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All Creatures Great and Small!
Howdy from Aunty Pat’s in Sunny Valley, South Oregon! It’s great to be here, see family, pets, sleep in a proper bed and enjoy mountains of home-cooked food. We’re being proper spoilt!
So we bumbled down the Oregon coast for about a week or so, being constantly surprised by the beauty of the place – miles of golden sandy beaches, acres of dunes, sandstone cliffs plunging into the waves and huge sea stacks. Rock pools filled with anemones and starfish and huge grey whales cruising just offshore.
Starting in Astoria (where The Goonies was set and filmed) we climbed a hill to then climb a 38-metre-high column for views over the city, Columbia River and 4 mile long Megler Bridge, before visiting their harbour where half the jetties have been colonised by smelly, noisy sea lions. They have become such a pest that the city has spent thousands trying to get rid of them – inflatable killer-whales, fencing, air-dancers – evidently none of which have worked.
We stayed two days at Fort Stevens State Park, an old military site that guarded the mouth of the Columbia River from the American Civil War until the end of the Second World War. There are many remains of the buildings and batteries in amongst the bush, lakes, walkways and cycle-paths that run to the long beaches. The campsite was huge (over 500 plots) and was full despite the school holidays being over. Talking to people, it appears the coast is the only place in the state that’s free of wildfire smoke, so both holiday makers and residents have descended for some fresh air.
Heading south along the 101 coast road, we stopped at each town on the way, mostly small, touristy places on huge, quiet sandy beaches. It reminded us a lot of the east coast of Australia, but not so many surfers here, perhaps because the ocean is very cold! The few surfers we did see were wearing wetsuits, gloves, boots and hoods. The strong breezes meant there were lots of kite-surfers though.
Cannon Beach (also in The Goonies) was particularly nice and chilled, the sort of place where the shops don’t open till 11am. Haystack Rock stands out in the beach and is a wildlife haven, a fact not appreciated by the Chinese tourist we saw kicking a starfish - until Caroline gave her a piece of her mind!
At Depoe Bay the whales came into the cove to feed, splash their tails and stick their heads up for a look, as we sat on the promenade wall less than 50 metres away. It was an amazing way to spend a couple of hours.
In Florence we camped at a casino carpark for a couple of nights, while we explored the area. The casino provided free soft drinks and gave us $20 worth of free-play credits, which we used to win enough cash to buy a couple of glasses of wine – which was nice!
At Coos Bay we visited the Shore Acres State Park, the old estate of a shipping and lumber magnate. Large formal gardens, beautiful views over a rocky cove, a little sheltered beach and more whales passing by – it must have been an incredible property when it was privately owned.
So then it was a couple of hours inland to Caroline’s Aunty Pat, her daughter Debbie, 2 horses, 3 miniature horses, 3 dogs and 8 cats! It was great to see her again, although emotional as dear Uncle John, Caroline’s Dad’s brother, passed away since we were last here.
We have been spoilt rotten with enough delicious homemade food to feed an army and Pat is even preparing dried fruits for us to take with us. Debbie has also spoilt us with a night out at a casino, including meal and spending money, in a somewhat successful attempt to show us how to play the slots. We have even been bought gifts and clothes!
In an attempt to repay their amazing generosity, we have been helping out around the ranch – Caroline clearing horse poop and dead grass, Bryan fitting electrics in the stables and building obstacles for Pat to train the miniature horses that she takes to shows.
We’ll probably be here for another week or so as we plan the next stages and work out how we’re going to ship to South America.
TTFN
Goodbye Canada, Howdy USA!
Hello from the Pacific Coast, Oregon. We have made it across the continent and after our previous trek from UK to Australia, we have finally circumnavigated the Globe. Now we just have to keep driving South until we run out of land or money, whichever comes first!
We’ve had a very busy couple of weeks, so we will make this brief.
Vancouver Island – after 3 months driving across Canada, it was a welcome change to be on an island, never more than a couple of hours from the sea. There was some lovely scenery, mountains, lakes, forests, a bit like a miniature version of Canada. The sheltered East coast was quiet with stunning views of the misty islands that lay off shore. Here we met Ken, a softly spoken, charming, well-travelled gent who we shared stories with. We liked Ken a lot, he reminded us of our friend Mike Murray from home.
The West coast was busier, windier and lashed by huge Pacific waves. The towns of Tofino and Ucluelet were very touristy with a mix of surfer and coffee cultures. We camped in a forest for a couple of nights and were visited by a brown bear that hung around for about an hour, not bothered by us standing on the roof of the truck. He posed on a tree for us to take a photo!
Victoria was busy but beautiful. Lovely harbour, great architecture, cute floating houses. There was a classic boat rally on and a blues / rock festival to keep us entertained for the couple of days we were there. On our last night, we were looking for somewhere to sleep when two guys, Keith and Jamis started talking to us about the truck and then invited us back to Keith’s for food and beers and to park on his drive. They had a few friends over and we had a great evening with them. We miss our friends and family a lot, and to be sat among good friends, enjoying their banter and stories was great substitute. And the elk curry was amazing. Thanks guys!
Back to the mainland and Vancouver City. Another lovely harbour, Stanley Park was beautiful, particularly the rose gardens. In the city we walked onto the set of Deadpool 2, got shouted at by police but managed to get some photos and video. Later than evening, we felt we were on another film set, for a zombie movie, as we happened upon an area full of people bombed out on drugs, just lying in the streets for blocks in every direction. The side alleys - which we didn’t venture down from the smell of urine if nothing else - were worse. The only shops open were selling cannabis and legal highs – from the state of the people, it was the legal highs that they were on. It was shocking how accepted and open the drug use was and the sheer number of people involved. Coincidently, this is where we saw our first skunk. It was a bit of a sad end to our time wholesome, beautiful Canada – but it is a country that we will always love and look forward to returning to.
So then it was South into Washington, USA. The border crossing was busy and tedious, but once at the front of queue, we were processed quickly, without problem. The customs officer asked us “You haven’t been to any of those funny countries, have you?”. We looked at him blankly, not sure if it was a trick question. He continued, “You know - Iraq, Iran...”. Good ol’ American diplomacy at its best!
The weather wasn’t great, being a mix of sea mist, cloud and smoke from nearby wildfires, so decided to bypass Seattle, as it was clear we would not be able to get the Frasier skyline view we wanted. We headed off to Aberdeen, Kurt Cobain’s hometown to visit his rather sad and rundown memorial park, next to a bridge he allegedly lived under as a teenager. Nearby there was a great StarWars shop, literally filled with all sorts of related merchandise and homemade scenes from the films. It was clearly run more as a hobby than a business.
Then it was onto Long Beach, where they were holding their annually Rod Run – a hot rod rally. The streets were filled with hundreds of classic American muscle cars, hot rods, rat rods, trucks, VWs from the ‘40’s onwards, driving up and down the 10 mile promenade for 3 days. Admittedly, the sound of over-revved big-block V8’s did get a bit too much for us at times, but it was a free and easy way to spend a few days!
So now we are in Oregon, slowly moving down the coast before heading inland towards Caroline’s Aunty Pat, not far North of the Californian border. It’s been too long since we last saw her, so it will be great to catch-up, see her ranch-style home and her horses again.
TTFN
Gearbox and the Seven Bears
Hello from Squamish, British Columbia, just north of Vancouver.
So we left Denali National Park in the rain and it was wet, wet, wet for the next 4 days or so. We drove across the Denali Highway, hoping to spot some wildlife and do a bit of camping in the wilderness. Unfortunately the moose hunters beat us to it – every pull-in, flat piece of ground, any possible camping spot was full of RV’s and tents, with their butchered prizes hanging underneath gazebos like macabre washing. The landscape was alive with camo-clad rednecks on quadbikes, equipped with high-powered rifles, scopes, binoculars and radios – our chances of quietly watching any wildlife were about as good as a bull-moose’s chance of seeing Christmas. Not surprisingly, we still haven’t seen a bull-moose.
We left Alaska on a different route that we came in on, having done a loop around the state. A lot of the roads are built on thick gravel bases which are designed to insulate the earth below so the permafrost remains and supports the road. It doesn’t always work and you get frost heaves, which turn the road into a BMX track. One road was particularly bad. We were following a 50 foot RV towing a pick-up, the RV went over a set of these bumps and the pick-up actually got air as it followed. Soon the pick-up was swerving about and there were sparks on the road, so we got the apparently oblivious RV driver to pull over. Surprisingly the tow frame connecting the two vehicles was OK, but it had actually ripped part of the pick-up’s chassis off. Not much we could to help with that one!
We soon found ourselves back in Yukon, drier weather and back at the lovely Rob & Cath’s. These guys have travelled a lot more than we have and to more exotic places too, so they’ve got some great stories to tell and some very wise words. We really enjoyed just chilling with them, wandering around their 20 acres of forest and one afternoon with their friends Les & Karen, who taught us how to play horseshoes (think quoits with horseshoes) – apparently Bry is a natural, he got 3 “ringers”! As before, it was sad to leave Rob & Cath, but hopefully our paths will cross again.
We then headed down into British Columbia on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, another very scenic drive through mountains, past lakes and rivers – that’s what the tourist bumf says – it was hard for us to tell as we had another few days of heavy rain! The clouds did clear a bit for us to catch the solar eclipse, it was about 50% up here, not the total eclipse they had down in the States.
We took a few side trips of some pretty sketchy, gravelly, muddy roads, getting ourselves and Bowser very dirty. He was washed twice in 4 days, which is more that can be said for us. Some of the roads were extremely steep, causing our auto-gearbox to overheat – a bit of a concern and we’re currently working on a plan to remedy this, as the roads in South America will be the same, if not worse….
On the bright side, we saw seven, yes seven bears all in one day. These included a grizzly catching salmon in a creek, a very protective mother with two cubs and a huge, mean looking black bear that was just the other side of the road from us. Definitely a good day and probably the highlight so far. We also saw our first beaver, swimming between a huge dam he’d built and his lodge. The size of some of the trees they’d gnawed down was incredible – over a foot in diameter.
We then drove through central BC, where they are still fighting wildfires – the biggest in their history, but incredibly, although hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, there are still no fatalities. Some of the communities were only allowed back a couple of days ago, after being evacuated for more than a month. There is still a large military and Red Cross presence, but it was nice to see signs up in the towns saying “Welcome Home” to the residents and “Thank You” to the services.
We blew through Whistler, which was stupidly busy and all the campgrounds full. We have got so used to just being able to find places to camp, that we were a bit naïve in expecting the same in such a tourist trap just a couple of hours outside Vancouver, in August and the weather is hot, hot, hot.
So we ended up in Squamish and today is our 13th wedding anniversary! As a treat, we have booked into a proper campsite (with showers and laundry and ice cream and WiFi and noisy kids and everything) for two whole nights! And we have even got a bottle of wine in the fridge!
From here we will head to Vancouver Island and then the US of A. So goodbye for now, the ice-cream and wine are calling!
TTFN
Make sure your lips touch the toe!
Hello from Denali National Park, Alaska!
After a very enjoyable, relaxing, alcoholic couple of days with Rob and Cath at their beautiful, remote, fairy-tale log cabin near Whitehorse, we headed off up the Klondike Highway to “Sin City”, A.K.A Dawson City. Originally a frontier town, it boomed with the goldrush in the late 1800’s and hasn’t changed much since – keeping many of the original buildings, but now catering to tourism with music halls with dancing girls, rough and ready drinking dens, wooden sidewalks and the like.
We used Dawson as a base to drive the infamous Dempster Highway, a rough gravel and mud track that runs up to the north coast, with the promise that if we had no punctures or repairs to pay for, we’d sample some of the delights of Sin City on our return.
The Dempster was a rollercoaster ride through a beautiful wilderness that took us to the Arctic Circle and the tundra beyond where we saw our first grizzly bear. We camped north of the Circle at Rock River, a remote site with just a cute, fluffy Snowshoe Hare for company. We then retraced our steps the next day, back through the mountains, lakes, rivers and past remains of wildfires that covered acres.
Good old Bowser took the rough terrain in his stride, as did our new tyres. So with no repairs to pay for, it was back to Dawson City for a few days of R and R. It is a crazy town, with a mix of tourists from the Grey Nomads in their huge motorhomes to backpackers, and locals ranging from hippy-dippy artists to gnarly old gold prospectors.
It’s difficult to fully explain our time at Dawson, but some highlights were drinking a cocktail that contains a real, severed, human toe (“Drink it fast, drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe”), Bry getting invited onto the stage with the cancan girls and removing one of their garters with his teeth and an evening of very pro-feminist, all female wrestling. It was different!
From there we headed to Alaska over the Top of The World Highway, through the little town of Chicken (just a shop, cafe, bar and liquor store all owned by the same woman), back to the Alaska Highway and up to Fairbanks, where we stayed a couple of days near a public swim lake, chilling in the sun. The weather has been great, in the mid-eighties, not really what we were expecting for Alaska. An added bonus, for Bry anyway, was the nearby US Air Force Base with B52s, fighters and tankers flying over all day! And we saw our first moose – a mum and baby – still none of the big ugly males though!
Nearby was the town of North Pole - named in the 1950’s in a failed attempt to get toy manufacturers to move there – where it’s Christmas every day, the roads all have Christmassy names, even the church is St Nicholas’! We visited Santa Claus’ house, saw his reindeer and the local post office that deals with thousands of letters every year from hopeful children. The community of about 2000 actually get together and attempt to respond to every letter they receive – which is nice!
So now we’re in Denali National Park, named after North America’s highest mountain (previously known as McKinley). The weather has gone a bit cloudy, so we haven’t had a great view of the peak itself, but the park is pretty with lots of other mountains in the Alaska Range.
From here we head off on the Denali Highway – another long gravel track – before winding back to Canada.
TTFN
Beauty & The Beasts!
Hello from Whitehorse, Yukon!
So we left James and Morgan’s (thanks again guys) and headed off for a very touristy week or so driving through the Canadian Rockies, seeing loads and generally being awestruck by the natural beauty of the place. Words and even photos won’t do the scenery justice, so we won’t even try – we’ll just say that it was stunning.
A quick rundown – Canmore; cute town, farmer’s market – Banff town; very touristy, busy – Banff National Park (NP); beautiful, very busy, lots of smoke from wildfires, we walked up & down the very steep Sulphur Mountain rather than pay the even steeper $62 each for the gondola – Lake Louise; stupidly busy, we had to park 8KMs away and get a shuttle bus to it, spoilt by commercialism – Yoho NP (British Columbia, gained an hour) beautiful, more wildfire smoke, helicopters dropping water – Glacier NP, quiet, excellent riverside camp for 2 nights, lots of hikes to pretty lakes – back to Banff NP (lost an hour) – drive the Icefields Parkway (smoke now cleared, sun much improves the views) – stunning Peyto Lake, nicer than Lake Louise – wildcamp near Saskatchewan River Crossing, huge thunderstorm (again), fork lightening seems to be very near us, we bottle it and drive the quickly flooding dirt track back to the highway and camp on a little gravel turnoff instead - Athabasca Glacier, beautiful but slightly worrying how quickly it is shrinking, again we hike to it rather than pay the exorbitant fees for the tour bus onto it – Jasper NP, bigger and less busy than Banff NP, more wildlife, saw our first bear of this trip - Jasper Town, quieter than Banff, but not as picturesque – Medicine Lake, excellent reflections – Maligne Lake, not too busy, stunning, nice walks around edge rather than the $50 per hour kayak rental. Plus numerous side-trips off the highway to explore / take in the scenery / avoid the crowds.
Very beautiful, very touristy, very busy, very expensive. Lots of lovely food and drink, or exciting excursions, or souvenirs (one place had a jade sculpture of a bear priced at $1 million, plus tax!) at every turn – great for a two-week holiday, but when you’re on a budget to travel for a year, it becomes either torturous or vulgar excess, depending on how hungry / poor / deprived / pious we feel at the time!
So now we’re back on the road proper again, heading north on the Alaska Highway. We’ve driven through northern British Columbia and are now in Yukon, heading to Rob & Cath’s (who we met at James & Morgan’s) somewhere north of Whitehorse. It’s the sort of place where they have to meet us at the road, else we’ll never find it!
We’re currently sharing the driving as we’re doing about 600kms a day. The highway snakes around, up and down through endless mountains, trees, lakes and rivers. A proper wilderness, but with real beauty, rather than the barren wildernesses we’ve driven through in Asia and Australia. Loads of wildlife as well, more bears, elks, caribou and bison, just wandering about – it’s like a safari park with a 1500 mile road through it! Not seen any moose yet though.
We’re looking forward to seeing Rob and Cath again and then after that, it’s off to Alaska.
A quick “Hello!” to the delightfully named Ben & Jen, a couple we met at Walmart in Dawson Creek. They want to do some overlanding themselves – we hope our little chat inspired them to take the plunge – just do it guys, you won’t regret it!
If this uploads OK, it should still be Bry’s Mum’s birthday – so Happy Birthday Mum – we love you and miss you very much!! And yes, we will be careful and stay safe!
TTFN