After a quiet night, we walked a large portion of the Birch Island trails. The park has a series of boardwalk trails along the estuary and through woods and wetlands. It is the best known birding hotspot in the area. Over the 2.4 mile walk we heard or saw 13 species. Not a big number but the boardwalk was a very pleasant way to spend the morning. Also it was very windy and that kept the bugs down.
After the requisite stop at Tim Horton's, we were off on the long leg of our Labrador drive, over 400 kilometers to Port Hope Simpson with no gas stations along the way. On leaving Happy Valley, we left the Trans-Labrador Highway and started down the Labrador Coastal Drive, not apply named at this point as the 400 kilometers was totally inland, far inland.
The section we were on wasn't even built until 2009 and only paved in 2022. Before then the only way to get to Port Hope Simpson from Happy Valley was by ferry and there wasn't a road from there to Red Bay until 2003. To do the Trans-Labrador before 2009 meant driving from Labrador City to Happy Valley, going by ferry to Red Bay, then by road to Blanc-Sablon to catch the Newfoundland ferry.
Needless to say, the road was in fine shape. There was no traffic and the scenery was pretty similar to what we had been seeing so far. The weather started to deteriorate again and we seemed to be just outrunning the rain. Every time we stopped for a break, it started to sprinkle, but would stop shortly as we got away.
We have now entered a new time zone, Newfoundland Time, which is one-half hour ahead of Atlantic Time, so we lost 30 minutes along the way.
It was basically a travel day and we are now stopped at the Long Point campsite, a municipal free campground (no amenities except a couple of picnic tables and a trash can) right along the Alexis River Estuary. There are four other RVs here including a Swiss overlanding vehicle that we have run into several times along our route.
It is raining once again, but the forecast shows it stopping by morning, followed by sunny weather for the rest of the week.
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