Tuesday July 2

Totally a dry day today with temperature at 14 deg in the afternoon. A fresh breeze from the north-west......would suit us perfectly on Thursday. Here in Inuvik temperatures in summer could hit 30 and -55 C in winter. It has on average a 30 day period of continuous darkness during Dec and Jan. During June July August it has 56 day stretch of continuous daylight. I woke up last night at 2am to see total brightness outside.

at 2 pm.

 at 2 am

After breakfast it was off down town to Arctic Digital to source a SIM card and data. Got it but a bit more expensive than in Central Asia. If it enables me to upload the blog almost every day, I’ll be happy. In fact all items are expensive up here, probably because of the cost of bringing them in. 

Late morning I took the bike out to ensure all parts were in working order. No problems. I continued out along the highway towards  Tuk to check present road conditions. For the first 4 km it was all dirt corrugations/ washboard but manageable. After that it was smooth as poor pavement and easy to make progress. However it is a different story, I believe, if it rains. Not much traffic in either direction. After 12 km I turned back and a fresh tailwind sailed me into town. Should conditions remain as they are, the 150+ km on Thursday will be doable.

Coming back from that cycle I spotted a garage with an unusual description. Would be a good name for anyone considering opening a petrol/gas station or indeed a comedy club.

Around town all the houses are built off the ground on piles because of the permafrost underlying the town. And utilities (water and sewage) pass through corrugated conduits (Utilidors) that cover the town like a spiders web.This evening I walked down to the edge of the nearby Mackenzie river. Inuvik is on an eastern distributary of the delta. No bridge over this, but in winter when frozen, ther is an ice bridge at this point enabling one to drive all the way to Alkavik.

Again not much cycling on offer. Tomorrow is a briefing day and 3 hour bus transfer up to Tuk, overnight camp and ready for the off on Thursday morning.

Thank God for a lovely day.