The Mississippi Basin

Here is a map of the Mississippi Basin, meaning the area of land which is drained by the Mississippi River. (the image is from the US Army Corps of Engineers)

I am thinking about it because this part of the world is going through yet another winter storm that the BBC is labeling a "Fast-falling snow storm"... I am not sure what they mean by "fast-falling snow". I did notice though that they write in the same article that "The storm will be followed by near-record low temperatures on Tuesday"....tomorrow...... It is a shame because the magnolias, the camellias, the daffodils, the ornamental plum trees and many other plants are all in bloom.

Anyway, originally I wanted to look at the map of the basin because I was thinking about how much water this is going to be once the weather warms up and the snow melts.
I would imagine that the Mississippi River will have major floods this year.

Where I am sleeping tonight

Tonight I am stopping at Continental Divide Lodge...obviously I am camping not going to the actual lodge (which is a bunch of prefabs put together...a very northern thing to do...typically where you have permafrost or where you have a semi permanent and often oil industry related camp).
It is quite cool tonight. In fact the mountains around still have a little snow and in the campsite itself there is a couple of very small snow piles left from where they were plowed in what was probably originally very big piles. Here are the "reception" and the restaurant, basically the main building. You can see the mountains with a little snow in the back. Unfortunately the little furnace in the camper just died, so back to no heater. I say "back to no heater" because before this trip I had no heater because I had trouble with the camper battery. Now the battery is OK but the furnace died... I can't even use it when I am hooked up to power, as I am now. I used to be able to do that. So in fact the situation is a little worse now. Oh well, at least we are getting into summer.

And here the campsite...not fancy and atmospheric but simple and functional and really on the road this is all you need. This is not a place designed for people to spend a holiday.

Remember how on June 2nd I posted a slide of the weather map from environment Canada with the 2 dots of what I had traveled that day? Here is the slide:

June 2nd

Today's location on today's weather map:

The red dot in this slide is Watson Lake where I am on June 9th

I've traveled quite a bit. I am actually about 100km out of Watson Lake. The weather was good, the road was good and not too busy I felt like driving further, in part to make the drive tomorrow a bit shorter.
Eventually I will actually get out of the weather map published by Environment Canada.

My weather on June 2nd

Just to show how obsessed I am with the weather here is today's satellite image from Weather Canada

 

...For the record the distance between the 2 dots is just over 400 kilometer (250 miles) Tomorrow I am spending the day in Grande Prairie to get the breaks and the tires on the truck looked at. For once I was organized and actually made an appointment ahead of time.

Inuvik has been having midnight suns since May 24th and will continue to do so until July 19th but I don't need to rush to see it because the weather forecast for Inuvik for this coming Thursday June 6th is: "cloudy with 60% chance of rain showers or flurries. Low +1C (34F), high +12C (54F)"....yes "flurries"!!!
I must be crazy to be driving this way!!

By the way I am 140km (90miles) from kilometer zero of the Alaska Highway..... but no driving tomorrow.

I think I will go to Inuvik

So I just left Writing-on-Stone right by the US border and now I am thinking of going to Inuvik which means going up the Dempster Highway.

On this picture from Mapquest Inuvik is the red star at the top, so well above the Arctic Circle.

I would like to get there for June 21st, the longest day of the year even though this is not hte only day of the midnight sun. Right at the Arctic Circle you only get one day with the midnight sun, but higher north you get more...obviously!

To get there I need to first go to Dawson Creek and start the Alaska Highway. I need to drive the Alaska Highway up to Whitehorse and just a few kilometres past Whitehorse I need to go on the Klondike Highway  to Dawson City. A bit before Dawson City I need to turn north on the Dempster and then 734 kilometres I am in Inuvik. All together (from Dawson Creek) it is just under 3000 kilometres.
Just the names make me want to go.
Maybe I won't get there. Maybe I'll change my mind and turn off beforehand. But right now this is where I am heading....until further notice.

Victoria Falls- part 1- The peculiar thing about Vic Falls

OK, I am back from Victoria Falls. I had a nice long week end. I still have to download the photos I took, but in the mean time here is the thing about Victoria Falls.

One of the peculiarity of Victoria falls is that the river (the Zambezi River) at that point falls into a fairly narrow gap, so when you go on the Rain Forest Path you are right in front of the falls and really close to them. If it wasn't for the incredible rain and mist you would see it really really well. The map below from  one of the many Victoria Falls travel sites shows well how it works. On the map it looks like the river goes from very wide to very narrow, and it does. It goes from 1.7 kilometres to less than 200 metres. The very wide part is above the fall, the narrow part is in the gorges below the falls and the bright light green area in between the two is the Rain Forest where the path is (t.he path is the doted yellow line)

Of course you can take helicopter rides to see the falls from the air but honestly I didn't want to spend the money so here are two photos from this site showing how this wide to narrow transition takes place and how close you are to the falls when you are on the other side.

On the fun trivia side the river is the Zambezi River and it forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia at this point...how many "Z"s can you really get in one place. Unfortunately there aren't any zebras

The Kalahari Desert

As you can see from the map below (taken from THIS website) I crossed the southern end of the Kalahari desert on this trip since this is where I was.

I'd crossed this part before but I don't think I showed you any pictures. So here are a few:

First just some typical views of the southern part which can be quite flat in parts (though you can see a mountain chain in the distance).

 

The Orange river traverses this part of the Kalahari but it has little impact on the vegetation unless it is used for irrigation. This photo is taken just below the Augrabies Falls.

The desert of course always has some animal life. I saw baboon in some valleys and here are some dassies also known as rock-rabbits or hyrax (cute creatures). (I have close up photo of them on this post )

You also have some very colourful lizards.

Of course there is also some vegetation like these quiver trees.

 

and this Namaqua Porkbush.... and many other plants but I liked these two.

Where I Was

This is the trip. I first went west to Port Nolloth and area where I stayed until after Christmas. Then I drove across the country to Kenton to spend New Years with friends but after they left to go back to work I stayed for a couple of weeks. Then I came back To Johannesburg because there was things I had to do. All this took just under two months because I really took my time and stopped a lot.
I had a nice relaxing time and really cannot say that I achieved anything at all. I did a lot of walking (mostly, but not only, on beaches) and that's about it. This is exactly what I am into these days: doing nothing special at all. I do not want to do the most of anything at all. I do not want to make sure I see or do everything where I am. I spend every day as if I lived in the place where I am and have totally normal days of enjoying life.
It seems to work for me.




I am sure you recognize the background map as being from google maps

  Driving back to Jo'burg I thought how I spent a good part of my life trying to be free but how all I had really achieved was being independent (don't get me wrong I do feel lucky that I was able to do that) and how now I feel "free" ....well, as free as one can get. I actually do not believe that being free is possible. Anyway I feel free-hearted and worry-free which is all I really want.

Next trip

After delays for various boring but real reasons I am now waiting for the last block to my next road trip to be removed.
I should find out tomorrow (deadline 9:00pm) whether or not the house is sold. If it is I will need to empty it before I hit the road. If it isn't sold I think I will sign a power of attorney to a friend of mine and take off. Both friends I have left in Calgary (everybody is on some other continent) have offer to do this for me.

I am getting seriously exited about this road trip but can't decide right now if I should go to Fairbanks and Delta Junction on the Alaska Highway or to Yellowknife and Wood Buffalo National Park at the end of the Deh Cho Route.
I am feeling a bit pushed to leave soon since I will have to be back in Calgary in early October to board my plane to Chile for the next leg of my Round the Word ticket.

The map from The Milepost website - link below

Also from The highly recommended  Milepost - link below

You can go and check out some of the northern routes at The Milepost. I bought myself this year's edition and I am spending way too long looking at it and daydreaming of places I could go. I highly recommend it as a great source of information if you wan to do the trip or for armchair travelers as a great source of daydreams.

Tasmania Bay of Fires - one more thing

I should really add one more thing about the Bay of Fires. (it scares me a little to see how much I go on about the Bay of Fires when it wasn't even my favourite place in Tasmania. The one thing that will save you endless posts about my favourite place is probably the fact that it was a mood place more than a picturesque place. There will be few pictures, which means less posts.)

All along the beach you see below on another Google map there are several very nice campgrounds which are totally free. They only have toilets (out-houses or long-drops however you refer to them) but in St Helen which is less than 20 kilometres away you can get a free hot shower in the harbor.

You can walk along the beach I show on the map and even across the rocky points you see directly South and North of the area I have highlighted. And you can go for hours, probably even for days if you had the equipment needed. The forest on the West side has lots of really pleasant (and completely deserted from my experience) small forestry roads which makes for excellent hiking. Along those roads I was able to go to the northern beach on this map and it is a beautiful spot. One of those totally empty spots that makes you think "I cannot believe that I am here" it is that beautiful. I never saw another person there. Honestly the pictures do not do it justice.

Tasmania - the maps (from Google maps)

I can't believe that I haven't posted maps yet.
You will recognize the "look" I am sure but all the maps on this post are from Google maps with some labels I've added.

I mean no insult, but first here is the map putting Tasmania in perspective.

And this is the Bay of Fires tucked in the North East corner of Tasmania.

And this one is just to show how much of Tasmania is still "green" protected space with no or little roads. The South West corner is basically out of reach though there is a hiking trail along the coast.
Note: I put "green" in quotation mark because all of Tasmania is very green (as the colour green). You want to imagine something a bit like jolly old British landscape in term of greenery.