Solo Expedition : Eastern Canada

[Rundownaxe]

As day 5 went on, civilisation slowly started to be present again. Many small villages and coves are situated along the east coast. I explored a bit but did not take any pictures.

I reached the town of L'Aanse-au-Clair that day. About a 15 minutes drive to the ferry from there. I decided to explore the area to find a place to sleep before I went on to Newfoundland. And boy did I find one! I turned onto a small dirt path just out of the town and drove for 4-5 kilometers on what turned out to be an ATV trail until I found this spot.

This may sound dumb to most of you guys, but that day I realised just how cool walking on thick lichen was. Almost put up my tent that night sp I could sleep on this natural bedding. But the mosquitos were too bad.






And if any of you do the same trip here is where this place is located.

 

[Rundownaxe]

Hey guys sorry for the delay. It's been crazy at work since I got back and I didn't much time.

Day 6 was spent trying to get on the ferry. I should have reserved my place in advance. I tried to get on the 7am ferry but the ferry was full. I was given the number 39 and told to come back on the next ride at 1pm. They only called up to number 26 so I was given the number 13 for the 6pm ferry and made it.

I wasted a day doing all of this. I arrived in Newfoundland around 7:45. I drove north from St-Barbe and found a neat little trail by the sea and dicided to sleep there.




Day 7 was spent driving north to Saint-Anthony for a quick bite and the I drove towards L'anse-au-Meadows. It was a neat, dog friendly site with great staff. The site itself is cool but there is not much to see.



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I then drove back all the way back to my previous spot to sleep by the sea. I reserved my place on the ferry to Nova Scotia that night. It was monday and I had to be at port-au-basques wednesday at 9am.

 

[GottaSkiBC]

Thanks for sharing! Looks like a great trip in a great part of the world (I grew up in NB).

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[young]

how long actually did you complete the loop?

 

[Rundownaxe]

how long actually did you complete the loop?

It took me 11 days. You should definately take at least 14. I spent most of the time driving. I wish I could have hiked for a day or two in Gros Morne national park. And there were a couple other places I would have spent more time if I had it.

I should also finish this thread. It sort of slipped from my mind. Some of the better pictures are in the last leg of the journey. One of them was even picked up by Toyota Canada and published on their Facebook for fan friday!

 

[JohnTheLuck]

OP, I just found and read this excellent thread. I missed it since in August I was also on a trip myself so not much reading at this time. My brother-in-law did this trip a few years ago with a motorcycle. He had a lot of fun. We went to Newfoundland late year with the 4Runner, but I did little trails since we were not prepared for this.

You know, we are almost (at a large scale) neighbors!
.

 

[Rundownaxe]

Well, I guess I should finish this thread. I completely forgot about it with the crazy times at work.

Where was I? Ah yeah, down to Port-au-Basques.

So day 8 was spent doing plenty of miles. I had to get close enough to the ferry to be able to make it for 9am on the next morning. It was one hell of a nice drive!

The morning was uneventful. I stopped along a cliff on the coast to eat a bite around noon. I had a great time playing with the dogs when the black one (read the dumb one) decided it was a good idea to jump down the cliff! I couldn't believe it!! I ran over imagining him tumbling down and thinking I was at least a few hours away from any decent veterinarian. But all was well. He is very dumb but quite agile so he managed not to hurt himself.

We all know how pictures don't do slopes justice. But believe me, I would not have jumped down there. The drop is close to 7 feet and the rest is steep AF. I had to get on my stomach and grab him by the scruff to get him back up.


After this I got back on the road having no more time to waste. I drove for a while and reached Gros-Mornes National park. This is where I wish I booked the ferry one day later. Except for the rockies, nothing I had seen measured up to the scenery. I could have hiked there for days! I have a few gorgeous panoramic pictures but they won't upload properly. Sadly I don't have many others that are worth it :





As a side note, this is also where I wish I had a v8 for the first time. There were a couple hills there that had me floored in 3rd to maintain speed. But oh well I didn't buy this to go fast.

I blasted through the miles and found an overgrown trail by the side of the road to sleep on about 120km away from Port-au-Basques. Again, nothing special. Just a quiet spot to sleep.


The next day I was at the ferry terminal by 9am so that I could board at 11. I had reserved a cabin for the ride. And the best part? I had a private shower! First real shower since the start of the adventure! It was amazing after cleaning myself in near freezing temperatures with a galon of cold as **** water. The crossing was calm and the ferry was pretty neat. Much bigger than the one in Blanc-Sablon.







After 7 hours on the sea I made it into Nova-Scotia. I drove up to the start of the cabot trail and found another overgrown trail to sleep in. No pictures though.

 

[Six Runner]

We did a similar trip this summer. Rhode Island to Cape Breton Island to Prince Edward Island and back. We had only bought the 4runner a couple of weeks before this trip. I had to haul a lot of extra stuff because we had 2 kids and a dog taking up the cargo space. Kind of missed the Tacoma. Here's a shot from somewhere on the Cabot Trail.

 

[Rundownaxe]

The Cabot trail was a wonderful drive! Twists and turns up and down switchbacks in the hills. Beautiful untouched nature and everything else I thought it would be. The only downside was that I was driving a big SUV. Oh how I missed my little sports car! That is until something interesting caught my eye in the distance. I drove for a little bit and turned off the road to be greeted by this sight:


All of a sudden I didn't miss my little car anymore! I sat there wondering if I would get into trouble if I climbed up. Then I remembered a quote from the guys at expedition overland: ''Adventure is the respectfull pursuit of trouble''.

As you can guess, I did climb the mountain. I even recorded it. I taped my phone to the hood and up I went! I know I'm going really slow but I had my 8 year old dog following behind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-RtXS9PRig







I eventually climbed back down after eating a bit at the top and kept on driving along this magnificent road.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMRedeGbn2c&t=

Don't worry about my dog panting, He has done that his whole life. I don't even hear it anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5cUlV0FjuI&t=

I finished the day in a nice little spot at the end of a trail. This was the last night of my trip. At this point, all I wanted to do was to get home and rest a few days before going back to work. I drove 1450km the next day to make it happen.


I guess this concludes this thread. It was my best trip to date. The rockies were more beautiful but all things considered I prefer the non touristic appeal of the east coast and it's isolation. Can't beat Labrador with it's size equal to Italy and a population of 30,000. I can also say that my 4runner was the star of the journey. It was flawless all along the way and I would not drive this road in anything else.

I hope you guys enjoyed the pictures! If anyone has questions feel free to ask. I will make another thread on my next trip. I am aiming for Tuktoyaktuk in 2019. It a long way off but 2018 is already fully booked. I am about to buy 40 acres of land for a homestead. Can't wait for that challenge next winter! Alone to fend for myself in a small cabing buried under the snow.

And the last picture was picked up by Toyota Canada and posted up on their Facebook page on a Fan Friday.

 

[JohnTheLuck]

Great thread and nice trip, well done report. This gives me some ideas!!!

 

[RichinRidgewood]

Great trip report

My wife is very interested in doing a trip in eastern Canada like this.