6 replies to this topic

[Jack]

(Tried to create an album for pictures, but was blocked. I’ll post pictures when I get the album figured out).

We are on our 5th day in Labrador. We crossed over at Blanc Sabon from Newfoundland after spending a week on the west coast of Newfoundland. While Newfoundland is out of the way, Labrador is even more so. As one of the Labrador tourism posters says "... about as far away from Disneyland as you can get."

Our noon arrival in Blanc Sabon was traditional - coastal fog. But there were enough breaks in it to marvel on the rough, barren rocky coast. The road climbs each headland then drops down to a valley, often with a spur of to a fishing village of 5 to 15 houses

A few klicks down the road, we stopped at the Northern Lights Inn and picked up a Sat phone which we will drop off in Labrador City (there are about 6 pick-up/drop-off locations). No charge! We also have a S.P.O.T, but the Sat phone is far more flexible -if you get into trouble or find someone in trouble, you are connected directly with the RCMP and can explain the details, be it road service or a serious medical situation.

We stopped at a small local museum, the Women’s Institute, outside of Pinware. To some extent, the local attic collection, but also very good at telling the story of life over the past 300 years of the people who made their living in the harsh environment. Purchased locally canned cloudberry and squash berry jam. Yum!

We travelled on to Red Bay, the site of what was the world’s largest whaling station - upwards of 2000 Basque whalers, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Basques, it turns out, were the elite shipbuilders in Europe at the time. The also had a long history of whale hunting in the eastern Atlantic. Their ship building and whaling experience allowed them to successfully hunt wales in Labrador. The Provincial historic site is very well done and crock full of information.

There is a "campground" in Red bay. It's four very tight spots next to the convenience store and gas station. But we happened to ask at the Provincial museum about where we could camp, and they said just to park in the museum’s overflow lot, which has a beautiful view of the harbor. In fact there are very few campgrounds in all of Labrador, but this not a problem. Just ask at the local convenience store or museum about where you might camp, and you are almost sure to be told of a spot where no one will mind.

There's also the "gravel pits". On the Trans Labrador Highway, from Port Hope Simpson to Goose Bay, it's 410km of nothing but northern boreal forest and bogs. The road just opened this year and it is an excellent gravel road; just an incredible journey. To build a road in Labrador, you have to give it a 5' to 10' base of rock. This means a gravel pit every kilometer or so. Many are blocked off, but you are sure to come on to a gravel pit or a wide expanse (where the road crews were housed during construction) where you can pull far enough off the road to not be bothered but the occasional passing vehicle. At night, it's just you and the stars; there is no light pollution.

In general, as long as you are not in someone’s driveway or other personal area, you are fine to pull off and camp overnight.

Labrador is on a continuing process of road improvement. The road from Red Bay to Port Hope Simpson is in serious need of grading, with some serious pot holes here and there, but the graders are out. The road from Goose bay to Churchill Falls has a dozen spots of construction, but is otherwise a very good gravel road.

We are stopped in Churchill Falls now, site of a major hydro electric operation. We are camped beside the Arena – another impromptu campground (free, with electricity from the bull bar – the winter time plug in for your engine block heater). We will take the free 2.5 hour tour shortly

Chruchill Falls is a company town - but that means it has some amenities. It has a modest grocery store (far more selection than the typical convenience store that serves most Labrador villages). It has free high speed WiFi connected to the telco, which means you can make Skype calls. The Wifi at may places here is satellite WiFi, which means high latency. Good enough for email and getting weather reports, but not for Skype. Free WiFi is generally available in most villages and towns at the local town hall or library. Most of the campgrounds (usually, camp sites, RV sites and cottages or motel combined) have WiFi.

We have yet do drive the road from Labrador City to Baie Comeau, but we are told that the 180km section that is gravel, is rough, and very dusty due to the big trucks. The truckers are paid by the load and to them you, the traveler, are just in their way. The paved part is also not so great.

[SunMan]

Sounds like an exciting trip. Please keep us posted as you are able.

[ski3pin]

Sounds like an exciting trip. Please keep us posted as you are able.

Yes, please do!

[Barko1]

(
We are on our 5th day in Labrador.

I was supposed to be there now but"stuff" got in the way, may still go next month. Did you get to see any icebergs? I loved the Rock and look forward to Labrador, I'll probably do it clockwise.

[Overland Hadley]

Sounds like an exciting trip. Please keep us posted as you are able.

x3

[Jack]

The tour of the hydro plant is well worth it. It’s the largest underground hydro plant in the world. The guide was excellent; knew her stuff technical as well as honestly answering a lot of questions about life in a company town. Only the pub and the gas station are not owned by the company. On the tour, we also found out that we were invited to take showers, use the pool and sauna and the exercise room in the community building.

The road on to Labrador City is all gravel, with a lot of constructions, but not a bad ride.

Labrador City is a big mining town, with two of the largest open pit iron mines in the world. Lot’s of Rio Tinto vehicles running around. We dropped the satellite phone off at the Wabush Hotel, got supplies, got the spare flat tire fixed, and drove on to Fermont (Iron Mountain) in Quebec. Finally found the VIC, Visitor Information Center. It’s in part of a half mile long hotel, mall, service complex, 6 stories high, which is amazing in and of itself. The folks at the VIC didn’t know much about road conditions south to bai Comeau (on the St. Lawrence), but supplied us with maps and some helpful brochures. We asked about camping and they told us were we could camp which was the boat lauch parking lot beside a beautiful lake.

In Quebec, it still helps to speak a bit of French but it’s really not necessary. Many Quebecois speak at least some English and there is almost always someone who can speak English who will help out.

The next day we drove to Manic-5, one of the largest Quebec Hydro plants. We took this plant tour as well (1.5 hours), which was different but again well worth it. The folks at the Quebec Hydro visitor center told us where we could camp, which was a small day park with a great view, but is in fact where everyone who needs to camp does.

The first part of the road takes you through the middle of one of the mine operations and then criss-crosses the railroad track 12 times for about 80km. It’s a decent gravel road but with some washboard and pot holes in places. It winds a lot, so it took almost 2 hours. From the Deer Lake mine to Gagnon is generally excellent paved road for about 80km. Gagnon was a town of 4000 that doesn’t exist anymore. When the mine scaled way back in the mid 80’s, the reason for the town to exist ended and the Quebec government relocated everyone and moved or tore down all structures. All that’s left is the island in the center of the road, curbs and some sidewalks. Then it’s gravel road for the next 70km of reasonably good gravel road on to Relais-Gabriel. This is the first occupied building of any kind except for the mine, after leaving Fremont.

About every 25km to 50km, Quebec has SOS phones. Along the section that crosses the railroad tracks, they are tied into the railroad lines. Thereafter they are solar powered telephone booths with radio communication.

The gravel road into Relais-Gabriel and onto Manic-5 is reasonably good, but there is relatively heavy truck traffic. There’s about one truck oncoming every 10 minutes on the weekend and I don’t know what it’s like on weekdays. The problem is that the trucks create a tremendous cloud of dust and you’ve just go to slow down to a crawl until you can se the road ahead again. For about 70km of this gravel road, you pass around the crater of an asteroid that hit the earth 214 million years ago. Take a look at the satellite photo in the Manic-5 visitor center.

The road from Manic-5 to Bai Comeau is paved, but is actually slower. Much of the road has “inverse speed bumps” every 50 yards – or so it seems, and some of them can really throw the truck.

We also stopped at Manic-2, another Quebec Hydro plant and took the tour. It’s a different tour that includes getting into a vestibule inside one of the generators; a foot away from the stator and you can watch the rotor spin.

Both tours are in French but they give you a reasonably comprehensive English translation of the talk.

Until you get to Bai Comeau, Fremont, Relais-Gabriel and Manic-5 are the only gas stations and convenience stores in the 570km trip.

Labrador promotes WiFi access, so every village or town has a free public WiFi. Some of the few campgrounds, B&Bs and motels also have WiFi. We didn’t find any public WiFi in Quebec until Bai Comeau.

Cell service is another story. If you have T-Mobile, your roaming partner is Rogers, which has no towers in Newfoundland Labrador or this part of Quebec. And you can’t just buy a SIM card and pop it into your GSM phone; Bell Mobility (Bell Canada) and Virgin Mobile only allow calls, except emergency calls, on one of their phones. It’s not a technical issue it’s a marketing issue.

The Verizon map shows coverage for 3G phones, which means you would be roaming on Bell Mobility. Did not check their roaming charges for voice, but data charges, even with a roaming plan, are ridiculous. The 3G network is not as extensive as the 2G (voice and slow data) network
.
ATT partners with Bell Mobility, which has the only cell towers in Newfoundland Labrador, covering the major population points. Roaming on ATT is expensive – $0.60/min (and don’t even think about data service). You can buy a Bell Canada (Bell Mobility) SIM card for $35 and then pay “only” $0.35/mi for both outgoing and incoming calls.

If you are going to be in Canada for a while, consider buying a cheap prepaid phone from Virgin Mobile with a prepaid roaming plan. It’s about a $100 hit for all of that, but with Virgin Mobile, you get 30 days of 150min outgoing calls and free incoming calls and free texting. You call your friends, give them your Canada number, and then have them call you right back.

It’s also very useful to buy a $10 long distance card so you can use a pay phone when you need to.

Road service: I don’t think AAA exists up here. True, if you need a tow, AAA will pay for 7 miles or 100 miles, depending on your plan. My suggestion is that you check with your auto insurance company. We have State farm and added the road assistance package for $10/year. This includes towing “to the nearest place that can service your vehicle”, which could have been 280km (or 170 miles)

So overall, how was the trip? Incredible, not withstanding, 3 flat tires.

I would add that you need to give yourself several extra days to accommodate whatever comes up. If you break down, it takes time to have parts shipped in from wherever. Some folks broke a spring on their 5th wheel and it was three days to get the parts and get it fixed. We did not need the extra time (well, the sum of three flat tires probably added one day), so we are now touring the Gaspe peninsula

Looks like I can now upload pictures to the Gallery - just need time and a fast enough conection.

[Jack]

Here's the album: http://www.wanderthe...0/310-labrador/ (about 25 pictures - some are being uploaded as I post this).