Brits on Tour (In Spain): Up-date at last. To Tok, Haines, Skagway and Whitehorse.

We have been unable to update the blog for a few days now, as we have had no Internet access. So here is a brief description of our travels from Valdez to Whitehorse.

We left Valdez on Wednesday August 12th, it was a grey drizzly morning, although not too wet and grey to stop the girls making one last trip to the shops before leaving. On our arrival into Valdez we passed a pull out with a view to die for, down some 2500ft into the valley. We didn't stop, saying we would do so on the way out. The weather on that day was gorgeous, perfect for taking photographs. The weather when we returned, cloudy, rainy with no views at all. We didn't bother to stop on the way out. !!! The weather did improve as we went further inland, and we had some great views of snow capped mountains, and several glaciers. Not much else on our first leg, other than we were getting low on diesel, I was sure we could make it to Tok, but Mark wasn't so sure, so we stopped about 40 miles short of Tok, and he put just enough fuel in to make sure. It was very expensive, though I don't have the price to hand as I write this.

On arriving at Tok, we went to the Chevron gas station, where diesel was $3.74 a gallon, quite high, but needs must. We bought 57.25 gal, for a total of $214. ouch. Good news is we got 9.7mpg. The garage allows its RV customers to park at the rear overnight for free, so that's what we did. We were later joined by 3 other motor homes. We had dinner out, again feasting at Fast Eddies, before allowing the girls to beat us at canasta. 'Nuff said.

Next day, the girls needed another visit to some stores before leaving, so it was 10am before we hit the road, destination for an overnight stop, Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. The road in parts, was in my best description, pretty crap, with huge frost heaves, gravel breaks with a washboard surface, which when travelling even as slow as 3-5mph, still rattled your bones. How anything stayed attached to the walls in the motor home is a mystery to me. It has to have been one of the worst roads we have been on to date, even rivaling the Top of the World Highway at times. We crossed the border into Canada, uneventfully, although the crossing itself is a little unusual, in that immigration control is some 20km into Canada. We arrived at Haines Junction at around 7pm Pacific time, we lost an hour, filled up again with fuel, at $1.13 a litres. Extortionate. $4.31CAN a gallon. The most we have EVER paid for diesel. Fortunately we needed only 128 litres, but our mpg dropped a little to 8.8, as a result of the stop/go drive here. We camped again for free, I like free, on the car park of the visitors centre. Jane did a great pasta dinner for us all, and then she and Chris promptly gave us another thrashing at canasta. What the hell has gone wrong.... twice in a row????

Next day. we left at around 09.15, on some of the best paved roads ever. Mostly brand new surfaces, although we did meet a little construction, the road surface was still great, with great views of many lakes and rivers. It was only 156 miles into Haines, and we decided that if we arrived in time, we would try and exchange our ferry tickets for Friday nights sailing instead of Saturdays. That would give us all of the afternoon in Haines, and we wouldn't have to look for anywhere to stay. We had another uneventful border crossing back into Alaska, although Mark was asked if he had a scar on his face, (he doesn't), following which the immigration officer disappeared into his office with their passports for several minutes, before returning and wishing them a pleasant trip. Of course he is NOT now known as "Scar Face Jones". We changed our tickets on arrival at the ferry terminal, for a modest $10. We then took a drive into Haines, about 4 miles from the ferry terminal, parked the car and did a tour on foot. It didn't take long, and we were glad we were not spending another full day there. We had a great lunch of halibut and chips, returned to the car, and had a bit of a drive round the town.

Back to the ferry terminal, time for a little snooze before embarking at about 7.30pm. This was done without too much trouble, and it was not long before we all met up again on deck. (all four vehicles were driven on separately, and not in order, so we all got separated). It was just an hour to Skagway, and a very picturesque hours cruise it was. Following disembarking, Jane asked permission to park overnight in the terminal car park, which was given, so we drove to a quiet spot, and settled down for the night.

Next day we did the tour of Skagway on foot. Its a lot bigger than Haines, although a little too touristy for my liking, still a nice port town. Spoiled a little by the weather, the wind was blowing fairly hard, and made it feel quite cold. There were a couple of big cruise ships in port, so it was very busy. We also visited the Reid Falls, very picturesque, and the Gold Rush Cemetery. People died at so young an age in the first half of the last century, most were in their 20's or 30's. Very sad.
We called cousin Glenn in the afternoon, to get the name of his boat, and ask where it was moored, so we could take a peek. Surprise surprise, he arrived in Skagway the same night as us, and is on the boat now. We all walk down to the small boat dock, and there he is walking towards us. After welcoming us aboard, we spent about a half hour talking and catching up on the news and gossip, before saying our farewells. Back to the motor homes, and another great dinner, this time courtesy of Chris. There followed yet another even greater thrashing by the girls......at canasta. I'm thinking maybe we should buy some new cards, 4 games in a row, this last one we never even got a look in.......
Next morning, Sunday, we got up to still very windy conditions, and spots of rain. Jane went off to post some cards, while I hooked the car onto the motor home. We got underway at just after 9am. Its quite a climb out of Skagway, with the road following the river on one side and the train tracks on the other. Had we been able to see anything the views I am sure would have been incredible. As it was they weren't bad, and we stopped a few times for a closer look and some picture taking. Its only 110 miles to Whitehorse, so there was no rush. Jane had made reservations at Pioneer Campground, where we stayed on our way through last time, so we knew exactly where we were going. Quite novel for us......There was the little matter of crossing the border back into Canada, again there was about an 11 mile distance between the two immigration/customs offices, very strange. The crossing went without a hitch, and even "Scar Face Jones" managed to re-enter Canada without any further questioning.
We stopped at the little town of Carcross. Another gold rush town built at the turn of the 19th century, and still surviving, mainly on the strength of tourism. Mark and Chris bought us all a delicious ice cream each, on account that I had left my wallet in the RV.
After spending an hour or so there, we once again hit the road, to stop just a couple of miles further on at the smallest desert in the world. Quite an amazing sight, you suddenly come upon a large area of sand dunes on both sides of the road. All's it needed was a few cactus.
We carried on again, finally arriving at the campground at about 2.30pm, Pacific Time.
We had a quick shopping trip into town, and settled down to another superb meal, this time courtesy of Jane, who had the slow cooker doing its thing during the drive here. We were all too tired for canasta, thank goodness, couldn't stand another thrashing so close to the last one, so we said goodnight to Mark and Chris, and we settled down to some TV. Then there was a knock on the door, and who should be standing there, but Marlene, Glens wife. She was on her way home from work at the Whitehorse Correctional Facility, and stopped to say "Hi". We were so surprised and pleased to see her, we forgot to take any pictures. Are we empty headed or what?. Anyway it was really great to see her, as we thought we would never get the chance on this trip. So thanks Marlene.