Date:         Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:41:56 +0100
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject:      travel in Labrador
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

For those who have ever thought of taking your van up to Labrador, there's
news - not necessarily good, but interesting.  The highway connecting Goose
Bay to Cartwright has finally been completed:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2009/12/09/nl-highway-labrador-091209.html

I say "not necessarily good" because after having driven 300 kms of the
Quebec end of the road - Baie Comeau (Quebec) north towards Goose Bay - I'm
not really sure it would be fun to do the whole thing.  In 2007 when a few
of us did it, we were aiming for the ferry from Goose Bay to Cartwright,
which would have been beautiful and a nice break from driving.  The road
was, frankly, dull - two lane gravel road between trees, no vistas, lots of
black flies, lots of trucks.  We had to turn around because after going 300
kms up we found out that the ferries weren't running - too many icebergs in
Goose Bay (this was late June) and we would not have been able to get out
for a few weeks.

Of course the road eliminates that risk - but doing that whole trip by road
probably would not be much fun!  And now I suppose they will get rid of the
ferries altogether.  Alas...




Joy