A Quick Tour of Labrador

Woke up around 5:30 with the rain just pissing down and the thunder and lightning putting on a fine show.   Shit – went back to sleep – and when I was finally really awake – I just toke my time and organized everything in the tent for a quick load out. Then – I just sat and waited for awhile. Sure enough – a break in the storm – and as quick as I could everything into the car. Up to the check-out – and I used the laundry room to change into dry clothes – and then did a load of laundry. Off I went, without any breakfast, but otherwise good to go. Stopped and paid too much for bacon and eggs – but hey – I was not going to try and cook in a rainstorm! Pictures: So setting up camp here at Berry Hill Camping was a PIA – It was raining again – and one of my tent poles broke. I taped it back together and am very hopeful it will hold together to get me at least off of the Rock – no decent stores to get replacements for stuff like that on this side of the island that I know of. ...

Because I had that huge lunch of fresh fish and chips yesterday – an apple and a bag of my carefully rationed channa was what I had for dinner yesterday. After dinner, went for a stroll and met   Guy and Joy – from the Sunshine Coast – off on their adventure across Canada – as soon as I get bandwidth – I will make sure this link is correct – and post a hello to them – see guyandjoysgreatcanadianjourney.com   Anyway, the ski had been perfect in the afternoon – then cloudy – then around 7PM it started to clear. I told Guy & Joy to come join me around 9:15 if they wanted – and we would do a little bit of telescope adventure. Where I had the scope setup (I brought the MAK150 with me) – could not get Venus in the scope – but I made sure to show it to both of them. It was a pretty cool night –because is was dead nut simple to observe Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn –the onl missing one is Mercury to get the set of naked eye planets – so that was cool. Started with Jup...

Had a great night’s sleep, super quiet and nice and dark. The trouble with a tent – is you see all the outside light – so I liked that. Even when the sun woke me around 6AM, I just rolled over and snoozed for a while. Nice lazy start to the day. Cooked a nice breakfast, drank a pot of coffee, cleaned up (yea – nice clean showers – I like that a lot), and then off to explore. Drove back the 10- 15 km to Red Bay for a look around. Saw a sign for a walking trail up “Tracey Hill” – and off I went. Wow – a bit of a “stairmaster” routine. The trail is a very nice boardwalk about 1.5 km long – and I have no idea how much you climb – but it is mostly stairs and it is a long climb. I was foggy over the ocean – so the views were good – but I bet they are spectacular on a clear day. After the walk, I drove around the town and spotted a little restaurant called “Whale Watch” (or something like that. Wow – best fish and chips in a long time. I think the cod was still swimming yesterday –...

Up and at it early this morning. I really liked the hotel – but back to the real world – camping – hopefully for the rest of the trip! From Happy Valley, you head back west about 7-8 km on the 500 – and then you head south and east on the 510. Nice road –for about 80 km. Then – you hit 350 km of gravel – all the way to Mary’s Harbour . There is one 2 km stretch of brand new pavement at Port Hope Simpson – for the 2 km just as you get to the bridge – and you think “All right!” But – nope – back on to the gravel for another ~100km. Remember me telling you about all the mud from the gravel in Quebec on the 389? Well – today it  was dust. Man oh man –tons of dust. I got really lucky as far as not following a dust cloud – did not have to all the way to Port Hope Simpson. I did not catch up to anybody – and the couple of folks who passed me were really moving along – so I just backed off on the gas and let them get well ahead and then went back to my 80 kph cruse. The gravel was ...

Good weather, and a nice day. Had a lot of fun touring around. Drove out to about the end of the road going east from Happy Valley - very pretty Then - back into Happy Valley - and walked for about 4 km along this fantastic boardwalk with views of the Churchill River - and some pretty wetlands. Next - head up to Goose Bay - on the way - this neet memorial to when the US Air Force was based here. Up at Goose Bay - cool exhibit of a British Vulcan, Canadian Voodoo, and an old PBY - good snapshot of some of the history of this airport.  Ohh - and old radar used for determining altitude.  Then, drove north 40 km to North West River - tons of pretty views Back into town at North West River - and into the Labrador interpretation centre. Very interesting. Took this picture to capture some of the history of the Churchill River. A nice memorial to the trappers Back down to 500 - and drive in the couple of km the...