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.
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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.
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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".
