Under the thumb

Today we started our course. We had been asked to make 50 designs in black and white. Today we took one of those designs and made five versions of that design in various combinations of flat and glowing colours.

Here be Elves

I’d forgotten about the Lord of the Rings, where New Zealand was the star performer in the movies. However, I’ve been swiftly reminded of it. 

I’m staying in a motel complex that was once a hospital, built during the war. I’m in the furthermost building in the complex - up on the hill, and I suspect it was the officer’s quarters. From my window I can see most of the buildings spread out before me.

Not far away is Kaitoke Regional Park, which has some lovely walks. It was also the site of Rivendell in the film, and the arch to enter into Rivendell has been recreated where it was in the film.

The park has lots of silver ferns and other endemic New Zealand flora, which must have been a bit difficult to remove from the film.

Northern Canada Summary

This trip was always going to be very exciting. It included just about everything I had wanted to see in Northern Canada, or had missed in the past. When I went through the edge of the Yukon in 2016, I couldn’t see the Top of the World Highway  or the Dempster Highway (the ferries weren’t open because there was still ice in the waterways). As a result, I couldn’t see much of the Yukon in that trip. Most Canadian parks had been shut. The Icefields Parkway (Lake Louise to Jasper) was a whiteout. I’d never been to the North West Territories or Nunavut, Hudson Bay or Baffin Island, the Arctic Ocean... The major fossil sites in Alberta (the Burgess Shale and the dinosaur sites).

We decided to get a travel agent involved when we couldn’t find a way to get to Nahanni and Victoria Falls, and she found the tour we did there, and booked our stay in Nunavut as well. We went kayaking with icebergs and with beluga whales because she had booked these tours. Perhaps we would have done these things on our own, but possibly not. She also organised our flights. We organised almost everything else ourselves.

It was great staying with friends, meeting indigenous people and going on tours of closed sections of world Heritage areas with park rangers. It was fun doing a variety of things, using different forms of transport, and seeing what we did. It gave us a feel for just how big northern Canada is. We had a wonderful time together, and it was great having a travel companion (especially an excellent one).

While there were highlights that we have pointed out to many people, the whole trip was a highlight. There wasn’t anything that stood out as being better than everything else. Yes, we probably did a lot of things that are on people’s bucket lists, but that isn’t the purpose of a trip. We just had a thoroughly wonderful time.

Point Pelee

The southernmost point in mainland Canada is an important wildlife sanctuary, as it has quite a number of different plant communities, including extensive marshes and various type of forest. As there is an island chain across Lake Erie to Point Pelee, many migratory species of birds and butterflies  use this route. Although it was late in the year, we saw many butterflies there. Yesterday when we were at the point it was very windy and the surf was up. But today things were much quieter, and we visited the marshlands and walked along the boardwalk.

We went into the forest, through the dunes (which we really couldn’t see) and to the middle beach, which was much more storey than the point.

At the visitors centre they had a pond with lots of frogs.

Then we drove through Ontario to the airport to catch the plane home. The road is the main one from Detroit to New York, and down the Saint Lawrence seaway, so it was very busy with an enormous number of trucks going very close together and very fast. There are an large number of enormous greenhouses on the route.

The Northern Shore of Lake Erie

Today we wandered west along the shore of Lake Erie. It was very rough. And the lake was quite high. They have a lot of wind farms in the area.

Eventually, we arrived at Point Pelee - the southernmost point of mainland Canada.

Mennonites

It was Sunday, the day that Mennonites visit their friends in their horse drawn buggies. It was not the day that various Mennonite shops are open. We went to the Mennonite area in Ontario to see one and partake of Mennonite cooking and crafts. Sadly there was no food!

However, we saw many, many buggies - young men racing them along the road, family outings, grandparents and babies. No pictures though. You’ll just have to use your imagination.

First day on the Train

We woke in the morning to views of the Rockies, 

And arrivedin Jasper before lunch

The rest of the day we gradually left the Rockies for the prairies

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Flying to Vancouver

We flew from Dawson City and its mullock heaps 

To Whitehorse 

And at sunset arrived in Vancouver, ready to catch the train across Canada the next day

Last Day on the Dempster

Coming back from Eagle Plains there was low cloud, so it was very foggy wherever we were higher up. We managed to see the Ogilvie Range tors.

And Tombstone 

The car was rather dirty, although it was cleaner than it had been.

I don’t think I’ve shown you the windscreen crack before.

We arrived back in Dawson City, 

and I took a few photos of it

Rain 12

Tuktoyaktuk 11

We drove to Tuktoyaktuk, and the land of the pingos (hills made from lakes that have partly drained, been covered by soil, and then had the remaining water permanently freeze - they’re very unstable, you do not build on a hill around here), to meet Roger at the airport (it looks like a shearing shed to us).

Inuvik 10

This morning we expected to have a difficult drive, as we were about to tackle the section of the road where three trucks had slipped or rolled in the past few days. There were signs about several slippery parts (and we could see where the trucks had gone off), but nothing was that bad. The scenery was glorious.

There were two river crossings - the Peel and the MacKenzie - both on ferries.

Then we were at the Inuvik on the MacKenzie Delta.

On the Road to the Arctic 9

Early this morning we got our car and finally started up the Dempster Highway. After we got the car, we booked our accommodation (we hadn’t booked before because the trip was likely to have hiccups). We were told that Eagle Plains (where we planned to spend the first night) was booked up, but when we got there, rooms were available (we would have slept in the 4WD if we could only get into the campground). We planned not to stop much on the way up the Dempster, but to stop a lot on the way back, so I didn’t take many pictures.

After we passed Tombstone Park, we saw a Creek which was full of sulphur, leached from the limestone of the North Ogilvie Range.

And stopped at Elephant Rock (unfortunately out of focus).

And reached the Eagle Plains, where you can see forever.

The Dempster really should be on the list of beautiful drives. It’s beautiful.

Top of the World

The Dempster Highway was closed for four days because a tanker rolled. They opened it yesterday but an hour later, another truck came off in the same place, so they closed it for a few more hours. But we got word that it was open again late last night. So we appeared at the car hire early in the morning, ready to drive up to the Arctic Ocean. Unfortunately, the previous hirers were still at Inuvik, so we couldn’t get the car, but another (not equipped for the Dempster) was available for the day. So we drove it on The Top of The World Highway to the Canadian border and back (we weren’t allowed to take the car into Alaska because of insurance).

This is supposed to be one of the world’s most beautiful drives. I wanted to go this way when I went to Alaska, but the ferry just outside Dawson City was closed at the time (the ice on the Yukon River was breaking up), so I couldn’t go that way. It’s aptly named, as the highway follows ridges the entire way to the border, and you feel like you’re on top of the world. Every corner you go round is a new vista over mountains for an immense distance. There aren’t many places to take pictures, but with the autumn colours, it was just magnificent.

We saw into Alaska and the border post.

At the ferry crossing we saw a paddle steamer being moved, and Dawson City.

Then we visited the Midnight Dome at Dawson City. This is a viewpoint far above the town, where you can see the Klondike River meeting the Yukon River and the mullock heaps from the gold dredging operations.