- Continue driving south
- second flat tire retracted
- 20,000 kilometer mark cracked
- Emergency solution just got me to Dawson City
- Have tires replaced
I have breakfast in glorious sunshine and really warm temperatures. Then I drive on through the Eagle Plains and along the Ogilvie River. The leaves of the trees should have reached full bloom by now. An incredibly beautiful contrast, which the steel-blue sky with the bright yellow foliage offers. The barren Ogilvie Mountains follow before I reach the Tombstone Territorial Park again. I would like to spend another night here before I finally leave the Dempster Highway. Unfortunately it shouldn't come to that.
The car bumps unnaturally and I'm not feeling good again. Unfortunately, I should be right this time too, the more sensitive spare tire is flat. That is of course more stupid! Being stranded a good 200 kilometers from any service point without a spare tire is not exactly on the wish list. Again, I'm extremely lucky. A car with helpful Canadians stops, with whom I spoke a few kilometers before. Raise the car again, with broken tires from yesterday. Again the soft gravel of the road gives us trouble. But this time the jack is able to withstand the pressure. We fill yesterday's broken tire with an emergency foam spray and pump the tire with the hydraulic pump that we carried with us. Now at least I can drive again. In the meantime, I've cracked the 20,000 kilometer mark.
I now stop regularly to check the tire pressure and refill it if necessary. That goes well for a while and I actually make it to the exit of the Dempster. But there are still 40 kilometers to Dawson City and the saving workshop. Now the tire suddenly loses air and can no longer be inflated. So hurry to Dawson! The tire now has just under half the necessary air pressure, which can be clearly seen. I reach the NAPA car store, but I am put off there for tomorrow. Fortunately, the nearest workshop is more cooperative. So I can still have the tire changed and tomorrow morning I will also have the opposite rear tire changed, as its profile will soon have to be changed anyway.
So I decide to spend the night at the adjacent campground. I quickly cook pasta, wash and shower. I come to talk to my campground neighbors. The Swiss Simon is also on a tour of several months mainly through Alaska and Canada. We exchange experiences and plans and spend an entertaining evening.
So I had to leave the Dempster Highway earlier than planned. What I was able to experience in these five eventful days and what I had to do at times was simply enormous. Nowhere else have I seen Canada as authentic, wild, colorful and, above all, far. I met many helpful people, thanks to whom my endeavor was a success in the first place.
