Like everyman and his dog, we’re gutted to put our life on hold for the ‘rona virus. For us, our pandemic stay-cation de-luxe was a car-park in the Yukon with a friendly welcome and a bit of media stardom! Here’s how it went for our overlanding in lock-down …
Home is where we park it
There’s a bit of a back story as to how we got here, but after six years on the road we were in Canada, heading to Alaska. Then the USA/Canada border closed. Okay, we’ll head to the Arctic Ocean in Northwest Territories instead. Then NWT locked-down. Bugger. Luckily, we’ve learned to be flexible with this overlanding malarkey and our home is wherever we happen to be – a clifftop, a mountainside, beach or… in this case… a small-town car-park.
Cold… or really cold?
Our first day in Whitehorse was cold (or so we thought), around zero centigrade. We wrapped-up, put on ice-spikes and went out for walks. But when the proper Yukon cold arrived we realised we’d had absolutely no clue whatsoever as to what cold actually is ‘round here. It went as low as minus 31C, yes… minus 31C at night and around minus 21C during the day, without the windchill factor. If you have never felt what -21C feels like with a howling gale blowing over your face, we’d recommend you avoid finding out. It’s truly painful. We soon began to take those public warnings about frostbite seriously.
Cuthbert Practicalities
Settling down for a long-term stay, we had to think about occasional facilities. Despite the cold, the sun generously chucked-out rays for our electricity. We had so much sun, our solar panels were laughing all the way to the (battery) bank. The sun through the windows all day kept the truck super-toasty inside. How we can be so warm with central heating switched off and minus oh-my-god centigrade outside has been a revelation.
There are plenty of gas/propane outlets in town for our cooking and night-time heating, but sources of fresh water and a place to dump our black/grey water were a bit more tricky. The seasonal RV facilities were all frozen-over. Normally we’d just look to pump fresh water from a stream, but they were all frozen too.
Then we had a brain-wave… car wash facilities are indoors in huge sheds here! They have plenty of water and Cuthbert badly needed a wash anyway. Fresh water source – tick! Then, just up the highway, we found a long-drop toilet in a truck-stop: a safe dump-place for our (chemical free) black and grey water also ticked-off the list. So glad we have a canister and don’t need an RV dump-station. That would have been a bit of a snaggette!
Border Lock-down
In early April, the whole of the Yukon had only five Covid-19 cases but things were looking less rosy across the rest of Canada. The US/Canadian border was closed, but pressure was mounting on the Yukon Government to follow the example of neighbouring NWT and lock-down its territorial borders to keep other Canadians out. A small minority here seem to believe that any outsider would bring certain death and destruction to every man, woman and moose in the Yukon. Others at the opposite end if the risk spectrum seemed to be taking, shall we say, a more ‘relaxed’ approach to rule of staying one caribou-length apart.
Every morning we tuned in to the Prime Minister’s briefing from Ottowa for the latest national poop. Less charitable Canadians amusingly refer to him as ‘No-Clue-Trudeau’ 😊 but to us gate-crashing foreigners he seems like a nice enough chap doing a tough job. Justin obviously had important stuff to say, but his message isn’t the full-monty. In Canada, significant authority is delegated to the regional governments.
By mid-April, Yukon invoked emergency powers to lock-down the Territory. First, 14 days self-isolation for Yukoners returning home. Secondly, here’s the juicy bit, all non-Yukoners are allowed only 24 hrs transit time. Hmmm…. how did that affect us? Yukon is not home, but we’re also not merely transiting through. We’re here for the duration-stay-cation. At least that’s what we’d hoped.
We weren’t sure of our status. Should we keep a low profile and hope nobody notices us? Not a great idea (or fair to locals) under the circumstances. Our Cuthbert has many fine qualities and skills but keeping a low profile in a small town isn’t one of them. We decided to contact the Yukon Covid authorities for advice. It was an unsettling night waiting for a reply; we have no appetite for schlepping around a country the size of Canada in these times. But fear not… we received a nice response next morning: the new rules apply only to new arrivals, not to us. We can stay. Hurrah!
Missing the Ice Bridge
We were chuffed we could stay in town. Of course, we’d rather be heading to the Arctic. But if we have to stay put, this isn’t a bad place. By this time it had become clear that the lockdown was going to be for quite a while. At least weeks, maybe months. Clearance to travel onwards isn’t likely to happen until the summer. A big disappointment was the realisation that we would miss crossing the ice-bridges in Northwest Territories.
In winter, the McKenzie and Peel rivers are frozen-over to drive across, but in spring they thaw out and a ferry runs throughout the summer. We were keen to do the ice-bridge crossings, but another consequence of the virus (okay… a pretty trivial consequence in the big scheme of things) is that we’ll miss those ice-bridges 😕.
Weird Truck
Despite the Yukon lockdown there’s clearly a bit of frustration amongst some locals at the government’s failure to properly enforce the 24 hour transit rule for outsiders. Alaskans on their way home for example, have allegedly been stopping to shop in Walmart. Some local super-sleuths are reporting any non-Yukon vehicle plates seen around town. Obviously, we have permission to be here and pose no greater risk to Whitehorse than all the local People-of-Walmart, but y’know… Cuthbert is never going to blend in with the crowd. There are limited medical resources up here in the sticks, so it’s understandable that Yukoners take a protectionist view.
In the early days of the ban we noticed a post on local social media questioning why a ‘big weird foreign blue truck’ was in town (‘weird?’ how dare they call our Cuthbert weird? 😉) Our reply with a brief account of our story was accepted with good grace by the FB poster, but some friendly and helpful officials from the Covid authority came out to check we complied with all the rules; reassuring that they’re taking the risk seriously.
Total Melt-down
Our car-park spot of choice is literally a few metres from the frozen Yukon River so our daily entertainment is a walk along the riverside trail. Initially we wore salopettes, double layer of head-gear and ice-spikes on boots to marvel at the ice. Later, we were warm enough in shirt sleeves to marvel at the melt-down! It was endlessly fascinating watching the ice-sheets cracking-up and disintegrating like magic before our very eyes! Melt-down differed in various sections of the river: in some places it just melted away in place. In other sections, huge jagged chunks broke-off and drifted down-stream as mini-icebergs melting in the sun as they go.
‘Essential’
From our first day in Whitehorse it was already in a sort-of local lock-down mode: social distancing was a thing but seemed a bit optional. Non-essential businesses were closed which sounds a bit drastic, but this all hinged on the definition of ‘essential’. Most of the great stores never closed – there was excellent organic food, delis with great cheeses, a fab German bread bakery. And you will no doubt be relieved on our behalf to learn that ‘essentials’ such as a decent macchiato and the most amazing fresh whole-wheat blueberry scones were still available to take out from the local café. Phew.
Fame
After a just a few days in town, we were chuffed to receive friendly messages from locals offering help “Hey… I feel real bad for you guys being stuck here ‘n all…”. Then after a few weeks, the local CBC TV news station knocked on the door and sent a crew to interview us. We appeared first on the radio, then on CBC social media, then on TV. Soon we had a steady stream of visits from locals with well wishes, invitations to homes, food and beautiful gifts.
A huge chunk of moose meat was one of the more challenging gifts, but with a bit or marinating and a slow roast, it was tender and tasty. Then a government minister no less, arrived with a big smile and a home-baked cake. We found this particularly amazing given the demands she must have been facing with her role during the pandemic! Yukoners, and the people of Whitehorse particularly, have been awesome.
The CBC news story was picked-up much further afield than just the Yukon. It was lovely that old friends from years ago saw it and contacted us. Travel journalists from national newspapers in the UK spotted it and contacted us for articles, then the Canada Tourist Board also got in touch to do a feature! Friends… if you want to speak to us now, it will have to be through our agent (not that we’re letting this fame go to our heads or anything 😂🤣).
Hobbies by Snail Mail
Like many around the world, we filled some our lock-down time with hobby-stuff. Marcus did some top-level geekery devising (yet more!) electronic systems for the truck. I wondered whether it could guide us through outer-space to infinity and beyond, but what it can really do is download weather satellite images directly from satellites flying overhead. Oh, and another new gadget now monitors our on-board water systems and measures filling/usage with accuracy to 10 millilitres!! Impressive.
Some of the electronic components he needed had to be ordered on-line. No problem… DHL promises delivery from Europe in a few days. Unfortunately, DHL failed to mention that for the Yukon they fly the goods into Vancouver super-speedy, then chuck them into the regular Canada Post service for delivery to Whitehorse! The supposed three day service turned into almost three weeks. Okay we have time on our hands, but it’s an outrageously bad DHL service when you pay for an international courier and get local post!! Rant over.
Free at Last
In mid-May, just as we were wondering if we would ever get to travel again, the Yukon Government announced that from 4th June, limited/respectful travel around the Territory would be allowed and campgrounds would open. Not a full ‘Covid is over’ opening-up thing, but it’s a big step.
The Yukon border lock-down is still in place and the media reported that travel/campgrounds were strictly for Yukoners only – no outsiders. Bugger. But when we looked at the specific wording (call me a picky lawyer, but I do like to check these things) the opening-up simply excluded anyone who was required to transit the Yukon within 24 hrs (as most non-Yukoners are required to do). By default therefore, the opening seemed to apply to anyone who was entitled to stay in the Yukon, i.e: us 😊. We tested the interpretation by going to the Parks Office to buy a camping permit and after a bit of discussion, it worked! We could buy a camping permit and finally hit the road to explore Yukon!
So after 11 weeks of lock-down in Whitehorse, we’re off!! The US/Canada border closure is apparently being extended to the end of July and NWT is likely to keep its lock-down for many months, so Alaska and the Arctic Ocean are off the mission. But we can reach the Arctic Circle line which sits well within the Yukon Territory. Excited to be on the move again! Watch this space for tales from the Arctic Circle!!!