MarkG

Well, after four months of travelling; 10,583 miles; 2 Canadian Provinces, 1 Territory and 3 US states; oh, and 6,771 photographs (yes, really!) I have to hand the van back in less than 48 hrs time. So I have come back to the RV park Burnaby where I started my camping adventures on 1 May. Since I last created a blog entry, I spent a very pleasant couple of days on the Sunshine Coast. The weather there wasn’t quite as good as it gets billed: but I did see a fair amount of sunshine. I made it all the way to the end of Highway 101 (the main road that runs up the Sunshine Coast), and then I drove slowly back down again (i.e. it took four days to do 84 km), stopping at some great ... read more

Well, I made it to the Waterton Lakes National Park (sort of...) Leaving Kimberley a week ago last Friday I headed towards the town of Fernie, but I was unable to find a space in my planned campground, so I continued back into Alberta and ended up at Beauvais Lake (nice, but a little dull). Unfortunately, that meant that I ended up getting to Waterton Lakes National Park on the Saturday of the August Bank Holiday weekend in Canada, and the campsite was full. So I put my name down on the waiting list in the vain hope that someone who had already reserved a space phoned up and cancelled. I hung around town for the best part of an hour and a half, but no dice. So I got back in the van and crossed ... read more

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to get internet access, so this might be longer than usual... After leaving Fort St John I headed west along the Peace River valley to visit the W.A.C. Bennett hydro-electric dam, and the Peace Canyon hydro-electric dam. Overnight at a very busy Moberley Lake campground just outside the town of Chetwynd, then headed east again, to Dawson Creek. No sign of James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson or the blonde one whose name I can’t remember. (Oh, apparently that was Dawson’s Creek. And it was set in Boston, not Canada) Anyway, Dawson Creek is the start point of the Alaska Highway. Apart from one 20-mile long section (which I missed out because of my trip to the hydro-electric dams), I have managed to drive all of ... read more

Back in Whitehorse again now after my round trip to Alaska. The roads from Tok back to Canada were just as bad as the Alaska Highway, but the scenery was far more spectacular. I headed out of Tok up the Taylor Highway to the "city" of Chicken (population 35). Chicken is right in Gold Rush territory, and has a restored Gold Dredger at the centre of the town. After leaving Chicken, I started to head north up to the town of Eagle, but the roads were getting seriously bad at this point, so instead of completing the 100 mile round trip, I turned right onto the Top of the World Highway, and headed back into Canada. Now, the Top of the World Highway, does exactly what it says on the tin - it runs along what ... read more

At last! I've made it to Canada's 9th largest Territory/Province (which is also it's fourth smallest). At 186,000 sq miles and with a population of just 34,000 (75% of whom live in the city of Whitehorse) it's somewhat sparsely populated. I actually crossed the BC/Yukon border two days ago on my way up the Stewart-Cassier highway. I stopped off for a night at the third largest city in the Yukon - Watson Lake (pop. 846!). And then spent last night at a Government Campsite by the side of the Alaska Highway near the town of Teslin. The Yukon is noticeably different to British Columbia. In fact, as I crossed a hill on the way north, there was a surprisingly noticeable change to the scenery. It's far less verdant this far north. There are far fewer varieties ... read more