Shocking News and South at Last

If you look at our location on this site via google it looks like we have been in Fairbanks Alaska for about two weeks, This is not quite as it appears. Four days of that was traveling to Prudhoe bay and the two or three days we took a train down to Denali NP.

The trip to Prudhoe had taken its toll on the shed,.The rear shock was absolutely shot, you may recall I had my worries back in Dawson City, but once we left the Yukon Bridge stop on the way back from Prudhoe the shed just sank down and looked sorry for herself. Myself and Sandra had to ride the last 60 miles back to the Fairbanks hostel motocross style standing on the pegs just to move our weight forward, our legs hurt the next day. Those of you who know the BMW R1100GS will know how bad it is to have the suspension bottom out all the time and have excessive loads transfered to the gearbox casings. Techy or what? We needed to order a new shock, this was going to be difficult so remotely and on the 4th July weekend. We did find one and could get it to us in Fairbanks but would take 5 days.

Given we now had some time we decided to take a train to Denali NP. We camped there for a few days and came back to the Fairbanks hostel. I found the Denali trip interesting in lots of ways. Firstly I had time to enjoy the scenery, something thats hard to do riding the bike, The train was clean and had viewing cars which was brilliant, Now the park itself I found a bit odd. It is, of course, one of the most beautiful places in the world and its hard to argue with that. What I found odd was the organisation of it all. The visitors are controlled to a massive degree, passes into and out of the park, buses taking people round and an overall feel of containment and not freedom which I expected. The park organisers go to great lengths to tell you that this is for the good of the landscape and wildlife, and I guess it is, but it made me feel uncomfortable. The bookshops and gift shops are lovely places with videos and nice books. I asked for a copy of 'Into the Wild'. The smartly dressed girl behind the counter looked shocked as though I had asked for some under the counter adult magazine. She lent forward looked shiftily from side to side and whispered, Sir if you need that sort of book you need to go to the bookshop in town. Only nice books about the nice park sold.

All in all though I enjoyed the trip to Denali but hope that Yellowstone is organised differently.

Anyway we got back safely and we found Shunsaku the Japaneses chap who we met at Coldfoot camp there resting after his epic trip to Prudhoe on his 50cc bike (took him over 8 days) Again big respect to him.

Back at Fairbanks it was an anxious wait for the shock, and decided to do a little shopping in the local store, A chap came up and introduced himself. John was a UK traveler too, doing a similar journey and waiting for parts for his BMW after a spill retuning from Prudhoe. We decided to meet up that evening for a meal and a beer or four. We had a great time and John was certainly great company and a real good laugh.

The Shock turned up and Sandra and I set to work changing out the unit and completing a full service on the shed.

With everything done it was time to hit the road, AT LAST. We packed up on a very rainy morning and headed out of town, South.

The shed felt like a new bike and we headed for our next stop Tok. Due to the weather we stayed in a Cabin, this allowed us to catch up with post and get a nights rest. Then onto Haynes Junction which was a fun night camping and our first experience of cooking on a open fire. Beans and Jacket Potato have never tasted so good. More rain in the morning meant a quick start onto Watson Lake, which is where I am writing this now. Now I know we are not dating any of theses locations but we do have a travel log with dates, location ,millage etc, which we can share with you if you would like.

Its been over a month now since we left the UK, I have to tell you that I am loving this lifestyle, weeks no longer have beginning and ends. I often have to ask Sandra what day it actually is. I love the freedom of it all the setting off and stopping when we want. Yes , I miss the folks back home but we get e mails from them and this really helps. The ups and downs make the trip but if you ask me today, I could do this forever.