DAWSON CITY, YUKON

So here I am sitting in an Internet cafe in Dawson City in the Yukon. The temperaure is an amazing 30C. We passed over into Canada from Alaska for a couple of days and then go back again.

Last night we spent at a campsite in Chicken, Alaska. This "town" has a massive population of 20. We had a long drive from Denali to get there via a place called North Pole. This is where the children's Santa Clause wish lists are sent to. North Pole's new claim to fame is that I bought my first tent there!

We arrived in Chicken just as the one and only cafe was closing but they managed to scramble up some chilli and pie for us. Camping was not as bad as I thought it might be, but I wouldn't fancy doing it in rain!

The guy that owns Chicken owns gold claims on the creek which he rents out for $15 a day for people to pan for gold. He said that they still find substantial amounts of nuggets and last year one man came up from Oregon with his grandson and after one week went home with a cheque for $10,000. Quite a nice holiday I would say.

It's in an idealic location and it would have been a great to stay for a while and enjoy the peace and quiet. But we're weren't scheduled to do that, so this morning we upped sticks and set off for Dawson City. We are only here for the day and at midnight tonight depart. We will hopefully be able to sleep on the bus whilst being driven to our next location which is a camp site at Takhini Hot Springs. Then over into America for a 2 day hostel stay in Haines where we can get some laundry done. Thank goodness for that.

Dawson City is on the Klondyke, one of the well known gold mine fever towns. Davy always said Robert Service, the poet who wrote about those times, was an ancester of his. It's something that I have always intended to research and now that I have been here I'm even more determined to uncover the truth in this claim.

We now have to amuse ourselves for the next 6 hours, prefereably away from the bus, because our bus driver has to get some sleep before setting off for our overnighter. There is a show on at Klondyke Kates tonight so I think it is probably going to be eat dinner and then mosie on down to the casino and set a while until the show starts.