Blimey O’Reilly! How the devil did it come to this? One minute it’s social distancing and hand-washing, next minute… the world shuts down. Like everyone in these strangest of times, we’ve had some decisions to make. Somehow, we ended up in the Yukon. But first let’s wind back the clock just a few weeks, to very different days, when we arrived from the USA to start overlanding Canada.
Greytown
As usual when we enter a country, we neglected to make a plan. The nice chap at the border gave us a six month tourist permit and explained how we can get six months more if we want to. Should be enough. But every time we thought about it, the vastness of Canada blew our little brains. So we put the kettle on and thought about something else instead, but it’s highly unlikely to have been that pesky little bug that was buzzing around in China.
Vancouver seemed a good place to start Canada. Well, it would have been… but the weather didn’t get the memo. It was grim… I mean like UK levels of grimness. Horizontal rain, cold and fog. Sorry Vancouver, we tried, we really did. But in the end, we ran away bravely to Vancouver Island.
Vancouver Island and a Pesky Little Virus
As we arrived on the island, we noticed this ‘social distancing’ thing creeping into our social media. That Chinese bug was starting to overland the globe. No biggie… just don’t get too close to people and wash your hands a lot… that’ll teach that pesky little virus a lesson.
The beauty and attractions of Vancouver Island really can’t be over-stated. Even with the normal out-of-season winter closures, we loved it there. Beautiful little towns, scenic coastline, great hikes, cool shops and cafes/bars/restaurants (remember way back when they were a thing?).
Beautiful Vancouver Island
One big attraction for us was skiing on Mt Washington. Not one of Canada’s best-known winter hot-spots, but for us it was perfect. The snow, the weather and the views were all spectacular. Probably not ideal for learners or thrill-seekers, but tippety-top for our intermediate/advanced abilities having had a five year gap since our last ski. We had a blast.
Ski time – Mt Washington, Vancouver Island
When we finally handed back our rental skis and headed down the hill, we learned that a bit of social distancing and handwashing had failed to check Mr Covid’s round-the-world expedition. But life in Canada was still essentially ‘Ops Normal’, so we headed to visit our friends Lance, Claire and the cutest, most adorable little Gus and Nate. We met Lance and Claire around a year ago overlanding in Mexico (Big Van No Plan) but they have now bought a fabulous new home and settled on the island. It was great to spend a few days with them, but onwards we go… there’s a lot of Canada to see.
The Overlanding Corona Conundrum
As we ferried back to the mainland, international borders were starting to lock-down around the world and a sense of urgency was creeping into the overlanding social media: travellers desperate to get home. The whole world has had some tough decisions recently, but the issues facing international overlanders have been a bit different to those faced by people of fixed abode.
Picture the scene… you’re social distancing and doing lots of hand-washing in your camper-truck home somewhere in, say, Africa, Latin America or Asia. The land borders all around you close with little warning. The locals resent your presence and hound you out of town, but the police block roads to prevent movement around the country. You don’t speak the language. Food (not to mention toilet paper 😉) is getting harder to buy. There is little health service to speak of. Even if you are lucky enough to be within reach of an airport, the last few spaces on the last few flights are selling out fast and you have nowhere secure to park your home. Our heart goes out to our fellow overlanders facing these challenges and totally understand their desperation to fly ‘home’.
Luckily for us, with the exception of all the social distancing, hand-washing, yardy-yardy precautions, none of the above unenviable pressures apply in the wilds of Canada. For us, staying here is a no-brainer. Prevailing advice is to avoid all unnecessary international travel. Why on earth would we sit in an airborne tin-can for 14 hours amongst 200 potentially infected people, merely to arrive in a densely populated country, itself struggling desperately under the strain. Nope. We’re doing the #stayhome.
Corona Plan A
So our ‘Stay-home in Cuthbert’ plan (the plan later to be known as ‘Corona Plan A’) was to stock-up, keep wild and continue our travels away from people. To the extent that we ever had a big-picture plan for North America, it was little more than a nebulous aim to reach the most northerly drivable point of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. That little mission hit the chopping block when the US/Canadian border shut, but following the Canadian guidance, it was fine to travel within the country. We figured we could drive out as wild as it gets: the Yukon Territory and hit the ice-trucking road into the Arctic Circle.
Overlanding Canada – on the road to Yukon
Whilst it was a ‘no brainer’ to stay in Canada, it was also a ‘no brainer’ to follow advice and restrict contact: we stayed wild and avoided people, towns, villages and communities. We did this for several days, but a down-side of ‘going wild’ is no phone signal, no internet. About half-way up the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, the tiny, remote hamlet of Dease Lake has wifi that we could log onto from inside the truck!! Wow. The excitement of connectivity with the real world was soon tempered as we realised things had deteriorated in Canada. North West Territories has gone into total lock-down and new guidance meant that continuing to drive was now a bad thing. We needed somewhere to stay-put for the longer term.
Corona Plan B
So… ‘thinking hats’ were on for ‘Plan B’ and the traditional brewing of the Yorkshire Tea. To stay-put in one place for longer term, it makes sense to be within striking distance of the supplies we will eventually need. Option 1 was that Clare and Lance very kindly offered for us to go back to stay with them on Vancouver Island. Very tempting, but we are now almost 3,000km from them. Option 2 was to stay where we were in Dease Lake, but we didn’t think it fair or appropriate to attempt to attach ourselves long term to such a tiny, remote community. Their supplies are probably limited at the best of times. Option 3 is to find a nearby town that can absorb two outsiders for the foreseeable future. Hmmm… ‘nearby’ is a relative thing in the Great Canadian wilderness. We could go either 600km back to Smithers, or 650km onwards north to Whitehorse in Yukon.
We decided on Whitehorse. It seemed a bit pointless to go backwards. One day, we want to continue north to the Arctic. Who knows, even Alaska might let us in! From a cursory read-up, Whitehorse seemed an okay town with around 25,000 people. It’s a tourist spot in the summer and has all the facilities we could need. We decided to try it out as a base for a few weeks… or months?
Some great wildlife, but we haven’t seen a moose yet!
Whitehorse
Arriving in Whitehorse, the super helpful and friendly guy at the Visitor Centre made us very welcome, said we could park outside for as long as we want/need to and log on to the free internet (by courtesy of which you read this now 😊). In the town we can get fresh water, empty our grey and black water, and buy propane for our heating/cooking. The town is taking all the recommended precautions and only essential businesses are open, but people are pretty chilled-out and supermarkets are reasonably well stocked. We have a peaceful place to park-up and an almost Christmas card-like scene from our window.
But the weather… what about the cold? Well, yes, it is indeed a bit nippy up here just a few hundred kilometres below the Arctic Circle. Minus 31C, yes… you read that right… minus 31C is the coldest so far at night! But we’ve had glorious sunny blue skies (plenty for the solar panels to keep our batteries topped up) and we love wrapping up to go out for walks.
The whole situation is sad and like everyone, we’re frustrated not to be able to continue our ‘normal’ lives, but we actually rather like it here. There are apparently some great trips we can take to explore the countryside around the town, staying within the travel rules and without encroaching on any other communities. So we’re looking forward to those. Oh… And here’s the biggie… we’re particularly chuffed that we might get to see the Aurora Borealis too. Every cloud has a silver lining 😊.
Life goes on…
So here we are. Overlanding Canada is on hold as we #stayhome in Whitehorse, Yukon. Since arriving back on the mainland we’ve been pretty much in isolation in the truck. We follow all the advice, hand-washing, going for walks away from people, more hand-washing, social distancing, even more hand-washing… you know the thing. It’s all a very sad state of affairs, but we feel exceptionally fortunate with our location and have no doubt it’s the right thing to stay in Canada.
We hope you all get to where you need to be in the world. And when you get there… stay safe peeps!