Labrador Loop

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Well, planning on leaving Toronto on the 25 of August and heading to Labrador via the Trans-Lab highway!! From there we will do the loop to Newfoundland and then on to Sydney. Time will tell if we are able to see the sights on the way back to Toronto from Sydney or not.

The way I see it is driving to Labrador and Newfoundland is PROBABLY a once in a lifetime thing, whereas driving to the Maritimes could be done in a long weekend, so I want to spend as much time in the north as I can.

Some things are finished already, still have lots to do of course. Must install CB and inverter, remove captains chairs, get all fluids changed, track down why my damned temp gauge doesn't work.

I will try and keep this up to date as it gets closer! Any Delica owners on the Rock??

[yojimbo]

Sounds like the dogs*


*This is an British english pun, I will award a Brass Figlagee with bronze oak leaf palm to anyone that gets it**

** and 2 to anyone that gets that.

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Home a week ago, it was awesome. Working on uploading pictures to Flickr now, write up to come.

Left Aug 23, Returned Sept 4. 13 days. That was driving every day except for two. We planned for more time but the weather was crap so we cut the trip short.

Total KM: 6,200
Avg consumption: 12.47 L/100km
Total spent on fuel: $1,200
Most paid for fuel: $1.66 in Quebec at Manic 5 Dam
Average fuel price: $1.40

If it's a trip you're thinking of doing, do it! Within years or so, Labrador is planning on having their whole section paved, I'm sure Quebec will follow. It's pretty neat driving such an isolated part of the country on dirt roads. Feels like a proper adventure that you have to be prepared for, although we did see all manners of vehicles from a cars to small RV's. I'm glad I did in the Delica though.

Without having a vehicle you can actually sleep INSIDE it would be a heck of a lot tougher. We can camp anywhere and at any time which is a huge plus. There's not as much opportunity for roadside camping on the Trans-Labrador as I expected. I read about that being a problem though. Most of the road is elevated considerably from the land around it. That being said, everywhere we slept a tent could have been set up easily.

[glenn]

The Jean Shepherd reference was much easier to track down than the "sounds like the dogs" Can't figure that one out.

And macro - post pics when you get back. Labrador seems so remote and exotic from here on the left. What a great time of year to go, I love the shoulder seasons. Have fun

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Alright, I’ve been home for awhile and finally uploaded all my pictures. For some reason Flickr won’t recognize my iPhone photos this time, so there’s some good pictures I can’t share.

I’ll try and keep this as short as possible while also sharing as much info as I can, but it was a long trip! If anyone is planning on doing this, let me know and I can try and give you exact locations of where we stayed.

The road isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was pretty dusty until we got some rain, if it was dry the whole way it would be way worse I think. Near the end of the Quebec side there’s some windy parts that would be fun on a bike. There are some potholes and soft spots to worry about, but if you’re used to driving FSRs it won’t be a huge problem. Everywhere we slept, you could have set up a tent. The guys that do this trip on a bike have to make it from town to town, which would be quite an adventure. Especially since there’s one section that’s about 450km between fuel.

Entering Labrador you hit Lab City and the accent starts right away! Seems like a nice enough town and has everything. After that you have Churchill Falls and Happy Valley/Goose Bay. What can I say about these places….. I’m sure there’s some nice people there, but for the most part, don’t linger. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. We did drive around HV and came across the old decommissioned WW2 air force base though and you can drive right up to everything. Pretty cool.

The coast of Labrador is really nice, and once we got to nfld we read some great pamphlets that outlined all the fun things to do in Labrador. None of which is posted anywhere along the highway, so, look it all up before you go!!!

Newfoundland blew me away. Even in the weather we had it was amazing. The changes in scenery from north to south is spectacular. There are little dual tracks leading off the highway everywhere. I can’t wait to get back and do a little more exploring.

By the time we got home I was exhausted, 6200km in 13 or so days with only 2 days of no driving. Time to grease everything in the van and do a full filter change. I’ll post a picture later of what the gravel did to my paint job…. Let’s just say, fender flares are a good idea if you have aftermarket tires.



We drove the first night to Montreal and left from there to head to Baie Comeau the next day.

Just before Colombier we saw a nice rest stop on the side of the road and pulled into it, turns out there was a hidden little spot from the highway with a fire pit right on the Gulf. It was a great way to start the trip.



The next day we headed toward Labrador! Along the way there are a few pretty amazing hydro dams. The most amazing of which is the Manic 5. Note the schoolbus on top!

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Manic 5 is also the beginning of the dirt for awhile while you skirt the Manicougan Reservoir. It was created when they built the dam and is in a 210 million year old crater. It’s something I’ve always wanted to see and now I’ve been there!




Second night camping, this was just a pull off from the highway. Looks like it used to be a staging area. We were a couple hundred feet away.


Along the way you pass the 51st and 52nd parallels, which is pretty cool. The terrain also goes through an incredible transformation. The coast of Labrador is like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Traffic on the trans lab! This was outside Happy Valley/Goose Bay, they’re building a huge hydro dam somewhere up in the bush.


We didn’t want to stay anywhere near HV/GB so we kept on and luckily found this rest stop. It was only a couple years old but there’s already garbage and shotgun shells everywhere.


We had a bath before we left… It was cold.


Getting close to the coast of Labrador! From here until the ferry to NFLD the roads are really bad. It’s almost like they were paved once. Many, many years ago. I didn’t think of it before hand, fuel cans (jerry cans) are NOT allowed on the ferry. I had mine on the roof racks and I couldn’t bring them on. I had to empty them into my tank and leave them behind while everyone in the line waited for me.


Viking poses at L’Anse aux Meadows


Oh yeah, did I mention it was bloody cold??

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Summer on the Rock!


One full day in Gros Morne and it was BEAUTIFUL!! We are going to be back next year for sure. The camping was excellent and the facilities were the best anywhere. Free showers!





Left Gros Morne and headed south, miserable weather again so decided to cut the trip short and head back a few days early. Had one more night, while driving around we pulled in to a very non-descript park to find it had FREE camping and fire pits right on the coast. Very, very beautiful. They will have 18 sites by next summer! Also, invest in a pie iron. What a fantastic thing.





Caught the midnight sailing after spending the day exploring. BC ferries is nothing compared to these boats!! Everything inside was polished steel, wood, and glass. Big screen TV’s everywhere too. Sleeping a reclining seat is nearly impossible though. Next time, I’m getting a berth.







Once we got to the mainland we drove to Sherbrooke through Maine. Stopped at the border of course, they were pretty pleasant though. I don’t think they searched the van too thoroughly, probably because it stank of feet and armpits.

The trans-lab was a great experience. Not one I need to do twice in the same vehicle though. It’s a big country out there and being on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and it’s called a highway really drives that home.

[CREGAN]

Those pictures are amazing! That looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for posting... and making us all a bit jealous.

Craig

[FalcoColumbarius]

Very inspirational images, Macro ~ happy trails!

Falco.

P.S.: Are those Stanfields you have on there?

[glenn]

Pie iron, eh? Everyone knows that the best part of travelling overland is eating - and those little packets of joy look amazing. Tell us more.

Thanks for posting the pics too, awesome.

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Pie iron, eh? Everyone knows that the best part of travelling overland is eating - and those little packets of joy look amazing. Tell us more.

Thanks for posting the pics too, awesome.

Next time you go camping, waltz into canadian tire or wherever and buy yourself a pie iron. They're about $20 which isn't cheap, but I finally decided to splurge. It's basically just a cast iron sandwich maker. Remember the "snack factory" for making grilled cheese? You can put anything you want inside, breakfast stuff, grilled cheese, leftover pizza (YUM), bread, s'more accoutrement, anything! And just heat that bad boy up over the fire!

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Very inspirational images, Macro ~ happy trails!

Falco.

P.S.: Are those Stanfields you have on there?

Hahahaha they're Carhartts actually! Never go camping without em!

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Those pictures are amazing! That looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for posting... and making us all a bit jealous.

Craig

Thanks! It was such a joy to finally be able to explore a little out there. I'm from BC so it's really interesting to see the differences between the coasts. The shore of the maritimes is so much more accessible than anything out west, made for a very fun trip!

[nxski]

Great pictures! I've visited a couple of those same places and now you're making me want to go back. Labrador looks to be a very neat area that not many people go to.

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Great pictures! I've visited a couple of those same places and now you're making me want to go back. Labrador looks to be a very neat area that not many people go to.

Thanks! I can't wait to go back to Newfoundland. Labrador was really neat, one major thing was there is almost zero signage for any interesting spots. The pamphlets from Gros Morne outlined all the cool stuff we missed. If you're already on the rock though, the ferry to Lab is only an hour and a half and $32. Cheap enough to go over for a couple days. We wanted to go to Miquelon and St. Pierre(?) but the tickets were something like $90 EACH for a passenger ferry!