SEPTEMBER ADVENTURES - PART 1

The month of September saw us start our amazing 12,000 km journey into Northern Canada and into Alaska - I think that's nearly all the way around Australia. We didn't know we had travelled that far until Mr Cooke added up all the kms. It took us 4 weeks, so most days we would be in the RV travelling from one place to the other, just to cover that distance in that amount of time. No wonder we all loved being home and settled after that.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

Southern end of Dease Lake at float plane base. North Western Canada is another remote, mountainous area where float planes are used to transport people and supplies.
















Mrs Cooke celebrated her birthday at a beautiful spot on the Cottonwood River.













Apart from the cake for dessert, we also had roasted marshmallows for Mrs Cooke's birthday celebrations.

Boom gates are a common sight along many of the roads in Canada, especially the mountainous ones. Some roads are permanently closed during the winter season, while others may be closed temporarily due to avalanches.

Five Finger Rapids is named because there are 5 elongated "islands" that look like fingers in the middle of the Yukon River. During the early 1900's Klondike gold rush, steam paddle wheelers floated up and down stream, where strong currents made these passages very dangerous. It would take a steam paddle wheeler about 15 - 20 minutes to get past the fingers when travelling upstream.

A beautiful sunset at our overnight stop along the Klondike River.

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The Dempster Highway is a 736 km (one way) gravel road that takes you through some wonderful scenery, especially in the "fall" when the leaves on the trees are changing to oranges, yellows and reds. The Dempster Highway is known for being very rough on vehicles, but luckily our RV survived the trip.

This is a photo of some Inukshuks that travellers have built along the Dempster Highway. Do you remember from my other blog post what Inukshuks were originally built for?

The Dempster Highway is also the local airport near the halfway town of Eagle Plains.

Here I am hanging around the Arctic Circle. This was our first crossing of the Arctic Circle, around where the tundra region begins.

The tundra regions of the world are areas that have very low temperatures, not a lot of rain and are usually very windy. Also the soil below 25cm is always frozen. All of these things make it impossible for trees to grow. Then again, that makes for better wildlife viewing, like our first sighting of one of my long lost cousins, Mr Grizzly Bear.

For some interesting facts about bears and some great activities visit:

http://www.kidzone.ws/lw/bears/index.htm

Part of the gravel, windy Dempster Highway.

The Peel River Crossing. This is the first of the 2 free river crossings along the Dempster. It was a bit tricky getting our RV off the other side as it was sinking into the soft, wet dirt.

After two full days of travelling, we made it to the end of the 736 km highway to the town of Inuvik. Inuvik, with a population of about 3,500, is originally the home of the Inuvialuit aboriginal people, but there are also non-aboriginals living there now.

An interesting website with questions and answers about Inuvik can be found at:

http://www.inuvik.ca/tourism/faq.html

Does the shape of this building remind you of anything?

This Catholic Church is one of the tourist attractions in Inuvik because it's shaped like an igloo.

The colours of these houses add a bit of brightness and cheerfulness after the few weeks of total darkness. As the chart on the web site above shows, because Inuvik is so far north, there are a couple of weeks during the winter where the sun doesn't rise and a couple of weeks during the summer where it doesn't set.





Have a look at the "wheels" on this vehicle. Tracks, instead of wheels, are needed so vehicles can get a grip in the snow, just like bulldozers need tracks to get over rough, muddy areas.

On the way back down the 736 km highway we spotted this tee pee. They are not usually used as homes these days, but more like tents for camping.

Even though it's gravel it's just like any highway (like the Bruce Highway) where trucks transport supplies to the different settlements along the way. Of course you have to slow down for the trucks and they get right of way. They're a lot bigger so that suited us fine.

We camped at a different spot on the way back down the highway - Rock River Campground. Mr Cooke and Aiden are popping some pop corn over the fire. You put the special frypan over the fire and as the corn pops the aluminium foil lifts up. We haven't seen this type of popping method in Australia before - have any of you? By the way, the popcorn tasted great too.

Here's a picture of that friendly grizzly bear I told you about in an email. Mr Cooke was on top of the RV while Mr G Bear II had his nose up against the window of the RV saying "Hello" to Mrs Cooke, Aiden and myself in the drivers seat.

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Mr G Bear II had an itchy back so he decided to scratch it against a signpost, before heading towards our RV again.

Here's Mr G Bear II again, only a couple of hundred meters from where we were camped the night before at Rock River Campground, looking for some lunch.

Mrs Cooke and Aiden tasting some Bannock Bread before heading into a movie in Dawson City. There is debate as to where bannock bread originated, whether it was the natives or the fur traders who made it the traditional staple food it is today. It is an unleavened bread made of flour, salt, oil, baking powder and water, which can either be baked or fried. A very flat and filling bread.

Here's one of the steam paddle wheelers (SS KENO) that ran up and down the Yukon River during the Klondike gold rush days. It has been restored and sits along the river. It is like a museum inside with lots of photos and memorabilia.

These next 3 photos show some of the beautiful old buildings of Dawson City that we learnt a lot about from our walking tour guide, Justine. Most of the town buildings are restored and you really feel like you're walking around in the early 1900's, especially walking on the wooden sidewalks or crossing the dusty streets.

This picture shows gold Dredge # 4 near Bonanza Creek, Dawson City. This National Historic Site was owned by a company and worked at looking for gold for nearly 46 years. It operated 24 hours a day, digging it's way upstream from late April until late November, before the waters froze up again in the harsh winters.

The next 3 photos show the border crossing between Canada and the American state of Alaska. The first photo shows a map of Alaska. We entered into Alaska near the north-eastern side of Alaska. It felt funny going into another country by land when in Australia you need to fly over the sea. Passports and visas were checked as well as customs forms being filled out.

The Dalton Highway in Alaska is another mostly gravel road that runs for 662 kms one way. The Dalton Highway was built to service the towns along the Trans Alaska pipeline, where oil is pumped from the Arctic Ocean to the port of Valdez, 1,288 kms away. The oil needs to travel that far to get to the nearest port that doesn't freeze.

We crossed the Arctic Circle again, this time on the Dalton Highway. As you can see, trucks, and RV's aren't the only vehicles to use this highway.

The industrial town of Deadhorse at the end of the Dalton Highway, is on the Arctic Ocean. The photo to the left shows one of the trucks used around town. Those very soft wheels make it easier to get around in the snow and ice.

Just dipping our toes into the Arctic Ocean for about 10 seconds was enough to freeze them for a while. Two Englishmen actually went swimming in it.

The photo to the left shows the electrical plugs used for the cars in the winter where temperatures can get to as low as minus 50 degrees. During winter the cars need to be constanly on, otherwise they will freeze and will not be able to start

We saw lots of herds of muskox on our way back down the Dalton. These seemingly gentle, sedate creatures have very thick, woolly coats to keep them warm in those minus 50 degree temperatures.

Well I suppose it had to happen somewhere. We were lucky to only get one flat tyre on the two gravel roads we travelled on.

Atigun Pass on the Dalton showed us our first sighting of Alaskan snow.

On the half way point going back down the Dalton, we stopped at a campground. Water needs to be pumped from the ground using this pump that Aiden is turning.

One of the many trucks on the Dalton transporting equipment for the mining of oil to Deadhorse.

The RV definetly needed a wash after travelling just under 3,ooo kms on dirt and gravel roads in under two weeks.

SEPTEMBER ADVENTURES - PART 2

During the second half of September we continued to travel around Alaska and then headed back home in the last couple of days of that month.


MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2009
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After our 3 day Dalton Highway adventure we headed back to "civilization" at Fairbanks, namely the town of North Pole. I'm sure you all know who lives at North Pole. We went to Santa's House, but as you can see from the photo on the right, Aiden was keeping Santa's seat warm for him, while he was taking a holiday before the mad Christmas rush began.

Look at this cool swing we found at Pioneer Park, Fairbanks. Here I am having a swing on the reindeer antlers. The swing was way up high for me.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
The next morning we spent on the Eldorado Gold Mine Tour near Fairbanks, which started with
a steam train ride. This whole area was a gold rush area in the early 1900's and a little gold can still be found around these parts.

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On the tour, the owner of the property showed us how to pan for gold the old fashioned way.

Then we all had a go at panning for gold. We ended up with about $47 US all in little specks - and we got to keep it!

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

We parked our RV at a campsite about 27 km into Denali National Park - that's as far into the park as you can camp with a vehicle. If you want to see more of the park you either hike in or take a converted school shuttle bus. The National park has planned it this way so the wildlife aren't disturbed too much by so many visitors. As you can see by the following photos we saw plenty of wildlife, so the National Parks plan is working. These photos only show one type of animal, but we saw many more of the same, as well as a lynx, an owl and a hare on the 11 hour return bus ride through the park.

A YouTube video can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qpyPrgUfHE

Above: This was our first sighting of a real moose, not like the one at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks.

Left: A golden eagle.

A mother grizzly and her cub looking for lunch.

These animals are called Dall Sheep, although they really look like some sort of goat, especially as they love walking around on rocky hillsides, just like goats do.

For more information this type of sheep go to:

http://www.tips-for-backwoods-alaska-vacations.com/alaska-dall-sheep.html

A herd of caribou relaxing. Caribous are reindeers, except they are called caribou when they are wild and reindeers when they are domesticated.

Here is the converted school bus I was telling you about that we travelled on through Denali National Park. The original school buses, used all over North America, are bright yellow. When they need to stop to pick up, or drop off, school children, flashing lights and a little stop sign pops out the drivers side window to tell the other drivers that they need to stop and wait for the children to get safely onto the footpaths.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Mount McKinley is another reason why this area was declared a National Park. Mt McKinley is the highest mountain in North America at 6,194 m above sea level. That makes it nearly 3 times taller than Australia's highest mountain, Mt Kosciusko.

You too can become a Junior Ranger just like Aiden and receive a certificate and a badge. All you need to do is fill in an activity book for your age while travelling around and exploring Denali National Park.

Denali National Park has a dog mushing kennel. Park rangers have a 30 min demonstration on this traditional way of travelling over all the snow and ice found during the Alaskan winters. Mrs Cooke and Aiden are pretending to mush with these Alaskan Huskies.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

Our one day visit to Anchorage, one of the larger cities in Alaska, saw us discover some interesting sights, like the grass covered log cabin that is the visitor information centre. A lot of similar cabins were found around this area in the early days of Alaska.

A hot dog stand with a difference, in downtown Anchorage. Reindeers are farmed for this rather sweet tasting meat.

Totem Poles , like this one found in Anchorage, were common amongst the North American natives. They were carved from large tree trunks and used for many reasons, including tombstones, signposts or like our billboards of today. They tell true stories from the past or legends.

This is a statue of Captain James Cook looking out over Cook Inlet, Anchorage. In 1778 Cooks third expedition took him on a mission to find a northwest passage from Europe to the Orient (Asia), across the top of North America. This is when Cook sailed along the Alaskan coast. Cook didn't find the northwest passage, instead travelled south west for the winter to Hawaii, where he died a few months later.

The Inside Passage (along the Canadian and Alaskan coast from Vancouver to Anchorage) is a very popular cruise ship route. This photo was taken from the fishing port of Seward as the cruise ship was setting off into the sunset.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

Seward has a fantastic playground. The whole community helped to pay for and construct and paint this large playground. This fire truck was only a small part of this large area.

This 4 km tunnel (called the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel) was a train tunnel, but is now also used by vehicles. It is only one way so it's only opened for 15 mins and then closed for half an hour before it's opened again on that same side. You have to make sure of opening and closing times so you don't miss the ferry on the other side (Whittier), like we almost did. There are a lot of rules when using the tunnel like the speed limit is only 40 km and you have to stay 50 m away from the car in front.

This is the pretty little fishing village of Whittier on the other side of the tunnel. It was a beautiful sunny day on this side of the tunnel, not like the foggy weather we had on the other side of the 4 km tunnel. Notice another cruise ship docked in the port.

While we were waiting for our ferry we watched a helicopter practise some rescue techniques in Whittier harbour.

Mr Cooke waiting for our ferry, that you can see in the background, in Whittier.

Getting onto the ferry with our RV. This ferry carries vehicles underneath and passengers on the top 2 decks. We used this ferry for our 6 hour trip from Whittier to Valdez (which is the sea port where the Trans Alaska oil pipeline finishes). These types of ferries are used on what are called the Alaska Marine Highway systems. The waterways along the Alaskan coast are used as highways because the coastline is too mountainous and too icy (with glaciers) and snow to build roads.

The next 4 photos show some of the many glaciers and icebergs we saw from the ferry.
Our ferry had to navigate through lots of icebergs, that have broken off the glaciers closer to the water. When you see the top of an iceberg, you are only seeing a little bit of it. Most of it is still under the water. When we got home we made some "icebergs" (plastic bucket of frozen water) and put it into our bath, then we could really see how much of the "iceberg" was under the water.

Apart from lots of glaciers and icebergs we also saw lots of seals who love these icy waters.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

On our trip home we stopped at the town of Watson Lake to stretch our legs. We found this old playground with this merry-go-round thing. Mrs Cooke remembered playing on one of these when she was a young girl. I don't think they exist in Australia anymore. Have any of you seen these in any of the playgrounds you play in?

The small town of Watson Lake is famous for it's Signpost Forest. This is a large area where people from all over the world have put a sign from th plce that they come from. We didn't have time to go through all the signs but we did manage to spot a few from different parts of Australia. It started when one man put up a sign from his home town, and at lst count there were 62,000 signs - but that was over a year ago Can't even imagine how many there are now.

The next 3 photos show just a few of the many black bears and bison (which are sometimes also called buffalo here) that we came across on a small stretch of the Alaska Highway. We thought we'd seen all the wildlife we could on this journey until we stumbled upon all these beautiful creatures. They were just strolling casually along the highway scratching around for food.

After a long drive, it was great to find this place. Liard Hot Springs can be found in northern British Columbia where 2 pools of natural hot water (ranging from 42 - 52 degrees C) can be found in a natural setting. Apparently moose often stroll around and eat the plants around the springs, but we arrived fairly late to see any wildlife here.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

These are oil rigs that can be found on farming properties all over the provence of Alberta. Alberta's economy relies on oil. The capital city of Alberta (Edmonton) has a national hockey team called "The Oilers".

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
The last days of September saw us all back home where we bought some ice skates so we could start practising for the coming winter season. Here I am trying my ice skates for the first time. It's a lot slipperier than it looks. Hopefully with lots of practise I'll be able to skate around soon without falling over too many times.

Living on our three and a half acre block, one of our favourite things to do is to go "quadding" all over it. Mrs Cooke thinks it's great becasue she has never lived on acerage before.