It started out as good pavement for several miles, if narrow and with no dividing lines. It followed a pretty valley and we stopped at viewpoints. There was a road off to the north that led to a small town called Faro. This was a lovely town, only 300 people in it, and everybody took the time to volunteer and to help make the community better. Despite the fact that it rained the entire time we were there, we had a great time. We got to know people, and spent our time visiting and enjoying the company. We visited a salmon creek where the red salmon are coming up. Groceries were a problem: the only store in town was listed as a "hardware" store, but it had groceries in the back - especially if you ordered a week ahead of time so it could be brought in for you! We, of course, just walked in and could get almost nothing.
On leaving Faro, we moved on to Ross River. The road worsened, becoming gravel and dirt between the potholes.
Just outside of Ross River, the natives were holding Aboriginal Hand Games. This was a fun group game kinda like a shell game, where you had to find the person holding the token. They would line up, 6 to a side, bend down together and pass the token between each other, then straightened up so the other team could guess where it was. All the time, the drummers were beating (loudly!) a quick and deep double beat. This went on all day, with stops for meals that were provided free. We were warmly welcomed, and hubby even participated in a fun race that was held to break up the day. We left late, so we didn't get to a campground before dark. Since the road was not well used, we pulled off and made our own camp.
The next day saw more bad roads. We had only gotten about 60k before a tire went flat. We were practised at replacing tires by then, so it only slowed us for half an hour. An hour and a half later, we punctured another. Good thing we had 2 spares! Except now we were running on a repaired tire, and had no more in reserve.
Decision was made to, instead of stopping at the campgrounds, run to the end of this road, where the city of Watson Lake would have tire shops. We didn't make it. The repaired tire gave out 70k from the city. We had no more spares, no tire plugs. But as my sister says, one can live for 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. We had all of these, and were quite prepared to camp on the side of the road until someone came by. The good luck was that the natives at the hand games were going home, too. We got 6 cars that came by in two hours. And at least one of them had a plug we could use that would at least get us to civilization.
But a highway? No, I wouldn't call it that.
W
Ouch!
ReplyDeleteWow. Yeeks.
ReplyDelete