Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec, Ontario
Not to get out of sync with my dialogue but at 54,486 miles, 6.22.2010, 1610 hrs, and 40 miles west of Churchill heading for Labrador City, the back window is trashed again. Black plastic trash bags are sealing off the window until I get into Labrador City for a piece of plastic. I'll be cleaning dust off my gear forever and of course everything that was exposed will have to get washed, ………Maybe!
If Mother Nature didn't have her hand in keeping me additional 2 days in Newfoundland. The weather was bad period, winds of 90-100 km/h and heavy rains kept the ferries in port. Managed passage on the 17th to Blanc-Sablan, Quebec and you could not have wished for better weather and flat seas. After getting off the boat on the Quebec side of the border, within 15 minutes you are crossing the border north into Labrador.
While still on the Newfoundland side waiting to board the ferry ran across an old retired US Navy Chief on a tri-motorcycle with wife and trailer in tow. They were from Texas and were heading back that way after visiting Red Bay, Labrador with further travel to St John's, Newfoundland.
It will be Pinware River Provincial Park for the next 4 days and of course it's Geocaching to the max.
This is the way the weather pattern has been these last 4 weeks, we get one good day along with black flies then rain, fog, wind for the next week. Christ on a crux spent another day along the Labrador coast chasing the funny little packages hidden in the some of the most difficult places. Getting bloody wet through the multiple layers of high tech clothes that promise the driest of dries. By the end of the day I was through chasing the forecasted rainbow. It was back to the park, 75 cents in the dryer with me clothes and standing naked in the laundry room…………bunions, knobby knees, 30-inch waist, (suck it in Wally) and enough scar tissue on the old bode to start another Atlas road map. If the dryer was big enough best believe that I would have been inside. And to make matters worse, some how the local radio station had the right frequency that my hip replacement was playing the chorus line to Mama Mia…!
Last day was spent catching the last cache then on to Old Fort Bay on the Quebec side. Sealed road all the way out except the last 6 kilometers. Jacque Cartier landed here back when and called the place Brest originally. Again all of the villages out to the end of the road depend on fishery to support themselves.
Next day we find ourselves heading for Cartwright for the ferry ride into Goose Bay. Well stopping for a cuppa at Mary's Harbor and I find out that Cartwright is locked solid with ice and it will be another week if not longer before a ferry can get in there. Not much that I can do here so up the road I go with my next stop at Port Hope Simpson where it is confirmed that Cartwright is out of the question. This leaves me with only one option; it's the new road they are putting in from Cartwright to Goose Bay. Its 280 kilometers long with 50 kilometers of road construction going on. For what part of the road that is finished you can cruise along from 70 -100 km/h. Now the 50 kilometers is a bloody another story all together. You are right in the middle of the road being put together and I mean your traffic is backhoes, bulldozers, dump trucks, and anything else they can throw at you. Your speed through this mess never and I mean never exceeds 20km/h
(10mph) or you risked serious problems or a ruptured tire. Did pass 2 campers with broken axles and the best part was the speed limit was 30 km/h and there was no passing. Believe me that did not even enter the equation.
The road should be finished by next year and it will solve so many problems for people living in Goose Bay by not depending on the ferry, ice and accessible to Costco in St John's. You would not believe how many people from Labrador make the trip to Costco's in St John's for groceries.
Getting back to the back window. Found a shop in Labrador City that replaced the back window and loaded me up with enough pens, pencils, note pads, address book, and decals to last me a lifetime. In and out of there within 2 hours and the benefit of getting a cuppa at Tim Horton's and food at Wal-Mart before heading south.
Baie-Comeau it is after 1300 kilometers on a gravel road. Rain it was for the last 300 kilometers and finding a place to stay and accessible to a laundry. Everything that even looked to have gravel dust was washed; I just love the commercial laundries. And to think that a Costco is only 5 hours away and conveniently in the direction that I am heading. One thing this room had was biting bugs, lots of bugs, it got to the point of stripping all of the linen off the bed and spraying everything with DEET. Of course trying to convey this bit of information to the clerk, who does not speak a word of English, is a waste of time. Anyone that thinks that English is the second language in Quebec has to be smoking the funny weed. And the more remote you get, the worst the language barrier gets. One of the benefits of this famous inn is a free breakfast in the morning at the local swill pit.
After a proper cup of Tim Horton's coffee and another 50 dollar gas fill up its off to the next big adventure. At Costco the tyres are rotated and balanced along with a 100 dollars of juice, box of fine red wine and biscuits. After finding another obscure covered bridge I get myself pointed north to the next Geocache. Found an abandon campsite and it was the place of comfort for the night. I had bought a multiple packages of beef jerky to augment my wonderful diet. Some of this beef jerky is like chewing on a dead warthog after its been out in the African sun for 2 weeks. You wonder how I can even possible come up with this compassion? Well for one having eating numerous meals in the past 2 months at various households, believe me eating a warthog is being kind to those that thought their meals were………
Another case in point is where the Goatmobile was stored for the winter. I know for a fact that the wife would sneak out at night and get the next days meal from the compose pile.
Getting north in Quebec is not the most direct method but it does add a bit of flavor to your travels. Putting in a 500-kilometer/300 mile day definitely makes the backside wish for a better place to sit. Since I am in an area where there are numerous covered bridges life cannot get much better.
Getting to the one Geocache located near Rupert Bay (Hudson Bay or as the French call it Baie of James) took just about 3 days of steady driving. The Cree Indian Nation own just about all of the land along the east side of Hudson Bay. Of course Quebec Hydro Power has huge dams within this complex along with minerals deposits. Anyhow into the Cree township of Waskeganish we go chasing the cache. The cache site has me in the middle of a trash site and I am supposed to find a small container, me thinks not. What I did get was a cup of coffee at the lodge and being the only white man in town was stink-eye to the max.
Enough, we next head south along route 109 Geocaching and finding the cover bridge of choice and crossing over into Ontario. Well getting up this AM we have rain and of course my luck for caches as I travel south is 1/5, me thinks my GPS can not read French as well as I do. Stopped in Amos at a coffee shop with WI-FI and down loaded another cache sights in Ontario. Crossed into the lighter side of life (Ontario) on route 101 and I just might gain or lose another hour here shortly. A lay by it is for the night before we venture forth to the next cache.
Woke up this morn and the temperatures were close to freezing, bloody hell when does summer ever arrive in Canada? But bitch I want to, it keeps the bugs down to a minimum and more better for this lad.
Geocaching as I go and it was a very positive day with 5/5 and does Mother Roses Dry Red Wine with organic crackers from Costco look even better then I expected.
Tonight it's a Provincial Park with very, very hot water. Tomorrow its west again with a stop at the nearest Internet café, a cuppa, and another round of carrot cupcakes. I should be hitting the US border within the next 2-3 days and will continue forth with until I see British Columbia.
The Goatmobile will be getting another set of tyres before I cross over into BC though. The gravel roads have not be kind to tread wear but any time I can cross the Labrador Trans Am Highway both ways on one set of tyres is a plus. By tomorrow night I'll have covered just over 11,000 miles (17600 km) of sunshine and too many power bars.
Aloha
Norm
The Greynomad
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