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On the road again. The trip from Carlo Creek to Fairbanks was a fairly uneventful trip up the highway stopping only for morning tea in a "pull out" . The scenery was much the same as previous days with the exception of some very deep river ravines. Unfortunately photo opportunities were limited by some inclement weather. We made a diversion off the highway into a town called Nenana. To say we were approaching Hillbilly country might have been a slight exaggeration but a quick tour of the place had us back out onto the highway. Continuing on into Fairbanks an experience in the laundromat confirmed our feeling that we are definitely in the last frontier. A woman with 9 children came in to do the washing. She does this on a fortnightly basis because they have no running water or electricity. To be fair though as we found out later anyone living outside the city limits generally doesn't have running water in the house and if they do it's a very expensive luxury. The laundromat was on a scale we had never seen before. Thursday saw us up very early in order to undertake our trip to the Arctic Circle and beyond. An 8 hour bus trip had us again travelling through an ever changing landscape. Rolling hills treed with Birch, Black and White Spruce, Quivering Aspen and Willow gave way to tundra where the permafrost (permanently frozen ground beneath the surface extending down to bedrock) means that the vegetation is more stunted and sparse. At one stage granite outcrops surged from the plains to form striking structures in an otherwise flattish landscape. On inspection though these plains overlooked some expansive river flats associated with the Yukon, Kanuti and Koyukuk Rivers. Travelling the Dalton Highway we were taken through remote country where the ammenities common in today's world are rare or nonexistent. The highway itself is pretty much shadowed by the Trans Alaskan Pipeline which transports oil from Predohe in the north to Valdez in the south. It is an unbelievably massive structure sometimes underground and sometimes above ground. We stopped at Yukon River camp where we had prepurchased lunch. This was an a somewhat larger lunch than we had been used to but one which was very much appreciated. We crossed the Arctic Circle and were treated to "Tundra Mud and Permafrost" - a dessert of mudcake and frosting. Our trip ended in Coldfoot which has the highest situated roadhouse in the world. Many living quarters and even businesses are constructed from shipping containers - good use of left over materials from the construction of the pipeline. Our trip ended with a one hour plane flight back to Fairbanks in a plane which when first sighted gave us some trepidation about flying. However the flight back was uneventful even though the inflight service was little slack. Our accommodation was again very comfortable. The proprietor of the B&B thought we were more English than Australian as she served us our breakfast.
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