96Delica
Adventurer
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.
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 (diesel): $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 5 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. We did see all manners of vehicles from cars to small RV's, they just had to go very slow. I'm glad I did in the Delica.
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.
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.
For those that don’t know, the Trans-Labrador highway is one of the few remote long-distance gravel and dirt highways left in Canada. It is the only land route through one of the most unreachable parts of the country. It begins in Quebec in Baie-Comeau and ends in Blanc-Sablon, also in Quebec, oddly enough. The total distance is about 1,700 km, most of which is still dirt.
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!
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 (diesel): $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 5 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. We did see all manners of vehicles from cars to small RV's, they just had to go very slow. I'm glad I did in the Delica.
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.
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.
For those that don’t know, the Trans-Labrador highway is one of the few remote long-distance gravel and dirt highways left in Canada. It is the only land route through one of the most unreachable parts of the country. It begins in Quebec in Baie-Comeau and ends in Blanc-Sablon, also in Quebec, oddly enough. The total distance is about 1,700 km, most of which is still dirt.
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!