We were up at 6am (much to the Dutch guys dismay and rain again)and were ready to go approx 7.30am . I rang Coldfoot to make a booking and asked what the weather was like , she said it had been raining for 4 days and the road would be muddy and wet but bikers have been through . So sounds OK to me if they can do it hell I'm in with a grin , ( Ruth asked what the lady had said I said its good no problems ).
The first 50 km was paved and then we hit dirt and it was good hard packed and wet but not slippery and for the next 200km it was paved and dirt but great . We arrived at the Yukon River and it stopped raining and quite warm , there we got petrol and had lunch and as in the video I just felt like breaking out into song , as you do when you cross the Yukon .
There was an information centre there so i went talked to the lady about the road ahead (another200km) , she said it was good apart from a few sandy bits and a bit muddy and slippery .
Well in good heart we were off for about 5 km then it started , a bit of sand my arse it was all of Mount Maunganui beach and very very wet , we hit this quite fast and with much sliding and my arse sucked to the seat (so sucked up my pants were just about up to my knees ) we managed to stay up right and get through . After getting through the sand then the mud started, a little mud she said well I think if that is a little i would hate to see lot . So the going was very slow from here on , after approx 50km it came right and I was following a truck and decided to pass him down a very big steep hill , well just after we pass him we hit it again Sand and I mean heaps of it and on a very long steep down hill . We i"m shitting my pants and Ruth has gone very very quite and a Huge big truck is coming down behind us and there is no way he is going to stop in this shit . So with more luck than anything we managed to stay up right again and avoid being run over by the truck (which if we went down it was over I mean dead over ), we made it to the Artic Circle still a little rain but not bad . When we got there there was about 5 cars and they all just about gave us a standing ovation and all come over and said "hell you guys are crazier than hell , hell we in 4 wheel drive and we could hardy stay on the road " . Ruth is standing there and says "well we from NZ we have dirt roads over there and we own how to ride them' , well if we didn't we were learning fast
With much" you from NZ and you bought the bike and you goin where and then saying never to the bottom you are crazier than HELL
So with the last leg to go and bit of rest we were under way , the road from here on in was excellent compared to before , we arrived in Coldfoot to more rain and cold . The accommodation was very basic but OK and we had a feed and were a sleep in no time as i was Mullocked .
As we were having Tea a trucker sat down (with a very Texas accent)and Ruth asked what is the road like from here on in and he says " Hell you not goin up that way its rougher than hell and there is 50kms of road works to start and that's just all mud " . Well I could Ruth's resolve starting to melt and mine to but Ruth says" what will be will be" , so with that bring tomorrow .
Photos are of the road (just a good bit ) Yukon River , Accommodation Coldfoot, us at the Artic Circle and Burl Ives sing North to Alaska. Click on photo and they will enlarge
Coldfoot to Deadhorse
No comments:
Post a Comment