3 Places to Stay in Western Newfoundland

I'm gradually writing up all the wonderful things we saw and did in Newfoundland and today I wanted to share with you three of the best places that we stayed.  About half the time we chose to stay in cabins to save on costs as we could make our own meals, but the rest of the time we stayed in bed and breakfasts and hotels and three in particular are worth mentioning.  So here they are (with links to the hotel websites if you click on the names).

1.  Quirpon Lighthouse Inn
Quirpon Lighthouse Inn is located on a 6-kilometre island off the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.  The island is rugged and treeless and covered in arctic and alpine plants.  We happened to arrive in the perfect storm of mechanical problems as the brand-new boat and zodiac both had engine problems and the ATV was mired up to its axles in mud.  So we were taken in a small boat from the dock on the mainland across the bay to the south side of the island and then we walked the 51/2 kilometres to the inn and lighthouse on the north side of the island.  Fortunately, we are all good hikers and enjoy working up an appetite so it worked out fine.  And we got to see a good part of the island in the course of hiking.

The historic lighthouse, lighthouse keeper's house, and guest house are beautifully situated on a rocky point of land called Cape Bauld.  There is nothing so magical as spending your evening listening to waves crashing on the rocks and your day listening to whales spouting and icebergs cracking. 

The lighthouse was built in 1884 and is still in operation today.  We were fortunate to see it both in clear sunny weather and in thick fog that rolled in over a 15-minute time period (yes I timed it).

The exteriors of all the buildings were painted in a classic red and white colour scheme which provided the perfect contrast to the blues, grays, and greens of the island and ocean. The lighthouse keeper's house was built in the 1920s and still had that vintage look to its rooms.  While the.dining room, kitchen, and living room had a quaint cozy feel to them, the bedrooms felt a bit dated, but were clean and functional nevertheless. 

You are literally forced to relax on Quirpon Island as there is no cell phone, internet connection, or TV.  The day consists of meandering, pondering, and puttering.  We hiked all over the northern part of the island, sat for about an hour and watched a whale feeding, saw an iceberg collapse, and watched the resident foxes cavort in the remnant snow drift.   Meals were served communally which alowed for long chats with the other guests (from Australia and California) and the staff who work at the lighthouse inn.  The owner of the lighthouse inn, Ed English, and his brother-in-law Angus, were full of energy, interesting tales, and knowledge of the area and were great additions to our stay.  We all agreed that visiting Quirpon Island was one of the highlights of our trip to Newfoundland.

2.  Entente Cordiale
We drove to Entente Cordiale directly from the airport in Deer Lake.  We knew we wanted to stay by the ocean on our first night in Newfoundland and fortunately this hotel was only 21/2 hours away making it possible.  The hotel is located in the tiny community of Portland Creek at the end of a quiet road on several acres of ocean frontage.  Entente Cordiale got us into the Newfoundland pace of life - a pace that is a little slower, more relaxed, and encourages you to spend time appreciating things like a pretty sky and the sun highlighting the grass on the sand dunes.  

The rooms were decorated in a traditional style right down to the handmade bedding.  Each bed had a hand-sewn quilt and knit comforter.  The minute we opened the door to our rooms and saw the lace curtains gently blowing in the ocean breeze I knew this would be one of our favourite places to stay.  Nothing like having fresh ocean breezes blowing across you while you sleep and gazing along the beach and dunes while you eat in the dining room.

Entente Cordiale is located about five minutes north of the Arches Provincial Park and about a half-hour drive from the hikes and activities at the north end of Gros Morne National Park.  

3.  Inn at the Cape
We stayed at Inn at the Cape for the two nights before coming home.  Our last time watching the ocean waves, exploring beaches, walking along clifftops, admiring sunsets .... (sniff, sniff).  None of us wanted to leave Newfoundland, but this inn gave us a good dose of ocean to end our stay.  Not only was our room pretty with loads of space for a table and chairs and our luggage, but the setting was beautiful as well.  We had a sun porch attached to our room which the husband couldn't get enough of and has now decided our next house must have one. He thought it divine to spend his evenings in the sun porch reading while drinking a glass of beer, looking out to the trees and hills.  And my mother's room led to a porch that had amazing ocean views.  

The food was fantastic.  Everyone ate at the same time together in the dining room and the food was served buffet style, and man oh man was there ever a lot to choose from.  At dinner there were four salads and about six main dishes along with veggies and fresh rolls and then several desserts to chose from.  It was all well prepared and delicious.

The Inn at the Cape has lots of things to do in the area if doing things like collecting pretty rocks, going for walks along the rocky beach, and looking at amazing 300 feet high cliffs are what you like.  Fortunately they are exactly what I like to do so we loved it there.  The Inn at the Cape is on the Port aux Port peninsula which I learned was settled primarily by Acadians and to a lesser extent by french-speaking Basque fishermen and is one of the few areas in Newfoundland where many of the people speak French.  The schools had French names and the signs had French before English and we spoke to one woman who had a French Newfoundland accent.  I've been to Acadian communities in Nova Scotia (you can read about one of my visits to an historic Acadian site here), but had no idea that some of the Acadians had settled in Newfoundland as early as the 1770s. 

So there you have it - three outstanding places to stay in western Newfoundland.  I'd go back in a heartbeat to any one of them.

Newfoundland Food Favourites

When I go on vacation I love to sample regional specialty dishes and interesting new foods (although we are frugal so we cook for ourselves lots of the time as well, to cut costs).  While Newfoundland is known for some rather dubious foods such as fried bologna and vienna sausages, it also has fine seafood and delicious traditional baked goods available and we were fortunate to be able to sample some of each.

We had several delicious fish dinners - some we bought and some we cooked ourselves.  A couple of highlights include the fish cakes at The Treasure Box in Rocky Harbour (Gros Morne Park).  They were delicious and served with toutons (more about them later), molasses, baked beans, and mustard pickles.  The Treasure Box is both a craft shop and a relaxed cheerful eatery.

We also had amazing fish and chips from The Little Red Chip Wagon in the parking lot of the Bonne Bay Marine Station in Norris Point (Gros Morne Park).  It was raining the day we had the fish and chips so we ate in our car looking out over the harbour.  The fish and chips with cole slaw were perfect.  The fish was crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside and the fries were homemade. Mmmm, wish I had some right now in fact.

  

We also had the most delicious salmon cakes when we stayed on Quirpon Island in a Lighthouse Keeper's Inn .  They gave me the recipe so when I make them I will let you know.

We also had a Jiggs dinner when we stayed on Quirpon Island.  It is a traditional boiled dinner consisting of corned beef, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, turnips, pease pudding, and dumplings all boiled together.  It was served with molasses for the dumplings and mustard pickles for the corned beef.  I know there are many variations to this dinner, both around Newfoundland and all down the eastern seaboard of Canada and the USA.  I'm not sure how they vary - anyone know?  I think one of the more unusual elements in this boiled dinner was the pease pudding, which was made by boiling split peas in a bag along with the rest of the dinner.

We also tried a few traditional baked goods. Touton which is a like a pancake made by frying bread dough in a pan with butter or pork fat was often made by the fisherman as a quick way to get some bread ready for the lunch meal.  It is served with molasses or corn syrup.  The first time we had touton they had a more homemade appearance (which you can see below as compared to the breadish rounds on my plate with the fish cakes in the first photo).  

I just had to show you the charming 1940s fishing cabin where we first discovered toutons. The toutons had been cooked as part of a demonstration by one of the Parks Canada staff in Gros Morne National Park.  I love the laundry billowing out on the clothes line behind the cabin.  Boy was it windy there! 

And finally we had molasses buns which tasted a bit like gingerbread, although they don't have any ginger in them.  I guess molasses and cinnamon together trick the brain into thinking it is gingerbread. The molasses buns tasted delicious heated up with a bit of butter on them with a cup of tea.  I also have the recipe for these and will give them a try soon.

Newfoundland is famous for its bakeapples which ripen at the end of the summer.  You can buy bakeapple jams, spreads, syrups, and desserts all over the province.  We bought many containers of bakeapple spread and had it on bread every day for lunch.  Yummy!  

We also bought a few jars of jam as gifts when we visited the Dark Tickle company in St. Lunaire-Griquet in Northern Newfoundland. Don't you love the name - Dark Tickle (although really it has a more maritime meaning than one would initially think because a tickle is a Newfoundland word for a narrow channel of water).  You could buy Dark Tickle products all over Western Newfoundland.  

And finally we couldn't resist bringing these bags of chips home for the kids to try.  I feel like you could have your whole meal and it would just involve eating chips with different flavours on them.  We've tried the roasted chicken and it was popular with 50% of us - the other 50% not so much.  Have you ever had these flavours?  Do you have unique chip flavours where you live?  Do tell.  We have barbecue, salt and vinegar, sour cream and onion, and ketchup, and plain, of course.

So there you have it - some of the food highlights from our trip.  I'm keen to cook up the salmon loaf and the molasses buns so I'll let you know how they taste once I've made them.

Icebergs Galore

One of the things we were really looking forward to was seeing in Newfoundland was icebergs.  Well, did we see icebergs!  They came in all shapes and sizes and just filled our iceberg bucket.  

A couple of times we heard a loud thunderous sound and then an iceberg would break apart right in front of your eyes.  I just happened to have my camera pointed at the one above so captured it (although the quality wasn't the best because I didn't have time to change lenses to my telephoto) and made my very first GIF to show the iceberg breaking apart.

I learned a lot about icebergs while I was there.  The icebergs that float past Newfoundland formed 10,000 years ago in glaciers in Greenland.  They take several years to make the journey from Greenland to Newfoundland before breaking apart.   The little pieces of ice that break off from the main iceberg are called bergy bits or growlers depending on their size (bergy bits being smaller).

This was another iceberg that broke apart while we were there and you can see all the growlers floating away from it.  They actually pop and snap like a bowl of Rice Krispies which is the sound of air being released from the ice as they melt.

Naturally I pulled some of the ice out of the water and tasted it.  It is supposedly some of the purest water in the world and is used for making beer and alcohol.

We saw lots of icebergs from the shore, but wanted to get up close and personal with some too (well in a safe and careful manner that is) so we took a trip with Northland Discovery Boat Tours from St. Anthony and loved it.  We saw several whales and were taken out to see two icebergs - one so enormous that even the crew were impressed and were taking photos.  It was approximately 200 feet high and 300 feet long.

And the other one was a lovely curved striated one.

They also pulled a piece of ice out of the water so everyone could taste some iceberg water.

And the photo below was taken by the staff on the boat tour - that's me in the grey hoodie and my mother in the red polar fleece.  They put the photo on their Facebook page and tweeted it on Iceberg finder - which is a mighty thrill given that I stalked that website daily for two months before going to Newfoundland to see what was happening with the icebergs.  You can see a screenshot below of the website with the tweeted photo on the left-hand side.  I feel famous!

Icebergs are quite difficult to photograph because when they are in the sun the light bleaches out the details.  So, although I loved seeing the turquoise blues and gleaming whites when the sun was shining, 

I also loved the soft details you could see when the sun was low in the sky or the sky was cloudy.

Are icebergs on your bucket list?  Have you ever seen one?  This was definitely a thrill for us.