A rainy afternoon, and we've settled into a lovely campsite on the shore of Kluane Lake. The domestic chores need doing, and it's a good day to stay put. Every few days we need to pay attention to the trivialities of life on the road - groceries, showers, laundry, water fill-up, sani dump, sweeping floor, cleaning windows, or simply tidying the mass of tourist info we accumulate. (I would just toss it once it's behind us, but Norbert keeps almost everything! We each have a nice storage space alongside the bed for our things. Mine is full of clothes, computers, knitting and books. Norbert's is overflowing with fishing rods, maps, tour guides, camera gear and books. A chaque-un ses choses.)
I'm thinking of writing a book about sanitary facilities after this trip. Emptying the sani tank is something you learn by experience. We now have a system that works smoothly and cleanly for us, involving rubber gloves, duct tape and a plastic bag, and careful choreography. Others, not so much. We've seen the most awful flaws in technique, mostly resulting in very regretable spillage. Not for the faint of heart!
Outhouses- oh how I could go on about them! We're so happy to be back in the Yukon where the cute green and white woodies are always clean and well supplied. Somehow Alaskan campsites haven't quite measured up. For one thing, they use an unfortunate design - the precast concrete mausoleum. You have to lock yourself inside a large, sealed, concrete box, hardly conducive to a pleasant morning's contemplation. They are not sex specific, so I've discovered that some men (it has to be them) don't have very good aim despite their more advantageous anatomy. I object when I have to roll up my pant legs. And the American toilet was obviously designed by an alien species who don't go. It is mounted on two metal bars that transect the space below where you sit - obviously not a spot you want to place any obstruction. Things get hung up. It's not pretty.
Showers sometimes aren't much better. I've become inured to trying to get clean in a dirty space, but really, I'm tired of trying to fit into these miniscule cubicles. Only a contortionist could shave her legs in a 30 inch square shower. Not that there's time to shave anything when your toonie only yields 6 minutes of water. I'm so grateful when we find a nice clean, hot, spacious, generous shower! I do love how travel brings you perspective on the important things in life.
It's interesting who we meet doing the travelling up here. Along the Alaska Highway there's lots of massive motorhomes towing SUVs - retired Americans who've sold their homes and now live half the year either with their kids or in a tropical condo, and half the year in a 40 foot luxury RV on the road. They have more mod cons than we do at home, and usually like the 100 amp service in the private campgrounds. They sometimes travel in packs, in order to have cocktail parties I think. Very odd people. There has been quite a smattering of uber-enthusiastic Europeans in massive heavy duty camperized all terrain vehicles equiped for global exploration. They camp off road, alone, often in gravel pits, I guess for the scenery. Also they're cheap. There are lots of motorbikes, often in convoys of 2 to 10, nearly all BMW off-road bikes. I don't know where they camp - perhaps they just keep driving.
We've met lots of nice people camping like us, in smaller RVs, VWs, rental motorhomes, and tents. They make great neighbours in campgrounds - happy kids, talkative retired people, friendly tourists. We've been able to practice our French and German regularily, and we always get great advice about hiking trails, wildlife, or farmers' markets. We've also run into a few intrepid cyclists on this trip. There are occasional escorted, supported groups who clearly are doing only the choice stretches of highway, but there have been a surprising number who are knocking off the Dempster, or the Alaska Highway just for the hell of it. As I said before, to each his own!
So I've whiled away a rainy day writing this, and enjoyed the luxury of a timeless afternoon. More of that to come as we slowly wend our way south along the Kluane mountains.
Posted Aug 3, Haines, Alaska
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