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Published: June 29th 2006
Finally made it to the very top...Prudhoe Bay...the northernmost part of Alaska...from Ushuia to Prudhoe Bay is the ultimate South/North trip...66,000 kms, 1 year and 2 days, from the bottom of the world to the top...whoo hoo!! (well, from the centre to the bottom, back to the centre and up to the north)
I'd thought of many reasonable excuses and logicified many reasons for not going further than Fairbanks, Alaska, after all, I'd got this far!...(grammar??) in the end, how could I refuse the chance to make it to the absolute end of the road, sort of Ushuia but the other end...and the same buzz when I got there. Thanks to George and Rob and Micah who encouraged me...I think the expression "pussy Aussie" was mentioned!!
About 1,600 kms out and back, about a third asphalto, scary roadworks, mountain passes and the last 150 kms out across the flat, windy, Patagonian-style landscape to the end, Prudhoe Bay, the giant oilfield, without which there wouldn't even be a road. And there's no beer in Prudhoe!
The road follows the snaky silver pipeline and there isn't much else to see...caribou, wild sheep, squirrels, snow, rivers and lakes...ahh...everything, rain, rippio, roadworks!
I was riding
with a great mate, George, from San Fransisco, another 1150 Adventure, we stopped the first night in Coldfoot, met some old and new friends, a real gathering of the clan, more 1150s , also KLRs, 650 BMWs, monster party at the only place..Coldfoot is a halfway point of sorts, one store/restaurant/bar/gas station/motel office...the actual 'motel', a construction camp style block of rooms, quite serviceable altho' small and erratic water supply, 200 metres across the big carpark...there is absolutely nothing here!...and even less nothingness between here and Prudhoe...next day Gearge and I headed out for Prudhoe...four and a half hours, got there, had a coffee and headed straight back...hey, no beer!...another four and a half back to Coldfoot, another night at the only place and on back to Fairbanks tonight...this is all a bit brief but I got to tell you this has been done!...it feels really spesh!
I'll get the last blog finished and up tomorrow...maybe...all a bit anti-climactic after this...
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Prudhoe Bay, the top of the world
