Grand Codroy RV/Tent Camping Park – Review

Name: Grand Codroy RV/Tent Camping Park

Address: 5 Doyles Station Road, Doyles, Codroy Valley NL  A0N 1J0

Rate: $28 unserviced $40 serviced weekly rates available

Phone: 1-877-955-2520

GPS: 47.833500 -59.204900

I should have done this review some time ago, as we spent two months at site #28 in this park from July 16th to September 15th in 2018. The park has approximately 80 sites, some fully serviced, as well as a number of un-serviced tent sites.

It is now a family owned campground, but twenty some years ago it was developed as a provincial park so the sites are large and the views are scenic to say the least. Dennis and Alice along with their son Jason run the park, but more family are involved with the daily operation, with Phillip doing park maintenance, and Arlene running the gift shop, and you must stop at the gift shop it is essensial to find local crafts as well as island treasures, the gift shop is not filled with your usual tourist trap items, just Newfoundland crafts and information and you have to get into some of the partridge berry preserves.

This is a true transient campground, mainly because of its relationship to the ferry port. So many people left the park early in the morning for the ferry’s morning departure and there was a line up most evenings after the ferry arrival. So most people were just there for an evening or two, which meant that most of them never got to explore the park or the Codroy valley that had so much more to offer than the first glance would indicate.

Most people do not allow themselves sufficient time to properly see Newfoundland, and although we spent two months there we only seen a small portion of what it had to offer, and will have to return someday soon.

This park caters to a number of RV caravans crossing Newfoundland, and are offered entertainment like “screech ins” which are a Newfoundland tradition, there is a pavilion where local entertainers would preform authentic music, and although the campground offered free campfire wood, there was normally a community campfire each night usually with campers or some locals providing musical entertainment. The campfire gave people a chance to met and talk about things to see and do as there was usually the same number of new arrivals as there was people leaving the island, so there were always lots of “you got to go here’s” over most evenings.

As with every campground the provided Wi-Fi was sporadic at best, and I spent a number of hours sitting near the office to get and stay connected to work, garbage was picked up at your site daily, it has laundry onsite, there was kayaking just a few meters behind our site, local sight seeing information was available at the office or for details and Alice was always close by to help you figure it out.

Usually there are a number of items that I can use as cons to offset the pros for most campgrounds and while I did not want this to seem like a paid promotion spot for Codroy Valley Campground, there just were no real cons to this park other than the Wi-Fi which is a given at most parks, I guess I could say my Rogers cell service was poor but that is because there are no Rogers towers on the east side of the island which makes their service total crap on the island except in the St. Johns area, but Bell the main service provider on the island was strong. And while there were not a lot of park amenities like a pool or pickle ball courts they were not missed because it is mainly a transient park. and there was more than enough natural things to explore to keep everyone busy. Port-A-Basque is the largest town to get groceries and the like but most items were available actually within a few miles if you asked at the office for directions. Like fresh home baked bread that was available most days at the office, there was golfing just a few miles away, as well as the Bay of St. Lawrence with provincial park and a sand beach, although the water always seemed too cool for me, many locals were swimming.

Here are some photos at or near the park:

Diesel Fuel

Monday August 31st 2020

So last week I tackled a huge project, it involved removing all the fuel from the diesel fuel tank and then flushing clean fuel through the fuel tank.

For those that have been following us for a while you will remember that we purchased some bad fuel last November in Arkansas when heading to Arizona. And we have been paying the price for sometime now with multiple fuel filter changes as we added miles. So the plan was to use every fuel can that the park had, and a number of plastic pails to hold the half tank of diesel fuel. So after five fuel cans and four pails we found the bottom of the tank … the tank holds 100 US gallons (378 litres) the gauge read half full so the after pumping more than 180 litres out of the tank filtering it through a screen and a filter I was able to remove the tank drain plug.

So I started by purchasing a fuel pump with a metal strainer, mounted it to a plank than added an inline filter to the outlet so that as the fuel was removed, it was filtered into the fuel cans. While not the fastest way I felt that cleaning the fuel as I went was the prudent way. So the removal of the fuel took most of the day, then after removing the plug in the tank I added a valve that I could attach a hose to to catch and re filter the the fuel that I used to flush the tank with. So with the tank empty I poured about 20 litres of fuel back into the tank to hopefully flush out any sediment.

So with the fuel pump re emptying the tank and filtering everything over again, it was time to start putting the fuel back into the tank. So using the fuel pump I again filtered all the fuel a second time. Some might say overkill but because as much as I took every effort to ensure all the containers were clean, I just felt it was the right way to go. As you can see I purchased one new (yellow) diesel fuel can which holds 20 litres (5.3 US gallons) which I also figured may be a good investment for our Mexico trip this winter.

That was how I spent last Tuesday, so now I just have to change all the fuel filter again, and I will use the new fuel can to top up the fuel tank so that we are ready to roll as I replace the motor fuel filter I will also change the fuel filters on the generator and the boiler, then get everything fired up as the temperatures here are starting to drop off at night, like 52ºF (11ºC) last night which seems a little too cold, much to early. But after one of the warmest and most humid summers I can remember in many years, maybe I’m just getting a little soft … just saying.

And because I haven’t mentioned solar forever, I just have to say all the fuel was pumped using our solar suitcase to power the 12 volt fuel pump …