The inn at the edge of the world
Icebergs and whales in Canada's wild Atlantic coast
To reach the Quirpon Island Lighthouse Inn, the first thing you'll to do is fly into the nearest international airport in Deer Lake.
From YZE, one of the great small airports in the world, you drive north on highway 430, also known as the Viking Trail, with the Gulf of St. Lawrence to your left and the rocky Long Range Mountains on your right.
It's a 4 hour trip but you can stop for a rest at any of the pullouts along the road, look out to the sea and Labrador beyond, and there's a good chance you'll spot whales, mostly humpbacks cruising about a half-mile offshore or a pod of orcas skirling close to the cliffs.
Turn off the road a few miles before the town of St. Anthony and head west -- you're now only a few miles from L'anse Aux Meadows, a World Heritage Site where the Vikings first landed on North America 1,000 years ago.
Hang a right and head north to the sleepy fishing village of Quirpon (pronounced kar-poon). Here you may get your first spotting of icebergs, floating in the protected cove, two years removed from drifting off Greenland.
You'll also meet Angus Simpson, co-owner of the Quirpon Island Lighthouse Inn. Think Viggo Mortensen with tall rubber rain boots, wool sweater and Siberian husky by his side. He'll introduce you to a local fisherman named Hubert, who will ferry you by boat across a channel to Grandmother's Cove on Quirpon Island, off the northwest tip of Newfoundland.
It's a 3 mile hike to the lighthouse from Grandmother's Cove, across a treeless landscape of moorish hills and rocky cliffs. Madonna and Mariah, locals from Quirpon who have worked at the inn since it opened 18 years ago, greet you at the front door atop the porch.
"Hello, dear, come in and get warm," says Madonna. They're both wearing old-fashioned, flowery aprons and in the middle of cooking supper. Have some coffee and cookies in the meantime. Take a look around...
Built in 1922 as a light keeper's home on the shores of "Iceberg Alley," the inn was restored by Angus and his partner Ed English of Linkum Tours and features 10 rooms at the base of the still- operating lighthouse, a Registered Heritage Building.
Supper is served at a communal table, where you meet travelers from all parts of Canada and around the world. Angus sits at the head of the table and over wine he introduces newcomers to this special place at the edge of the world.
"The currents here are so unique because they move in both directions," he says. "Sometimes you sit at the table here and you can see an iceberg float by the window one way, an then it turns around and floats past the other way.
"That's what draws all the herring and mackerel and seals, and that's what brings the whales, it's a smorgasbord for them."
After a dessert of apple pie, go outside to catch the sunset as a rainbow arches its way across the barren landscape, the inn and wild northern sea. There are humpback whales in the protected cove below the lighthouse, maybe two dozen, and they've corralled a school of herring into the dead end and are feasting. This will go on for days, a performance that resembles a ballet, slow and rhythmic, their deep breaths bouncing off the cliffs as they breach the surface of the sea.
A surreal day in the day is almost over but not before a nightcap in the inn's cozy den, where maps and photos and books on Newfoundland satisfy the curious. Share a few stories with your new friends. They now feel like old friends.
"This is what Newfoundland is all about," says Emma, a native Newfoundlander who now lives in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
"It reminds me of how amazing nature is," says Pam from Newcastle, England.
"This is something you'll never forget," says Ross from Montreal, a red Habs cap on his head.
Outside the fog is rolling in and the wind is blowing, here at the edge of the world.
If you go: Deer Lake (YZE) is the closest international airport to the Quirpon Inn Lighthouse Inn. WestJet flies there from the East Coast. The inn is run by Linkum Tours (http://www.linkumtours.com/), based in Steady Brook, Newfoundland.