And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Sitting around a log fire at Camp Dick a week ago we sang Eric Bogle's classic song, And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. It seemed a strange coincidence, therefore, to find myself last night sitting around another camp fire, this time in Newfoundland, when one of our group started playing the same song on his guitar.

The "Newfies" love a sing song. They were still singing around the fire by the side of Deer Lake at 3 in the morning when they decided to head home across the lake. Their boat almost overturned when it hit a wave and lost its motor overboard. Another boat had to rescue them. I had turned in earlier for an early start to the fishing.

We're Heli-fishing. A helicopter takes us to a river each morning and picks us up in the evening. we've seen moose, caribou but, sadly not many fish. The runs are late because of a cold winter. I've had small grilse but nothing else. Other than that there has been a 10lb salmon and another grilse which we cooked and ate with bacon and caribou meat at the riverside camp on Main River.

My fish took a "bomber" fly fished on the surface in a dead drift. Everyone here fishes this way and the fish do go for these flies when they're "on".

The more I get to know the Newfies the more I like them. They all seem to be hunting and fishing mad. If they're not after the fish they're after moose or ptarmigan.