Hi Andrew & Jennifer,

I really enjoyed this one.  Being from the Maritimes, the images are close to my heart (love the ocean pics).  Another superb story.

Thanks. 

 Hi again.

I neglected to mention that I did notice a restaurant in Quebec City, Andrew.  Very familiar??

I stumbled upon your site when searching for more info on The Birchy Nuddick Trail. Great collection of photos and very informative for visitors and resident stay-cationers alike. Thanks very much for sharing and all the best on your adventures.  

 Hi there.

 Sounds like your equipment is more than sufficient to make the journey.   Sounds like fun.   Will you be camping 'at-large' along the way?   There are certainly places to do it! 

Thanks Andrew for your reply. We intend to camp wherever it is possible and permitted. I haven't read about any campgrounds. Are there any dump-stations on the way in the few villages/service centers? We are driving only with empty fresh water tank and need to fill up before camping or we carry gallons of drinking water.  How did you do?  We will advance slower with the trailer an need more days. Looking forward to an adventures trip.

Peter + Judith from Switzerland

 There are not many campgrounds along the way.   There is one on highway 389 not too far north of Baie Comeau (only about 30 or 40km), and it probably has a dump station.   North of that, I don't recall any 'complete' campgrounds, for 1000 km all the way to Happy Valley / Goose Bay.   I am pretty sure that all of the above places will have fresh water that you may acquire. 

There might still be dump stations, though, at the gas station near the Manic 5 dam, or at the Relais Gabriel, or perhaps in Labrador City or Fermont.   You probably need to do some internet research to verify this. 

From Happy Valley / Goose Bay, when you head south on route 510, There is 400+ km of travel before the first town with gas and a small store.   Water can be acquired here.   Still another few hundred kilometres before the first campground that might have a dump station (Pinware River Provincial Park is the first place I can think of).

...Andrew 

 Hello, i would like to say that this protion of your site inspired me so much that we made about the same trip, my daughter and me. Superb scenics, Labrador is really "The big land" as the frontier sign says. Best trip ever. Newfoundland changed me forever.

 Regards

 Bruno, 

 Thanks for the kind words.   I'm glad you enjoyed the trip report, and your own trip. 

 ...Andrew 

 Hey, great blog. I m doing exactly the same thing in about 3 weeks time. Was it ok to sleep in the car? What "tools" should i absolutely not forget (apart from the mosquito net:))? How did you that whole gps registration thing? With your camera? Is in baie cameau a wallmart or a shop where i may buy the whole camping stuff low budget? The problem is that i m flying in from europe and this stuff will stay mostly in canada:)

Thankx in advance Fraenz 

• Yes, definitely it is ok to sleep in the car. 
• I use a separate GPS device to record my location.   After the trip, I make a correlation between the pictures from my camera and the GPS data. 
• I am sure there is some sort of shop in Baie Comeau to buy camping supplies, but perhaps a larger city would have better shops - for example, Montreal.   Are you flying into a large city when you arrive?

 Yep i arrive in quebec city where i will stay 3 days and take over the rental car...so i will buy all this stuff in quebec city in wallmart i think:) 

 Hi, Nick

Glad you like the writeup.   Regarding your question, I believe the answer is contained within my pages:  I don't know if you noticed, but each of my pictures is tagged along a plottable GPS track.   There is a 'map' icon  displayed with each image.  If you click on that icon, you'll get a side panel that has a map (with configurable map type) that plots the track of my route, AND an icon that shows precisely where the picture was taken.    So, all you need to do is locate the pictures that I have that show the transitions from pavement to gravel (I was fairly careful to take a picture every time this happened), and you'll see exactly where the pavement ends and begins.   Also, on the last page of each subsection in my writeup, you'll see a trackmap displayed right in the page.  If you click on that, you'll also get a large, interactive-with-photo-points map - very convienient for browsing around and seeing where the pavement changes are.

 You are right about more and more sections being paved.   I'm pretty sure my info on this is already out of date, but it does provide a starting point.   I describe all of the paved and unpaved sections on my "Trans-Labrador highway guide" page (which I assume you've already read, but in case you haven't....).  

Anyway, if you haven't already, go have a look at my interactive trackmap capability, and look around at the picture points to see where the pavement-gravel transitions are. 

The current road conditions vary quite a bit.  The highway 500 section is pretty nice, except for the parts that they are actively preparing for paving, where there is a lot of loose surface and more potholes and such.   Highway 510 is very smooth and nice in it's upper half, but pretty pot-holed in its lower half (to Red Bay, that is, where it turns back to pavement). 

 ...Andrew 

 Hi there.

 I'm guessing you could fish at the put-in point on the Manicouagan dam near Relais Gabriel, and at any one of the many places where the highway crosses the rivers (e.g. at the crossing of the highway and the Hart Jaune River).   But, I also know there are several off-shoot gravel roads that cross the landscape - many of them probably lead to good spots, too (but I don't know about them).

 As far as camping goes, there are periodically spots along 389 in QC and 500 in Labrador where you can tuck yourself away and camp.   Old quarries, dead end side roads, etc. 

 Thanks for posting this very informative report.  I am trying to plan a loop trip from Maine through Labrador, over to Newfoundland and back.  Hard to find such detailed information about the Trans Labrador highway as you have posted.  Thanks for taking the time to do this.  Much appreciated!!  (And very helpful)

Jack.. 

Great write-up. Thanks for sharing! I just have a question about speed. You're showing average speed of 13 km/hr or 8 mph. I'm planning a trip from Ontario to St. Barbe, NF, which will take me all along 138, 389, 500, and 510. I'll be travelling in a large RV. How much time shall I expect to spend on driving the 1,800 km distance from Baie-Comeau to Blanc Sablon?

Hi there. 

There's a mistake in those numbers.   I incorrectly included all of the time we were not driving / stopped / hiking, so that greatly reduced the average time.   I've correct that mistake.  If you go back now and look at the pages again, you'll see the actual average driving speed.  (which for the QC/389 stretch was 67.5 km/hr, and for the Labrador stretch was 61 km/hr).

In a motor home, you'll probably go a bit slower, so let's guess that your average speed will likely be closer to something in the 55 to 60 km/hr range. 

Sorry about that, 

...Andrew 

 Thanks very much for the write-up. I am writing this from the only campground in Happy Valley, Goose Bay.We checked into the campground mainly for a shower. We have been dry camping in a camper van. We are doing the trip from Hamilton Ontario. There are more paved sections now but I never thought to keep track of where the pavement starts and stops. We have rock hounded a few of the quarries along the way. We have boon docked at a few as well. In Lab city we stayed behind the tourism office. Free wifi there. We have found wifi signals were good (On our Telus hub) in Baie Comeau, Lab city. and Happy Valley. We are grandparents and use the wifi to keep in touch with the kids. We head south east tomorrow. We hope to do Newfoundland and Nova Scotia as well before we have to head home. This trip is not for the timid but we are loving it. 

 Hello. 

Thanks for the updates on the road conditions and on the presence of wi-fi.  I'm sure someone will find that useful. 

Hope your trip continues to go well. 

 ...Andrew