“For 7 months we’ve been gathering stuff. In 7 hours we got rid of almost everything.”
9 am Tuesday, March 24th. Waking up and deciding to leave Canmore in a rush. Why? Provincial borders are closing for non-essential travel due to the COVID-19 crisis. Since we had quit our jobs and previously notified our landlord we would be leaving on March 30th latest, we had no other choice than to hasten our Yukon plans. So in less than a day, we got all our house cleaning done and loaded the van for our 30+ hour road trip. Minor detail, the ranch we were supposed to work at in the Yukon, called off that very morning.
DUMMIES ON A ROAD TRIP
If you’re ever into doing a 30+ hour road trip as fast as possible up north in early spring during a Pandemic in Canada, make sure you plan! A sheer amount of luck has saved us from being stuck on a desolate road. We could have been denied entry to a state or we may not have had an alternative place to stay upon arrival (for us, that would have meant bankruptcy). Here’s our story.
8 pm. Alright, we are so pumped! The van is fully loaded, Youlia closes our door at 26 Riverstone road in Canmore for the last time. I am in the car and am turning the ignition switch on. Nothing happened… Luckily we have roadside assistance, so hours later a jumpstart marked the beginning of our new adventure.
WHAT TO PACK?
Anyone who’s driving for that long in the middle of nowhere would want to have music. Download music? We had 1 scratched cd on repeat. Though we weren’t really die-hard fans of Robbie Williams before, the 1 dollar deal in the thrift shop made us.
We had prepared some food since our plan was to keep driving for as long as possible. Day 1: Chicken. Day 2: Chicken. Day 3: stomach problems. Oh, and all over Canada, there are no washrooms or any public facilities open during the pandemic.
Most importantly Water. Although you can only start drinking in the afternoon when the ice becomes some kind of water again.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SEASON
Trust us. You don’t want to end up sleeping in a car when it’s –24. Your nose does not appreciate it! Summer would be the logical choice to travel in the very north of Canada. But the 90 percent rule (see other blog post) drove us into madness and we’ve come to a point where youlia and I were wearing face masks and gloves for naptime. No pictures!
CAR ESSENTIALS VS WHAT WE HAD
| preferably a 4×4 for hard winter conditions | VS | old 2 wheel drive Dodge Caravan with over 205.000 km |
| A visit to the mechanic before doing the Alaska highway | VS | a leap of faith |
| spare tires | VS | no extra tire |
| decent Battery | VS | every morning is a surprise battery |
Interested in buying our beautiful Dodge Grand Caravan? Please call us on 778-869-5735.
WHAT WE DID THINK OF!
20l Jerrycan which we never used.
TOTAL FUEL COST
220 CAD due to low oil prices in COVID-19 times. The lowest prices we have seen at gas stations were around 0.60 cents (Dollar!) per liter.
See below a picture of the many moose we came across during our time on the Alaska Highway:
Did I say moose? I meant trees. We saw no moose on our way here. We did see wild Bison and a couple of lynxes which are rare!
AND WHAT NOW?
Funny thing. After being stuck in the car for almost 5 days, we are obliged to self-quarantine ourselves for 2 more weeks upon arrival in Whitehorse.
We’ll self isolate on a Horse Ranch. More on that later.
Stay well!
Youlia and Jens
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