...Alaska!

Well, we made it to Alaska.

I forgot to mention the hot springs at Liard we stopped off in on our way to Watson Lake. Aside from the vast open plains, this was the highlight of the Fort St. John to Watson Lake. I also took advantage of the situation and got dirty. There are two pools here, the alpha and the beta pool. Basically the alpha pool (the one closer to the car park) is only about waist deep and crystal clear as all the mud has been dug out and stones laid down. This one is geared towards the hoards of geriatric tourists getting off coaches and having a quick 5-minute soak before they descend on the next town like a swarm of technology-fearing locusts. After over-hearing some trash declare that the boiling temperature of water is about 58 degrees Celsius we decided to move to the beta pool. It about three meters deep, you can't see the bottom because of the mineral-rich mud and there's far fewer tourists. I'd recommend the beta pool.

After visiting the sign forest in Watson lake, we made a bee-line for Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, with a grand total population of about 23,500 people. The Yukon territories has a total population of 31,530 people and an area of about 482,500 km squared. That means quite a low population density. To give you an idea of the significance of these figures, the Republic of Ireland has a population density of about 59 people her square km whereas the Yukon has about 16 square km per person. Vast untouched landscapes dominate this wild and nature-run part of the world. Most settlements that aren't the two main cities have populations of no more than 500 people. Beaver Creek (ha!), just before the boarder had only 110 and that wasn't the smallest we passed through but a long shot, but the only one i can find info for. Pink Mountain had a population of only 100 and the general store, gas station, post office, liquor store, campsite, information centre and RV park were all in the same building (the one we're sitting outside in that pic).

So, onto Whitehorse. Not a huge amount to report here. the SS Klondike no longer sits in the river. The drive to Whitehorse was littered with animals everywhere. Normally when I see an animal when I'm driving I think to myself about how they seem oddly out of place but when you see them in the Yukon, you get the feeling that you're on their territory. The moose population is twice that of the human population. Dave also managed to pick up a new animal to fear, the buffalo. Come on Dave! They're more afraid of you!

My memory cards started to run out of space and I haven't had a chance to develop any films so photos for the restof this post wil be a little sparse. I'll try put them in where I can to hold your interest.

After a night drinking in Whitehorse (with people! imagine that! we had been on the road a few days and covered about 2,000km so the opportunity to have some contact with other humans was pounced upon) we set off for Alaska. It was a long drive, about 650km on roads that are falling apart through virgin landscape and past ghost towns. Dave and I reckon we clocked up a good few km on the wrong side of the road avoiding crevasses! Of course, as we weren't American citizens we got a full grilling about what we were doing, how long, which terrorist organisations we belong to etc.. our van was even searched! Alice is currently undergoing the laborious task of combing out her dreadlocks. The first step on each dread is to cut about 6-8inches off the end first. She's been keeping these in a bag. Might seems a Little unusual, but whatever.. Upon returning to the van we realised that the boarder control guy opened this bag to find a load of dreads which at first look a little like big hairy worms. He must have thought we were weirdos.. This filled us with giggles for a while.

After crossing the boarder we drove to the first big town, Tok (pronounced toke) and ate in Fast Eddy's on the recommendation of one of the friendly boarder patrol guys. Apparently the best restaurant around. Everything was fried. It's going to be so hard t eat healthily in this country!

The stark contrast between the Canadians and Alaskans is striking! Overly-happy waitresses tittering nervously and haranguing you was what we were first greeted by. I thought Canadian food portions were big. They've been dwarfed! The accent moved from the dopey "I'm going aboot the huuse" (I'm going about the house) to strong American very quickly. Almost as though to make sure that you knew that you were no longer in Canadstan.

They're also more money orientated over the boarder. In Canada we stayed in a load of Canada Parks campsites which assume you will leave money under a rock or tied to a tree if you arrive after registration hours. So naturally we interpreted this as free camping.. not in the States though.. oh no.. they made sure we paid.. and there's no unsecured wifi connections anywhere..

On from Tok we went to get to Anchorage, the capital of Alaska! We had made the mistake of hyping it up loads. It was going to be the cosmopolitan city at the end of a long line of non-descript towns and settlements. As Alaska isn't connected to the mainland I was expecting that Alaskans might have some sort of identity-crisis-fueled superiority-complex and regard themselves as Alaskans, not Americans and maybe (like the French, say) be overly-enthusiastic about their culture and attempt to be more savvy. Nope. Anchorage was quite underwhelming. As well as a town that has very little to offer other than being a base for the amazing areas surrounding Anchorage it looks odd. Anchorage has no planning legislation or real zoning programmes so there is no real central business district or financial centre. Large 20-storey office buildings tower above adjacent dingy motels and greasy-spoon diners.

What's more there was about 10,000 little bastard scouts staying in our Hostel on the first night that wouldn't stop jumping on beds and screaming at each other. And the hostel had the creakiest bunk beds ever. No joke! They creaked as you breathed! So annoying..

We made the most of our stay and drove back outside the city to go white water rafting. We choose to only do class 3 to 4 rapids as we had no experience. In hindsight we definitely could have done the class 4 and 5 stuff but since we were in calmer waters we were able to jump in the river and do some "white water swimming" which was pretty cool. The water runs straight off the Mat-su glacier so is FREEZING! We had dry suits on to keep the old hypothermia at bay..

After the rafting we went for a walk on the Mat-su glacier. More money-making schemes. 15dollars per person to access the glacier through the private property. Alaskans are quite territorial as it's a new country and pioneer property disputed were only a few decades ago. I've discovered something new about myself. Whenever I'm near or on a glacier I get the urge to get naked. This happens around rivers, lakes and well.. any water and hence my many skinny dipping episodes. I'm not sure what it's about. It also happens when I get to the summit of mountains.

My last day in Anchorage was to be last day with Dave, Alice and Charlene (the van) so we had a goodbye sushi dinner and did the Planetary walk which was brought to an abrupt stop by Dave's volatile ass. Something didn't agree with him and he scurried from establishment to establishment with "Closed" signs in the windows whilst whimpering and talking in short panicked bursts. Much to Alice and myself's amusement.

To the airport! Which was full of odd Amish sects. After a huggy goodbye to Alice and Dave I had my toothpaste confiscated. I'm not sure when I'll see either Dave or Alice again as they're moving to Oxford in September when Alice starts her Ph.D in particle physics (??). It's very cute when she's asked about it. For example, when we went white water rafting the guides were asking us about ourselves and Alice seemed perfectly content with leaving the conversation at "I'm going back to college" and just try to tip-toe around the fact that it's a Ph.D in physics in Oxford. This is so as to avoid the "oh. right. well then.." reaction which is generally followed by a long silence and leaves the other party in the conversation wondering if Alice is using her magical powers to warp their physical composition. They pushed further with the questions and made all the "ooo" and "aaaahh" noises associated with the venerating audience of a magic show. And she didn't even mention where she was doing the Ph.D, that would surely have prompted some other catagory of noises.

When boarded my first plane to Missouri a very American gent had taken the window seat I had booked. I let him take it anyway and buried mt head in y book but he insisted on showing pictures of his new 6.7 litre pick-up, his hot fiance ad pictures of his fishing trips with him and his buddies. He was an interesting specimen to observe.

I was greeted in Kansas City Airport by my smiley half-sister Jana and her boyfriend Jake. Stage two of my round-the-world has begun!

ONWARD!