Day 11, Wednesday, August 30, Interim posting from Red Bay, Labrador

Interim posting Sept 1

I am running a couple of days benind in my blog, but I thought I would just post this one tonight.

My goal was to finish the Labrador loop of 1399 miles of dirt and gravel roads through some of the most extraordinary scenery in the world and arrive in a place called Red Bay where the dirt and gravel ends at 5 pm on Wednesday.  Well, we rolled in here last night at precisely  5:05 p.m..  I must say, even I was impressed with that, especially if you saw what we had to go through. How we drove about 250 miles a day, not wasting a minute all day and all day and arrived five minutes behind schedule is beyond me. The Defender held up and did admirably on the toughest of the roads, and some places where there were no roads.  The dogs held up well, even with the flies, and I never saw them so happy. ( I thought I knew everything about then before but it is amazing how  much you can learn about another by spending 24/7 with them.  Indeed that's why I gave up the job in Russia in 2000 after spending 45 days on the road with Sonntag.)   And not only did we stay on a very tough schedule in terrible conditions sometimes, but of the 7 nights that we had to pitch our tent in the wilds, we not only found fantastic places, but the best of what the wilds had to offer. And we did everything we set out to do and more. As for me, I held up until last evening when I forgot to put on Deet and I was attached by numerous flies and mosquitoes.  I never thought Deet worked that ell before until last night.  I counted 50 blood marks on my face alone, both eyes are swollen, and there must be 100 bite marks on the lower back of my head.  I suspect their savage attack was because I wiped out colonies of their ancestors nine years ago when i was here last, and they remembered that.  Oh well, it's my own fault for not using the Deet or the mosquito net I brought.

I'll file the postings for Aug 30 and 31 tonight or tomorrow.  We have to catch the cargo ship in Blanc Sablon QC tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. That will take us to Natashquan two days later.  At that point, I have to make a decision which direction to go in. I have no idea yet what my decision will be.  I do  know this, however, that this leg of the trip was everything I hoped for it to be and much, much more.  It was like  I just  had  my mind and soul put through an intensive cleaning cycle of a washing machine. I don't know who invented these road trips, Ceasar, Alexander the Great or Woody Allen, but my hat goes off to whomever did, but I am leaving the mosquito net on.