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Topic ClosedAnyone pulled pod to Newfoundland?

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finder9 View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Anyone pulled pod to Newfoundland?
    Posted: 07 Dec 2016 at 9:43am
Thinking about heading north to Newfoundland in '17 or '18.
Anyone have any experiences or tips?

Thanks,
Jack
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Tars Tarkas View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Dec 2016 at 7:51pm
We took our pod to Cape Breton last year.  I thought about trying to make it to Newfoundland but decided not to go. My idea was to leave the pod in Sydney, take the ferry and spend a day or two in hotels, then come back.  Are you going overland, or taking the ferry?  Best I could tell the road from the west end of the island to St Johns looked pretty good.

If you're talking about the mainland Labrador part of the province, I don't know...

TT
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finder9 View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Dec 2016 at 9:36pm
We've been to Cape Breton as well, thoroughly enjoyed it. Got some of the best fish and chips I ever had.

Your idea about leaving the trailer is a good one.  A big factor is the cost of taking the ferry with a vehicle and trailer.  As best I can figure it would be a little over $660 round trip for a vehicle combination under 40 feet and two passengers.  Since round trip for two people is $160 alone that leaves about $500 for car and trailer.  That would cover hotels or B&B's, food, and gas for a couple days so it may be a smarter approach. 

I understand the roads are decent and parks good.  Highway 1 takes you right to St. Johns on the East Coast.  Labrador is approachable from Quebec but I understand that can really be rough going.  That's for the younger and more adventurous.  Those days are gone! LOL

Anyway, will daydream over the winter about it and we'll see what happens.
Jack
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ArenaBlanca View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Dec 2016 at 11:54pm
The wife and I went to Newfoundland in June of this year (2016).  We had a very small Flagstaff pop-up (less than 1200 lbs). The ferry charge was based on the length of the unit (TV and camper).  There are two ferries out of Sydney -- one to the east side for Newfoundland (12 to 16 hours) and one to the West side (6-8 hours). We stayed on the west side of Newfoundland the entire trip so I can't tell you about anything east of Deer Lake. 

We landed at Port-aux-Basque as darkness was falling but had made reservations in Grand Codroy for the first night.  We planned to see Gros Morne Provincial Park and stayed at a KOA just south of Rocky Harbour.  I'd recommend it.  We also found out that there really aren't grocery stores between Deer Lake and St. Anthony.  If I was doing the trip again, I'd buy groceries in Deer Lake and fill my fresh water tanks before going north.  We wanted  to  visit  the re-created Viking settlement at the northern tip of the province.  We stayed at a campground outside of Quirpon.  We pumped water directly out of a pond and you needed to boil it before drinking it.  Even then it had a brownish tinge from minerals and mosses.  The campground was inexpensive and the hosts could not have been more pleasant.

The roads were pretty good but we still took a full day to drive from Port-aux-Basque to Rocky Harbour and another day to drive to St. Anthony's.  The standing joke was that none of the potholes were more than a meter deep.  We only saw a couple of them and managed to dodge them.  Some of the inclines long and semi-steep.  I use my 3/4 ton diesel to pull so I didn't have any problems.  The hardest part was trying to figure out how much I was paying for fuel and what sort of fuel mileage I was getting. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Dec 2016 at 9:47pm
Thanks Arenablanco,

Good info.  No problem finding diesel?  If not, I may take my Silverado.

Jack
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 2017 at 11:59am
We went to Newfoundland July 2016 and took the our RPOD over.  We thoroughly enjoyed the trip except for the potholes, they have signs warning of them at the pothole, then, its too late it has you.  We stayed at Grand Codroy, Doyles when we arrived and when we  left, nice people and park.  Highlites were the Viking site, Gros Morne Park, then to Elliston were we stayed at the community park. There is Puffin Viewing from the shore/cliff and it is the root celler capitol of the world dating back to 1839. Warning travel into Bona Vista, John Cabot landed here 1497, and take Elliston Rd to Elliston.  DO NOT TAKE 238 to Elliston it may appear shortest and best but we average 5mph because of the potholes and roughness, like to shook our eyeteeth out. Next on to Gander, they have a nice air museum and we learned of their importance and contribution during the 9/11 episode.  We went all the way to St Johns there is Marconi's, the eastern most point and a little south is the Colony of Avolon, a archaeology site with a nice museum. this site dates to 1621, they have uncovered part of a cobblestone street, very interesting.  Lots to see and do along the way.  We carried 5 gal of gas with us just in case, as far as Diesel I am not sure but there were a lot of deisel rigs.
I should say we stayed at the KOA in Sydney, Cape Briton, going and coming, nice place and you can store you trailer there while visiting NL if you chose not to take it.  While there allow a day to visit Fortess of Louisbourg, have lunch there and pick up a loaf of bread....yumm. 
If you go have fun and enjoy, this was a little long, I hope it helps.  One note, if you don't like the weather wait a little bit, it will change.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 2017 at 12:59pm
The most difficult part of getting fuel was trying to figure out what my rate of usage (I still think in miles per gallon) and how much I was paying.  After converting liters to gallons and Canadian dollars to US dollars a couple of time I just gave up and enjoyed to scenery.

I think the hardest place to find diesel was in Sydney because one of the stations was being remodeled.  There was one station that only sold to commercial trucks.  That left the down town station.  We tried to fill up before hooking up as it was easier. 
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