Africa Wild

During the 1990's , SO and I enjoyed a number of travelling holidays through the USA , and during a period covering about 15 years , we travelled through at least 35 of their states . The last of these , and certainly not the least , was Alaska , which we " explored " in May-June 2004 .

And , if you will allow me , I will take you along that long trip ( about 9500 kilometres ) by motorcar , and ferry , over a period of around 4 weeks .

another one Alaska (or great North/South) amator
come on

Dressed up with mittens, gloves and scarf and ready to go.

In all fairness,..as a child, the Great American outdoors
had a profound effect on my life!!,.. thank you for that,

little did I realise at the time,....

All ready okie

Oh wow, Alaska is one of those places I've always dreamed of going too.

Looking forward to this

OK all , please be patient with me , I have to go through a lot of pics , copy , paste , etc , and also try to remember where they taken . This is the first time that I will be writing/relating the whole experience , so have a lot of memories to think of , and all of which happened 9 years ago

To start off , I will give you some idea of what we wanted to do .

Now , Alaska was a place that I always wanted to visit , and in my younger days used to read a lot about . I grew up with stories written by Jack London ( White Fang ) , about that vast white and cold wilderness , tales of gold-fever on the Klondike , and of course , The Alaska Highway .
For those of you who do not know about it , the Alaska Highway was built by the Americans towards the end of World War 2 , in order to have a quick access to protect the Alaskan Oil pipeline from a possible Japanese invasion .
The road was originally ripped through the wilderness during a relatively short period of about 10 months , covering a distance of 1500 miles ( about 2500 kilometres ) from Dawson Creek in the north of British Columbia , to Fairbanks in Alaska .
Now , to drive the Alaska Highway became for me a dream , and was therefore central to our holiday planning .
Another thing I wanted to do , was to travel the Inside Passage . This is the route followed by USA Marine Services , winding is route between the islands on the west coast of British Columbia , servicing a number of towns , including Juneau ( Capital City of Alaska ) , situated on those Islands . Towns such as Ketchican , Sitka , Haines , Skagway .

Oh , BTW , the ferry route I'm referring to must not be confused with the luxury cruiser trips go up and down the main seas passage , and which only visit a couple of the bigger ports ( and costs a lot of money too ) .

OK , enough of a preliminary for now . Will come back later to relate , and show some pics .

Ready!

On board for this trip

Right , so let's begin .
We started our trip by flying to London , then Frankfurt , from where we flew to Seattle , via Denver , Colorado . Our flight did not go directly to Seattle , and for some reason we had to disembark at Denver in order to go through USA Customs . So , that night , we stayed over in Denver , and having been there a couple of times previously , we hired a car just for overnight in order to get around , go to a nearby motel etc .
Denver has a weird-looking airport building , and which from a distance looks like a lot of Red Indian teepees . I have apicture of it somewhere , but cannot find at this time .

Next day , we took another flight , on to Seattle , where we rented a Jeep Cherokee 4x4 . Our intention was to drive from Seattle , north to Dawson Creek in northern British Columbia , and from take on the Alaska Highway to Fairbanks Alaska , - a total distance Seattle to Fairbanks of about 2300 miles . And of course back again .
BTW , like all our travels , we did not making any advance reservations at all , except our flights . We therefore fly to some place , get into a car , and drive wherever the road takes us , usually in a somewhat circular route , until we are again back where we started , in time for our flight back home .
In a strange country ( often uncharted territory for us ) , it can sometime become quite hairy , because you never know where exactly you will end up for that day , and/or where you are to spend the night .
Now , when it comes to indications of sunset on the horizon , then us Saffies like to at least start thinking a place to crawl into for the night .
And , when that time of day arrives , without any signs of civilisation ( read town , motel , lodge ) , then you start getting a bit tense , gripping the steering wheel , clenching your teeth , especially if you note out of the corner of your eye , that SO , sitting ( silently ) in the passenger seat , is hyperventilating . Desperate times , I can tell you .

But fun