Canada 2019: Across the Top of the World

Thank goodness I bought a new SIM card for my phone yesterday - we needed it this morning. We are setting off on a 10 hour drive along the Top of the World Highway from Fairbanks to Dawson City, which includes crossing the Canadian Border. It closes at 5 pm, so we couldn’t afford any holdups. Well our driver didnt turn up! Cut a long story short, after several phone calls the drivers superviser turned up instead - one hour later - there was no choice for it, she just had to drive us to Dawson City herself instead, fortunately she just happened to take her passport in her handbag to work this morning! There wasnt even enough time in hand for her to go home to pick it up.

Valery was quite a character so in the first hour we had already heard her life story! As it happens she managed to get hold of the original driver who was on his way to Dawson with an empty car! (There had been some sort of mix up with the paperwork) Told him to wait for us at Delta - one and a half hours down the road. And thats where we met up to swap cars and drivers. What a hoot! Especially so because our new driver, Kevin is afflicted with some sort of laughing disease. Whatever we say he thinks is hilarious! And he has one of those very infectious laughs that you cant help joining along with. But his whole body shakes when he laughs too - its like he’s being tickled so he cant stop himself. One time he spotted a moose and stopped the car right alongside her: I whispered: gee they’re ugly beasts aren’t they? He couldn’t help himself hooting with laughter scaring the moose off into the trees and bushes. From then on whenever the word “moose” was mentioned he bust out laughing, accusing me of insulting the poor moose lady so that she would tell all her friends how insulting I was. And the more he talked about it the more he laughed - tears rolling down his cheeks.

I didnt realise I was such a comedian!

This didnt distract from the fact that The Top of the World Highway is truly amazing. The first half of the journey was intermittently effected by light showers and threatening thunderstorms. We felt as though the rain was chasing us across the mountains.

It eventually caught up with us at our lunch stop. But thats another story.

We are the only people in the car, so we could choose where to stop, and we chose “Chicken”, somewhere we had already heard of.

Some gold prospectors back in the day chose this little valley as a settlement and wanted to name it after the national bird of Alaska, which as it happens they often caught and put in the pot. The bird is the ptarmigan (with a silent “p”). But they couldn’t spell ptarmigan, so they chose the name of Chicken, which is what it tastes like!! 😂

It started raining and turned quite cold as we climbed back in the car for the next stretch of road which is unsealed. That’s exactly when we encountered that ugly moose 🤣

Despite the showers and the rolling thunder around the mountain valleys we then entered some amazing scenery. The showers cleared then the clouds gradually parted and we were just stared in wonder as the world unrolled before our eyes.

Every corner, every hill top just unfolded more and more unspoiled scenery. My photos dont really do it justice. Even Kevins hilarity abated as the glory of the countryside unfolded around us.

Just after we crossed the Canadian border he stopped the car to let us walk around to savour this expansive empty landscape. We had it all to ourselves. So, so vast and quiet.