In the summer of 2022, Bruce Porter headed to northwest Newfoundland for a five-day escape. His solo getaway was in the tiny town of Conche, sitting on a peninsula off another peninsula—a four-hour drive north from the closest city, Deer Lake. Porter was taken by a small fishing boat to his accommodation, a private cabin surrounded by 91 acres of forested land and rugged rocky shorelines, where he was left for a few days.
This solitude didn’t phase him—it was actually exciting. “Just the sight of that little boat heading back to shore and being there by myself was magic,” Porter says. “There’s always something nattering in your ear or bothering you,” he says of his daily life. “You just never have that kind of moment of complete solitude and quiet.”
Complete solitude and quiet is the point. Launched by Conche local Toni Kearney in 2021, Moratorium Tours and Retreats is an offering of tranquility to those looking for a respite from the churn of routine; from the hustle and bustle. It’s also a love letter to the community Kearney grew up in, and in service of a sort of wider wellness: The solo retreats provide travelers with meaningful local connections and helps bring attention and business to the small community in this once-humming fishing town.
In the 1970s, Conche was a hub for surrounding outport communities, with 600 or so people calling it home. Today, the town’s population is 150, the rapid decline a result of job losses. As a high-school student in the 2010s, Kearney couldn’t wait to get out, but after traveling the globe and settling in Melbourne, Australia, for a few years working in restaurants, she felt a call to return home. Once back in Conche, she wanted to use what she’d learned working in hospitality to give back to the place that raised her.
The town of Conche today has roughly 150 people.
Courtesy of Moratorium Tours
Before a local can welcome you, the land does. You don’t drive into Conche so much as you descend into it, coming down a hill that offers views not just of the town but also everything around it—a protected bay with the ocean in the distance, islands dotting the shore in one direction, mountains in the other, birch and balsam trees filling in the gaps. “You see the whole thing in perspective from the top of the hill,” Porter says. “In that moment I just went, ‘Oh, I get this. I understand.’”
Given its location, Conche only has two places to stay, one the remote cabin in Northeast Crouse that Porter started his retreat at, the other a small loft cabin in town. There are no restaurants or cafés that you can pop into during an afternoon exploring. This is why Kearney focuses on fully customized individual retreats, hosting only 16 visits a year.
“We’re so far north, it takes deliberate planning for the guests to come, but also for us to prepare for the guests. We need to know well in advance that somebody’s coming so we can drive five hours to pick up a nice bottle of wine for them,” Kearney says.
She will have conversations with travelers to understand what they hope to achieve during their retreat, whether it be absolute solitude—in which case she’ll stock a fridge with seasonal ingredients or drop off fresh meals and leave the visitor be for the duration of their stay—or a cultural immersion in the community.
Travelers can join local fishers for an afternoon on the water, and members of Kearney’s all-female team for guided hikes of the Glass Hole Trail, a cliff-top trail that leads to the Atlantic and offers views of whales and icebergs. A local chef hosts a foraging workshop followed by a freshly prepared picnic lunch, and Kearney recommends every guest visit the French Shore Interpretation Centre.
The prized piece at the local museum is a 227-foot-long hand-embroidered tapestry that tells the history of the area—from its first animal inhabitants to Indigenous communities, European settlers, and the cod fishing moratorium, a pivotal government policy in the early 1990s that devastated the livelihood of residents in Conche and similar communities.
The tapestry was designed by French artist Jean-Claude Roy and hand-stitched by local women in Conche. “They literally had to add a piece onto the museum to house it,” Kearney says.
Toni Kearney hosts just 16 visits to her hometown of Conche, Newfoundland, a year.
Courtesy of Moratorium Tours
During Porter’s stay he went on day hikes to archaeological sites and captured the ocean and mountains around him in a sketchbook. He chatted with locals during walks and met with Joan Simmonds, the museum director, who shared the history of the region and her own stories about life in the outport community. “When I was walking around town, it was like I was a VIP. Everybody’s waving,” Porter says. “Obviously people visiting Conche is not something that happens that often.”
Simmonds meets with every person on a Moratorium retreat. While the positive economic impact on the community is welcomed—“people want to be involved in helping Toni,” she says—it’s also been transformative in other ways.
“People are not guides here. They’re fishermen and fisherwomen, so they’re not public speakers. Toni has done something with that,” Simmonds says. By introducing them to travelers, “They’re starting to become very comfortable talking to the public. And it’s given them a new insight into their own community.”
Kearney was also inspired by what Zita Cobb has done with Fogo Island Inn on the other side of the province. “Everything related to the Inn is so connected to place,” Kearney says. From the hand-sewn quilts draped across the beds to the rocking chairs in every suite, the Inn on the northeast coast of Newfoundland is filled with the creative endeavors of local craftspeople. “They wanted to immerse guests in the outport Newfoundland culture and keep it alive. It’s a business in service of the community,” she adds.
It was Cobb who gave her the nudge to launch Moratorium Tours. “Toni clearly understands the need for individuals to connect with themselves and the natural world,” Cobb says. “Bringing people to Conche one at a time offers opportunity to exist as fully embodied and fully present in a place where they are well welcomed and well cared for.”
Kearney has already had return visitors, Porter being one of them (his second visit was 10 days long). Now, she’s partnering with like-minded guides and accommodations in other small communities to offer a more comprehensive journey through this part of Newfoundland.
Along with time in Conche, travelers will explore Gros Morne National Park on guided hikes and meet local musicians and craftspeople, as well as Battle Harbour, a historic 19th-century fishing village on an island off the coast of Labrador.
It’s Kearney’s way of showing off her home to visitors and preserving the health of the place she loves. “It’s about holding on to what matters—our culture, heritage, history. For me, it’s finally shining a light on all the things that are in my heart.“
