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Nfld. lighthouse provides dramatic setting for B&B
The low moan of a foghorn cuts through the deep mist like the call of a humpback whale. Here on Quirpon Island, off the far northern tip of Newfoundland, humpbacks are often found feeding right underneath your window at one of the world’s most unusual settings for a bed and breakfast. The whales may have an easier time getting here than you will.
The Quirpon Island Inn is a difficult b&b inn to access, but Newfoundland itself is pretty far off the beaten track anyway. At the far end of the Viking Trail, a highway built to attract tourists to the New World’s first settlement by Vikings (approx. 1000AD), eager travellers access Quirpon by climbing into a fishing boat and travelling through surging seas to the small island buffeted by high winds.
There, if seas allow, passengers can disembark and hike across the tundra to the former lighthouse keeper’s home while their luggage is carried by ATV. If the weather is particularly poor, guests may have to walk even further along a long muddy trail.
But, as stormwatchers who venture to some of the world’s loneliest beaches will attest, there is a strange kinetic energy that comes with being inside a comfy environment while nature surges and erupts outside. The lighthouse was built on Quirpon Island for good reason as the weather gets pretty nasty at times, surrounding the island with deep fog and howling winds. In winter, no one in their right mind would travel here for a vacation.
But in the mild Newfoundland summers, when the sun shines and vast pods of whales gather to feed, Quirpon Island takes on a new life. Icebergs drift past the lighthouse, glistening like rare jewels in the shimmering light. Humpbacks dine a dime a dozen in the cove underneath the Inn. The tundra shines an emerald green, fluffy clouds scud across an azure blue sky, and the horizon fades away somewhere towards the north pole.
Food and lodging is basic at the Inn: hearty Newfie fare like codfish and chips. Rooms are basic: an old Victorian house updated with modern plumbing. The actual lighthouse is only a few metres away. Activities include walking the trails and, for those brave enough to challenge the heaving North Atlantic seas, kayaking. But one can also simply sit on the steps of the lighthouse and watch the world go by, or descend the cliffs to the ocean, where gigantic sea creatures are likely feeding at arm’s length. It’s a very different world, and a beautiful one at that.
- Photos & text by Michael McCarthy©
