America’s native people. Around A.D. 1000, Erikson led an expedition that sailed from a Norse village in Greenland to the coast of Labrador then south to Newfoundland.

If you’re planning to visit us this summer, remember to call now (if you haven’t already!) to ensure any car rental, ferry bookings and accommodation. That way, your only responsibility upon arriving will be to have the most relaxing time possible…

What do fish and brewis, cod tongues, toutons, Jiggs’ dinner and moose meatballs have in common? They are just a few of the delicious dishes served in Labrador and Newfoundland. My only complaint after spending two weeks driving across Labrador and down the west coast of Newfoundland with my husband, Barrie, is that I put on more pounds than I care to divulge.

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador teems with culinary traditions from the sea and the land...

When the last of the pack ice disappears and St. John’s harbour readies itself for summer traffic, one might be lucky enough to see an iceberg making its way behind the ships. The glaciers begin their parade down “iceberg alley” each April, slow moving and stately like German opera singers. It’s a kind of magic, spotting one.

Winter is the best season to snowshoe through Newfoundland‘s rugged western coast.