Day 2 on the Dempster

We had a great sleep at our camp by the river. Nobody else stopped during the night so we had the place to ourselves.

Today was a slow and dusty day. The road surface was crap and we averaged 20 km/hr. But it’s quicker than cycling, right?

There was a bit of traffic going the other way, and they were mostly jeeps going super fast, kicking up so much dust that we had zero visibility. They mostly came in clumps, so we’d see nobody for hours, then a load of them. Then I say a load, we maybe saw 10 cars during the day.

At km 350 we saw smoke smouldering on the hill. We mentioned it to a truck driver who was filling his truck with water from a stream. He said that was leftover smouldering from a fire they put out yesterday. It’s pretty scary and the threat of being trapped up here is very real. So I try not to think about it.

At km 369, we made it to Eagle plains, a little place with fuel, a pub and a motel. We filled up our van then had a coke in the pub while we used their free internet.

It was 5pm by the time we left, and dark clouds were forming to the south. Luckily we were heading north. We drove for about 2 hours before finding a nice place to camp, off the road but on a ridge. It was very windy and the storms threatened to come. But they didn’t, and the wind died down and mozzies came out in force. They were all lined up on the flyscreen waiting to come in. Some were already in the van. Thankfully I’d grabbed a free John Grisham novel from the free library in Homer, and it was coming in handy for squishing them!

The allure of the midnight sun has been keeping us up at night, so tonight we were determined to get to bed early. We played a game of cards, then settled down at 9.30pm. I’ve found if I pretend it’s just an afternoon nap, then that helps to get to sleep.