Yesterday in reverse ! Clear
blue skies, again ! Spend morning
exploring Inuvik but it is not really tourist orientated (more of a local Inuit
community), so lot of things closed except to tours. The Eskimo church is well known, but closed except at certain times, the communal
greenhouse allotments are the furthest north greenhouses,
they paint many of their houses bright colours, all sewerage lines are outside due to the permafrost, so you see them everywhere - Easy to fix if they block up though !! ,
The drive to
Inuvik, and the incredible unspoilt scenery, is a big part about going but once there, there is little to do in town
- The best things are flights or boat trips out to islands or National Parks.
You need a couple of weeks and pre-booking to do this and it is very expensive unless
you “hitch” a ride on Parks Canada charters (apparently an accepted and usual
way of doing things, as long as you have time to wait for a flight).
We wandered around, and after visiting a
local book shop and local handicraft stall, and the town hall to chat and get a free stick pin, we found a great Café (the only one
in town, we found out later !), so we had a coffee and a freshly cooked bun for
kind of brunch, and then headed south. Heading out of town, near the airport, we
stopped and climbed a viewing tower to look back over town and also over the
vast MacKenzie Delta – The second biggest in America after the Mississippi –
although this is hard to see in much detail because the area is SO flat, and
there are spruce trees everywhere hiding the view. After that we set off south with the sun
shining, over the boring flat bit for 200 kms
back to the ferries, more and more wildflowers springing up beside the
road. Not far down the road we saw a
bird beside road – A stork of some kind ?
We will have to find out from a Ranger Station when we next stop at
one. (Found out later it is a Sandhill crane) drove past weird Midway lake again, then through the stunning Richardson
Range again – It is totally different when travelling in the other direction. A one point we fond some caribou antlers by the road
which had definitely been chewed on - by a ??bear ?? there were white cottontail flowers
everywhere for miles around, and then a vehicle going the other way nearly put a stone through
windscreen -Thank goodness again for the plastic windscreen protection I have stuck on there, which saved the day again. The road winds through this amazing
and vast area of the Richardson Ranges – Apparently this all used to be like the Russian Steppes – Ice
bound year round. Finally the bridge over the Eagle
River, and then up the hill to the Eagle Plains campsite, where we couldn’t pitch
tent due to
black bear alert in site !! Been spotted that afternoon, so no tents allowed !! As it was late, we decided to spend the evening in the bar, where we had a
delicious meal, few beers, and wifi (although not much progress on the blog !!)
Turned in and kept the doors FIRMLY closed in case the bear came back !!
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