27th May

Awake at 11am. Breakfast was easy – a bowl of cornflakes and cuppa and then Murray was off at 12.10. Packing up was easy and left most of the stuff on the front seat. The rain in the night had washed a lot of the dirt off the car, but left long icicles were hanging from the wheel arches. The stick holding the flag had broken so it was shortened.

I drove the 1st leg and stopped at the lay-by after 21 miles. A good supply of water flowing through a culvert below the road; so I sterilized enough to fill all our containers and had a cup of coffee and a blueberry bagel. Kept looking out for bears, but saw none. However, the eerie sound of the geese and a lone and forlorn curlew kept me company.

This place is one of the things that can be described as "awesome"; in much the same way that a can of coke can’t. An old couple passed me here travelling north – towing an old 50’s style land yacht, aluminium caravan! They had a chat with Murray a few minutes later and said they were going to Deadhorse for the night and then turning around and going home.

Murray arrived, had coffee and a croissant, and then continued. I drove on past the next pipeline pumping station and waited to provide lunch. The last leg saw us entering the clag again, but I found a lay-by and waited. Just before Murray appeared, a couple of guys showed up heading North and asking about Caribou "To photograph" Yeah, right!

Cooked supper of sausage stew and rice, cup of wine and sweet corn. So here we sit/sprawl, 11pm and still full daylight. I’m just going to get used to it, and then go home. I’ll have a small dram of rough old bollocks Canadian whisky and then turn in.

Should get over the Atigun Pass tomorrow. The "photographers" said it was 70’F South of that, with a black bear feeding on a road kill Caribou. Still no large mammals seen, but as the geese thin out, there are more curlew and snipe type birds and a lot less snow and ice; good, but the large jumbled blocks on the banks of the river, 10" thick and caused by the thaw washing them up the bank were a great sight. Saw our second biker, again on a big BMW.

Ice on the Atigun River