Paul Theroux has spent more than half a century writing his way around the world. For his latest book, True North: On the Road in Canada, out this fall, he turned to a country much closer to home. Theroux’s journey took him across Canada, but one of his favorite stretches was Newfoundland, where he drove from Port aux Basques up the island’s wild western coast to the 1,000-year-old Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. Along the way, he found breathtaking landscapes, sleepy fishing villages, plenty of cod, and some of the friendliest people he’d ever met on the road.
One of the best road trips I’ve ever taken was to Newfoundland. I drove my car onto the big, buttocky 10-deck-high car ferry Ala’suinu (Ala’suinu means “traveler” in Mi’kmaw) in North Sydney in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. I had a reclining sleeper seat that night, and on the return journey a proper cabin. After an overnight sail across the 110-mile channel at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, I arrived at Newfoundland’s Port-aux-Basques.
