Thursday 1st September

With the fridge restocked and the service completed we decided to head to the Chena Hot Springs about 100kms from Fairbanks for our camp. This is an old gold miners RnR spot complete with old stuff everywhere. Very commercial but the hot spring dip (US$10) was both relaxing and invigorating.

Camp 120:   Chena Hot Springs Camp

Cost: US$20 (although you can camp outside the resort area for free)

N65* 03.233   W146* 03.235

Today :  132 Kms. 

Trip Total :  54,123  Kms

Friday 2nd September

This morning our mini weather station was flashing with an ice alert and registering 2*C outside, and  6*C inside.

Made another meal in the Dream Pot which will last us for the next 2 dinners, then headed off for a couple of hours in the hot tub. Very relaxing. Then headed back towards Fairbanks. Moose hunting season starts today and all the guys are in their camo gear, guns at the ready and cruising the tracks.

Called into Mia’s cafe about 30Miles south of Chena for the BEST SUSHI this side of a top 5 star eating place in Japan. Fresh Salmon, Salmon Caviar, Cooked King Crab, Asparagus etc...incredible. All for $14.95.; enough for the two of us. Take note......

The pipe line pumps 23,000 gallons/minute or 800,000 barrels/day of crude oil. To push that quantity of oil the 1200Kms requires 10 pumps each like an aircraft engine of 17,500 HP.

Surprisingly that is only 84 Thousands of one percent of the energy contained within the pipeline.

We now have 414 Miles of dirt road to the north of the Continental Americas.

The colours of the vegetation are changing to yellows with a splattering of red and gold as winter approaches.

The Yukon River.

Camp was on a side service track for the pipeline

Camp 121:  Alaska Pipeline Camp

Cost: Nil

N65* 59.717   W150* 02.076

Today :  321 Kms. 

Trip Total :  54,444  Kms

Saturday 3rd September

Most travel books say that the Dalton H’way drive north of the Arctic Circle is boring. Obviously they have not done it at the seasons end. Our drive was a pallet of changing colours. Every corner bought a new image to camera capture.

The road was muddy in places but the surface quality exceptional.

As the road crept north the other advantage of travelling this time of the year were the blueberries that were just everywhere on the road side. Tens of thousands of acres of them

The contrast of colours constantly amazed us.

The Arctic Circle at North 66* 35.000

After refuelling at Coldfoot we called into and walked the ‘streets’ of Wiseman, an old gold mining town that is as it was.

This is the Post Office.

Just before the Atigun Pass the last tree before the Tundra began. From here on to is true Arctic.

It is raining but on the pass sleet was crystallising on the windscreen.

Camp is on the other side at Lake Gilbraith.

Camp 122:  Lake Gilbraith Camp

Cost: Nil

N68* 27.298  W149* 28.681

Today :  354 Kms. 

Trip Total :  54,798  Kms

Sunday 4th September

Fathers Day, so started the day with hot Blueberry Pancakes and maple syrup.

True tundra now. The animals find it difficult to survive, but it is hunt’n season so anything that moves watch out!

This fox met his maker from a guy with a Crossbow.

Further north the dirt road follows the Sagavanirktok River all the way to the Arctic.

Everywhere are hunters dressed in their camo gear. Caribou are their target. We are yet to see a live one, though there are plenty of antlers in the back of utes and trailers heading south.

Finally we are rewarded with a small group.

We shoot with the camera.

Our next wildlife encounter was four Musk Ox feeding in the marshes of the river.

Deadhorse or Prudhoe Bay is largest oil field in continental North America, and supplies 25% of the US oil needs.

Most of the activity, oil drilling etc is during the winter when the huge drill rigs and associated machinery can be transported across the mashes and seas without damage to the environment.

There is some pretty unique and specialist equipment for this operation in the minus 50+ temperature.

It is the end of Summer and about 3 Degrees C, not really time to go swimming in the Arctic, but that is why we drive the distance so you can

Only inches below the surface is the permafrost ice layer. In places the surface buckles into ice heaves.

This will be our most northern camp, only 15kms south of Prudhoe Bay and beside the Sagavanirktok River.

Camp 123:  Arctic Ocean Camp

Cost: Nil

N70* 00.759  W148* 38.708

Today :  283Kms. 

Trip Total :  55,081  Kms

From here we meander our way south to the tip of South America and the Antarctic Ocean !

Oh! and as a memento of our Arctic Coast visit I found some fossilised coral on the beach, remnants of a tropical prehistoric past.