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Canada

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-- From 2012/10/08 to 2012/10/14
-- From Halifax, NS to Port aux Basques, NL
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The GPS tacklog
from Halifax to Port aux Basques
from 2015/04/27 au 2015/05/03

Halifax

On Monday April 27th the British Airways flight took off on time 10:30 UTC+2 Charles de Gaulle Paris to land in Heathrow London at 10:50 UTC. The BA following flight took off at 13:20 UTC to land in Toronto at 15:50 UTC-4. The trip continued with a WestJet flight at 18:20 UTC-4 to arrive at Halifax at 21:30 UTC-3. The landing was very shaken and extremely noisy! I remembered that this same aircraft had crashed here without making of wounded shortly after the accident of the flight Germanwings in the French Alps on March 24th. What surprise I discover that the area was under snow, brrr. Ascendence Harbourside Mansion B&B had held a taxi for me which expected me at the Ground Transportation with a sign with my name. I went to bed harassed around 22:30 local time. Tomorrow will be another day. I already visited Halifax on October 27th, 2011.

On Tuesday morning April 28th I sent an e-mail to the forwarding agent Atlantic Customer Brokers. The Karen's answer in half an hour informed me that Atlantic Concert vessel had arrived in the evening of Sunday and that all the documents were ready. I jumped in the taxi called by the B&B tenant  to land half an hour later at the office of my camper and the stamp on the documents without forgetting the agreed questions: How long will you remain in Canada? Do you have a weapon, drug etc? At 11:30 the business was buckled but too late to go to leave the vehicle from the port which closes at noon. During all the morning snow fell in small flakes and the cold was sharp although with 0°C. I wandered on the quays without tourist. As with my practice I made the harvest of documents and maps at the tourist office where staff was bored obviously. Then I warned an open restaurant where I lunched frugally of a breaded fish. I was back to the hotel around 15:00 to harness me with the daily editorial task, I should take again the rhythm of a traveller.

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Halifax harbour
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Ascendence Harbourside Mansion B&B
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Dinning room Bed room

On Wednesday, April 29th the tenant of the B&B going shopping to Walmart with his wife deposited me at the port in Ceres Building around 10:30 to recover my truck. The procedure was there very fast too except I made a queue during more than one half an hour. I turned around my truck, I inspected the interior all seemed in perfect state. It booted without problem the counter marked 24309 km it is 6 km drove in Antwerp and Halifax harbour. I leave the port to station on the parking area in order to put the truck in operating condition i.e. to install the navigation technology. I left the spot around 12:00 to go to Walmart to do shopping. I had to sleep there in October 2011! I returned around 15:00 to the B&B to make administrative tasks for my departure the following day. The day was partially sunny, provided that lasts.

Cape George, Golfe St Laurent, Novia Scotia

On Thursday, April 30th around 10:30 I left Ascendence B&B and the heat of my room to go to visit Newfoundland & Labrador as well as a detour to St Pierre and Miquelon. The outside temperature was 3,5°C in Halifax. I traversed with a pace of senator 270 km to bivouac at the bottom of lighthouse of Cape George where I had stopped on October 21st, 2011 with the previous truck! At 16:30 the temperature was 0°C what did not forecast anything pleasant for the night. The ground was still partially covered with snow and the Gulf of St Laurent carted blocks of snow. The sky was completely covered blocking the emission of the HF waves to launch my daily position report.

Lighthouse Cape George
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camion-2 at lighthouse on April 30th, 2015 Golfe du St Laurent
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camion-1 at the lighthouse on October 21st, 2011 camion-2 at lighthouse on April 30th, 2015

On Friday, May 1st I left around 9:20 the splendid bivouac at the Cape George's lighthouse overhanging the Gulf of St Laurent to reach the target of these two driving days, the terminal of the ferryat North Sydney to go to visit Newfoundland. I arrived there around 15:20 to take a reservation for the boat of the following day at 11:45; in this low season I have any difficulty. Then I made a complement of food because the distances on the island are large. I returned near the terminal for bivouac on a carpark dominating the neighborhoods.

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Lac Bras d'Or Bivouac

Ferry Marine Atlantic

Saturday, May 2 was one day of transport by ferry from North Sydney to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. The departure was envisaged at 11:45 with a presentationat the port at the latest two hours in advance. I presented myself around 9:00; the young lady at the counter spoke French. On the N°4 file three vehicles waited already. At the loading there were about ten vehicles at most as well as many trucks. The trip lasted approximately 6 hours with an arrival at 6 p.m., Newfoundland time, UTC-2h30. At the beginning the Gulf of St. Laurence was still taken by ices. The boat front splitting ice was an dramatic spectacle.

Ferry to Newfoundland
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North Sydney Harbour Gulf of St. Laurence
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North Sydney

Terre-Neuve, Newfoundland

The arrival in Newfoundland was impressive by the vision of the Table Mountain dominating Port aux Basques. During the trip Canadians came to discuss with me my project voyage on the island and gave me their coordinates in the event of need. After the unloading I looked fot a bivouac which I foundat the intersection of roads 406 and 407 in front of Interpretation Center. During my evening administrative work I have the unpleasant surprised to lose the access to QuoVadis software during a map swapping on my dash computer. It will be necessary to find a Wifi connection to download this software.

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Port aux Basques, Table Mountain Port aux Basques, Harbour

Port aux Basques

Le dimanche matin 03 je retournais à Port aux Basques pour trouver une connexion Wifi. Je jetais mon dévolu sur l’hôtel St. Christopher référencé par le Lonely Planet avec une connexion Wifi pour professionnel. Je pris donc mes quartiers dans la salle à manger et je déballais mes ordinateurs. Mais le malin sévit car le laptop Toughbook ne réussit pas à se connecter au réseau de l’hôtel alors qu’il le fit au B&B d’Halifax. J’utilisais l’autre laptop Lenovo pour télécharger une nouvelle version de QuoVadis pour le Toughbook que je ne pouvais pas installer car une connexion Internet est requise. J’appelais à l’aide la récep

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Bivouac 02/05/2015 Bivouac 03/05/2015, St. Christopher Hotel

I called for the aid the receptionist who there could nothing but contacted a data processing specialist who gave me appointment this evening at 00:00! I transferred my quarters in the gaming room by stationing the truck on the carpark for the night. The day was sunny but the always sharp cold. In my mail box a Net surfer informed me that longitudes of my GPS coordinates were east of Greenwich meridian line whereas Canada is in the west. I had omitted to change it in Airmail.
Thanks Dave, "G6ZKC".