Today was a kinda meh day. The highlight of day was our first stop was a short hike to an overlook. There were also some placards talking about the history of the Alaska highway which is quite interesting. It was built in just 8 months as a supply road in case Alaska was attacked by Japan during ww2.

The rest of the day was spent driving over crappy roads full of frost heaves. These occur when the permafrosts thaw unevenly, leaving dips and bumps all over the place. And you don’t see them until the last minute! So it was a hard days driving for Mike who had to concentrate more than usual.

We crossed back into Alaska today, breezing through the border. The guard didn’t even bother to check our van this time!

At this border crossing the scenery was nowhere near as dramatic as when we crossed into Alaska at Skagway. So we were so pleased to have taken that diversion. Having our first entrance into Alaska with the iconic mountains was way more exciting that this crossing.

We drove until the first town called Tok. Finally, we got some internet! We fuelled up, filled up with water, dumped our waste, and settling in for the night at the back of the service station. It’s not quite as glamorous as our other free spots, but it was 7.30pm and we were tired.

We met the couple parked next to us and they said they had been following us all day! They were a lovely couple from Ohio.

That night I noticed a dirt smell in the van. Turns out the fan for our composting toilet has failed. Natureshead said they will replace it, but that’s not really gonna help in the middle of nowhere! Mike reckons can fix it with a computer fan. So here’s hoping we can find somewhere that sells them!

Tomorrow we head south towards the Kenai peninsula and Valdez. We are hoping to at least do a cruise and maybe kayak to a glacier. But we haven’t booked anything yet.