The final stretch of the trip from Whitehorse in the southern end of the Yukon to Whistler in British Colombia was a distance of 2375km. We could see the end and were keen to push through to get back to a real house (no offense to Jimmy...) where we could stretch our legs out and stay in one place for an extended time =) Not to mention the return of a permanent toilet, shower, refrigerator and of course; a real bed!!
While we were keen to get home, there were a few stops along the way to split up the trip and make sure we made the most of our time on the road. As much as we wanted to rush through it all to get back, we also wanted to see as much of the beautiful country of Canada (and a bit of the US) as we had set out to achieve in the first place!
First up was Watson Lake, the self appointed home of the Aurora Borealis (the northern lights) and since we weren't going to have the opportunity to see them (what with the sun barely spending any time below the horizon) we decided to visit the Northern Lights Centre which had a special dome shaped cinema (similar to that at the planetarium in brissy) to present the lights as if you were really just sitting there looking up to the sky! A camera had been designed to capture the borealis and display on this planetarium style screen and during the presentation we found out that a special type of person was required to capture the images themselves. In order to capture this awesome natural phenomenon of the borealis in the dark of the night the camera and crew had stick it out through the extreme conditions; suffering through -45 degree conditions with what looked like tens of layers of clothes, somehow all the camera equipment made it through as well! We were by far the youngest in the cinema but it was cool to watch the lights and gave us a taste of what we were going to definately come back to see in the future - the lights themselves. The town is also home to the "world famous" Signpost Forest in which travellers bring 'signs' from their home town to display on telephone poles in the forest (outside the information centre). There were over 72,000 signs, from city signs, to people writing their names on their esky lids and we even managed to find a number plate all the way from Tasmania.
Making the most of the evening light, we ended up doing some more driving before pulling into what looked like a nice little free-camping spot called Whirlpool Canyon to enjoy the sunset. It seemed this was the prime wildlife viewing time with plenty of black bears and bison either crossing or sitting either side of the road! Thr whirlpool canyon was cool, but unfortunately our camping spot ended up being the worst night sleep we have ever had, with the car somehow absolutely full of bugs and mosquitoes and the heat of the day not leaving us with the onset of night. At about 3am after lying in the car since midnight we decided if we weren't going to be sleeping, then we may as well be driving so we were back on the road in the attempt of escaping the army of insects!
We drove along the highway for about half an hour before reaching an obstacle - the infamous road works. DUring the day, these aren't so bad as the volume of traffic coming through means there are 2 pilot cars running and thus minimises wait time, however, at 3am in the morning there are very few vehicles on the road and thus you get to wait for about an hour before you can pass through! We continued along the highway until we reached Liard Natural Hotsprings and spent what was left of the night in the camp ground 'overflow' on the side of the highway.. lets just say not much more sleep was had!
While we were keen to get home, there were a few stops along the way to split up the trip and make sure we made the most of our time on the road. As much as we wanted to rush through it all to get back, we also wanted to see as much of the beautiful country of Canada (and a bit of the US) as we had set out to achieve in the first place!
First up was Watson Lake, the self appointed home of the Aurora Borealis (the northern lights) and since we weren't going to have the opportunity to see them (what with the sun barely spending any time below the horizon) we decided to visit the Northern Lights Centre which had a special dome shaped cinema (similar to that at the planetarium in brissy) to present the lights as if you were really just sitting there looking up to the sky! A camera had been designed to capture the borealis and display on this planetarium style screen and during the presentation we found out that a special type of person was required to capture the images themselves. In order to capture this awesome natural phenomenon of the borealis in the dark of the night the camera and crew had stick it out through the extreme conditions; suffering through -45 degree conditions with what looked like tens of layers of clothes, somehow all the camera equipment made it through as well! We were by far the youngest in the cinema but it was cool to watch the lights and gave us a taste of what we were going to definately come back to see in the future - the lights themselves. The town is also home to the "world famous" Signpost Forest in which travellers bring 'signs' from their home town to display on telephone poles in the forest (outside the information centre). There were over 72,000 signs, from city signs, to people writing their names on their esky lids and we even managed to find a number plate all the way from Tasmania.
Making the most of the evening light, we ended up doing some more driving before pulling into what looked like a nice little free-camping spot called Whirlpool Canyon to enjoy the sunset. It seemed this was the prime wildlife viewing time with plenty of black bears and bison either crossing or sitting either side of the road! Thr whirlpool canyon was cool, but unfortunately our camping spot ended up being the worst night sleep we have ever had, with the car somehow absolutely full of bugs and mosquitoes and the heat of the day not leaving us with the onset of night. At about 3am after lying in the car since midnight we decided if we weren't going to be sleeping, then we may as well be driving so we were back on the road in the attempt of escaping the army of insects!
We drove along the highway for about half an hour before reaching an obstacle - the infamous road works. DUring the day, these aren't so bad as the volume of traffic coming through means there are 2 pilot cars running and thus minimises wait time, however, at 3am in the morning there are very few vehicles on the road and thus you get to wait for about an hour before you can pass through! We continued along the highway until we reached Liard Natural Hotsprings and spent what was left of the night in the camp ground 'overflow' on the side of the highway.. lets just say not much more sleep was had!
The Liard Natural Hot Springs was an amazing morning treat though where we found a great establishment combining the naturally existing hot springs and a beautifully constructed timber decking. Although after the night 'sleep' we had had and the temperatures above confortable, hot springs weren't really our first choice but our aching and tired bodies loved the warm water, and we even spotted a moose on the boardwalk on the way to the hot springs!
After our soak, Jiummy was thirsty and in order to ensure we made it to the next gas station (as out here they were few and far between), we decided to fill up and ended up paying a ridiculous $1.95/L for gas..We didn't like it, and neither did a very vocal and aggressive American in his gas guzzling RV. .
After our bug filled evening we decided to invest in some kind of bug repeller, as our mozzie spray was only useful for about 10 minutes. After assessing our options in a tiny little home hardware somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we emerged with a little battery powered beauty that could be attached to your person and had a little internal fan that misted some kind of mozzie repeller. It looked great (See Em below..) and was suprisingly successful at clearing the car of bugs before bed time!
The stretch of the Alaska Highway we were driving has quite an impressive history and the hotsprings we spent the morning in were actually found during its construction with the workers taking a break and enjoying the natural feature! The highway was constructed during WWII with USA fearing an invasion by the Japanese from the north and prior to the highway there was no was of accessing the rugged north. The highway was constructed with amazing speed, completing approximately 2700km of dirt road within 9 months. Apparently the speed of clearing was so fast that surveyors plotting the course of the road often found themselves overtaken by the tree lopping crews! The highway has since been upgraded to a fully sealed surface and was straightened and re-routed with improved surveying technology and more time and has been reduced to 2,232km long.
We drove past the 0mile sign for the highway when we were in Dawson Creek and took time to head up and visit the towns main attraction; a wind farm. we were pretty excited to see the giant wind turbines up close; they were SO big!! It was tough to take a picture and we had to resort to using the wide angle lense ont he go pro in order to capture the magnitude of the towers. To get to the wind farm we had to do a little bit of off road driving and it was a little wet so jimmy got nice and dirty! After lunch in the back of our little 'rv', we passed through Chetwynd, which was an interesting little town to say the least! The parks, road side and most front yards were scattered with wooden statues that had been carved with chainsaws. Some were pretty impressive, but we took a photo of my favourite one (which was decided as we drove past them all) and then continued on our way to a camp ground for our evenings rest!
The Marble Canyon campsite was where we ended up stopping and we were impressed to find probably the nicest campsite from the whole trip! We were treated to an afternoon thunderstorm on our approach and pulled up to an amazing site with a view over the lake. The clouds cleared for the evening leaving a starry sky and we were greeted with a beautiful morning to carry on driving!
It had been a while and i needed some retail therapy, so after a night at our beautiful campsite, we stopped in Prince George for a while and did a bit of shopping before hitting the road again. SUmmer was on our mind so it was shorts and singlet shopping. I was searching for a replacement for my havianas but sadly nothing came up :( so after we had stocked up on tinned tuna, stuffed our faces with some amazing sushi, we were back on the road toward Whistler!
As the trip came closer and closer to an end we began spending more time in the car. We definitely survived the whole trip without a monstrosity of a car/ van/ bus and I was convinced that we could use Jimmy as an RV, and we proved it so by managing to construct and eat a meal in the comfort of the boot. We surprised ourselves a little with what we were able to live with the minimal space; using the back as a kitchen, bedroom, living room, storage facility and even a theatre.
At long last we made it to our final day of the trip! Having travelled a total of more than 10,000 miles or 16,500km in 68 days. Of the days on the road we spent 50 days sleeping in the back of a car & 2 other days sleeping out under the stars! 10 US and 3 Canadian states and territories were visited and we somehow didn't even manage to listen to every single song in our music collection. We pulled back into Whistler ready to enjoy the Summer ahead!
After our soak, Jiummy was thirsty and in order to ensure we made it to the next gas station (as out here they were few and far between), we decided to fill up and ended up paying a ridiculous $1.95/L for gas..We didn't like it, and neither did a very vocal and aggressive American in his gas guzzling RV. .
After our bug filled evening we decided to invest in some kind of bug repeller, as our mozzie spray was only useful for about 10 minutes. After assessing our options in a tiny little home hardware somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we emerged with a little battery powered beauty that could be attached to your person and had a little internal fan that misted some kind of mozzie repeller. It looked great (See Em below..) and was suprisingly successful at clearing the car of bugs before bed time!
The stretch of the Alaska Highway we were driving has quite an impressive history and the hotsprings we spent the morning in were actually found during its construction with the workers taking a break and enjoying the natural feature! The highway was constructed during WWII with USA fearing an invasion by the Japanese from the north and prior to the highway there was no was of accessing the rugged north. The highway was constructed with amazing speed, completing approximately 2700km of dirt road within 9 months. Apparently the speed of clearing was so fast that surveyors plotting the course of the road often found themselves overtaken by the tree lopping crews! The highway has since been upgraded to a fully sealed surface and was straightened and re-routed with improved surveying technology and more time and has been reduced to 2,232km long.
We drove past the 0mile sign for the highway when we were in Dawson Creek and took time to head up and visit the towns main attraction; a wind farm. we were pretty excited to see the giant wind turbines up close; they were SO big!! It was tough to take a picture and we had to resort to using the wide angle lense ont he go pro in order to capture the magnitude of the towers. To get to the wind farm we had to do a little bit of off road driving and it was a little wet so jimmy got nice and dirty! After lunch in the back of our little 'rv', we passed through Chetwynd, which was an interesting little town to say the least! The parks, road side and most front yards were scattered with wooden statues that had been carved with chainsaws. Some were pretty impressive, but we took a photo of my favourite one (which was decided as we drove past them all) and then continued on our way to a camp ground for our evenings rest!
The Marble Canyon campsite was where we ended up stopping and we were impressed to find probably the nicest campsite from the whole trip! We were treated to an afternoon thunderstorm on our approach and pulled up to an amazing site with a view over the lake. The clouds cleared for the evening leaving a starry sky and we were greeted with a beautiful morning to carry on driving!
It had been a while and i needed some retail therapy, so after a night at our beautiful campsite, we stopped in Prince George for a while and did a bit of shopping before hitting the road again. SUmmer was on our mind so it was shorts and singlet shopping. I was searching for a replacement for my havianas but sadly nothing came up :( so after we had stocked up on tinned tuna, stuffed our faces with some amazing sushi, we were back on the road toward Whistler!
As the trip came closer and closer to an end we began spending more time in the car. We definitely survived the whole trip without a monstrosity of a car/ van/ bus and I was convinced that we could use Jimmy as an RV, and we proved it so by managing to construct and eat a meal in the comfort of the boot. We surprised ourselves a little with what we were able to live with the minimal space; using the back as a kitchen, bedroom, living room, storage facility and even a theatre.
At long last we made it to our final day of the trip! Having travelled a total of more than 10,000 miles or 16,500km in 68 days. Of the days on the road we spent 50 days sleeping in the back of a car & 2 other days sleeping out under the stars! 10 US and 3 Canadian states and territories were visited and we somehow didn't even manage to listen to every single song in our music collection. We pulled back into Whistler ready to enjoy the Summer ahead!
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