Today we left the town of Chicken and continued along the top of the world highway. It was a gravel road all the way with lots of corrugations and potholes.
We crossed into Canada today and there was a haze in the air from wildfires. It would have been stunning views otherwise.
We had to catch a car ferry to the town of Dawson City, not a city. As we were in the visitor centre a man reported a lightning strike and smoke coming from it immediately. It was only 7 km from the town we’re in. Smoke billowed over the town and they shut all the doors. It’s pretty scary.
We paid to camp in the RV park which is really full. It’s possibly because people are trapped here due to fires. To the south is a big fire on both sides of the road. They are occasionally letting people through in the mornings when the wind is low. But people are driving up through the smoke, just to come to Dawson city, and then they plan to go back that way as the only other way back is through Alaska. Stupid people, why even risk driving through the fire just to come to a town. Madness.
The town is quite quirky. It’s an old gold mining town with original buildings painted up nice. We took a walk at 8pm last night and it was like a ghost town, hardly anyone around considering how packed the rv park was.
There is a hotel here that has an interesting cocktail. It’s called the sour toe, and it actually has a human toe in it. It’s a shot of whiskey and your lips have to touch the toe. Lots of people were doing this, which I thought was weird. But they get a certificate.
It’s still really hot even this late at night. We had our first shower for ages and it was so nice.
Tomorrow we plan to drive the Dempster highway, a remote dirt road for 1400 kms which will take us to the Arctic Ocean. We spoke to our neighbour and they only made it 190 miles before getting a flat and having to come back. And I’ve also heard a fire has sprouted up on that road. So we’ll play it by ear in the morning.
Our neighbour is stuck here waiting for the fires south to be under control. He didn’t bring their passports so they can’t detour via Alaska (300 km detour)