BootsnAll Travel Blogs

fly out to J’burg on the 25th March for a 6 week project in the Tuli block of eastern Botswana. This will be followed by a 6 week project in the Game Capture team through northern, western and Southern South Africa

should be a hoot!

update 4th December: Interesting day:L tried to fix the Quad again: Scott had left the plug cap off when he changed the spark plug (no idea why he even changed the plug,) but ‘hey-ho’….giving it a test run and the Frenchy fella decided to help….by holding the throttle on the stop….until the drive belt exploded in our faces!…got to do a full strip down now :^(

I also found out that a couple of pics I took are gonna be used on the farm website AND for their T shirts and also for a beer they’re gonna promote!…KEWL!

then tonight Scotts brother turned up with some meat for the family – I followed him to the truck to grab the meat…he jumped in the back of the truck and started looking for the joint: BY ROLLING A BISON HEAD, A FULL SIDE OF RIBS AND A ‘CAPE’ (ITS PELT) AROUND!!!!!!!!!!! He’d been hunting and shot a fully grown bull Bison yesterday

He passed me a full front quarter – I could hardly stagger back to the house!

now THATS a joint!!!!      (shame was he’d left by the time I got back to the front door  so I didnt get any pics)                       funny old life innit?…link to The Dickson hunt site here: http://www.dicksonoutfitters.com

update 3rd December: well today I got to go horse riding…in perticklier: I went bareback riding on an american Quartehorse! – now let me explain the extent of my horse riding experience…oh, I just did!

I got to ride Yukon a real nice bay horse. was FAB – right until I fell off. Actually that was OK too cos there’s 2ft of snow so it didnt hurt…and the horse just looked at me and then walked off…..in disgust, I guess.

I eventually managed to do a few manouvers (on the horse) and we kinda figured each other out – yep. I was outsmarted by a horse! :^( 

 

 dont trust fool gauges!!!! I thought I would do a favour by going to the tip today…..got the truck started, but the engine warning light was lit, so I rang Scott just to check it would be OK to drive (the light often comes on while yer driving) he said it was but to make sure I had enough diesel for the trip…its about 20 miles or more to the tip, I told him the gauge showed 1/4 full, so that was Ok…HA!

sooooo about a mile from the tip, the engine spluttered and stopped!….I couldnt find owt wrong but there was a lot of air rushing when I took off the fuel filler cap…which started to worry me. however it started again and the engine warning lamp wasnt lit..HURRAH. ……………………..Till the engine stopped again, reet outside the tip!
I couldnt get it going and couldnt find owt wrong again but when I rocked the truck I couldnt hear any sloshing from the tank either, so I flagged down the next car (yer lucky if you get 1 car an hour there!) – an old fella (later introduced as John) stopped and as he was worried about where the truck had stopped, took me back to his place reet on the edge of Marsh Lake, to get his big truck to tow mine’. A cup of tea later and some of his hunting stories, we jumped in his truck (with his mahoosive Rottweiler ‘Star’ and returned to my truck…..with a can of diesel and a tow chain. Once we’d pulled the truck to a safe spot, I filled the tank while John turned the engine over : IT STARTED! I paid him for the diesel, shook hands and then set off back to the ranch with John following in case it happened again……it didnt

nice fella, that John

oh, and if you think “so what you ran out of fuel”: it was -22 degrees and FALLING; theres a foot of snow; I was 20 miles to the nearest town; I didnt have warm gear on; I dont have a mobile and it was just starting to get dark.  scarey!

update 25th Nov -40 when I got up this morning, and -30 for the rest of the day….it s much colder than normal for this time of year but doesnt feel THAT cold, as the humidity is 65%..just the freezing nose hair and fingers give it away! its too cold to work outside too, so Ive educated the family on the joys of HobNobs…they’re addicted, we had to buy 2 packets each of choc and plain today!…Ive also eaten too many doughnuts today…so I guess thats another hour of woodchopping tomorrow as penance (that also means I’ll have to tell Scott I broke his axe yesterday …not a bad week: broke a chainsaw, truck and axe so far! I blame the cold)

found a link to the trail riding at Spirit Lake run by the farm http://www.spiritlakeyukon.com/horsebackrides.html

check out the hosses: me faves are Kixy (plays footy!) Quincy and Yukon..but they’re all sweeties really

more laterz

update 16th Nov well been here for 4 weeks now (by thats flown over!) tiled the kitchen and sitting room fireplace with Scott – its all looking pretty  good for the Mardi Gras party this Saturday.

Its been pretty cold the last week or so…-27 is about typical during the night rising to -25 during the day a couple of days ago I drew a company logo in the snow for some photographs: the tile I was using as a pencil froze to my fingers leaving burn marks!. Today I was out for only 30 mins or so and managed to get my hand stuck to the house door handle (metal) and then when I got indoors I found my boot laces had frozen so I couldnt untie them…lorra laffs here in the Yukon

oh, and you know how in England you see sheep at the roadside?…..

Well, I’m safely in the Yukon. It’s a 2.5hr flight here from Vancouver
About 62 degrees North (about on a par with the Shetlands) and about 6 miles outside of the city of Whitehorse. Whitehorse is the ‘capital’of the Yukon with 23,000 of the provinces 33,000 population – that’s a province that’s 483 thousand square km against 243 thousand sq.km of Great Britain…i.e almost TWICE the size of GB!! Which has a population of 60 MILLION.
I’m volunteer working on the Hart2Hart farm owned and run by Scott and Jackie – with Scott’s son Matt.
So far I’ve mainly been helping to clear scrub and raise fencing around the farm for the 8 Quarter horses that they have here – but they also have another 24 (I think) horses at Spirit Lake, where they run the majority of trail rides for tourists from
I live in a trailer home on the farm and eat most meals with the family.
Other stuff Ive done so far is to fix a Quad that wouldnt start (no, not the kill switch you mackem fella) change a starter motor on a chevy car and service a 4.9l Ford truck, lately Ive been setting up a wifi network for the family/business computers (which is how I’m able to write this on a laptop in the trailer)’and setting up a home cinema style sound system for the hoos
Its starting to get cold here now – about -14 at night rising to -13 during the day ! ..forecast over the next few days is for -25 ……..which is kinda kewl (literally)
Not much wildlife so far – too late for bears and I don’t really wanna see wolves. I also haven’t had much time to sightsee around the area yet, but I should get to see plenty afore long. Whitehorse is also home of the 2007 Canada games in February so I might get to see some of that stuff too. Panorama of Whitehorse here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzIvRvr5ufg
I’m hoping I can stay here for the winter, then I can start my travels again in the Spring – buying a bike for the tour thru the States
Not much more to write at the mo, I’ll add more as it happens

well I took the plunge and went whale watching again: this time from Victoria with Ocean Explorations....400hp zodiac again. Was hoping to see some Orcas, however there werent any in the area on the day - which was disapppointing, however I ... [Continue reading this entry]

BUNGEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I drove over to Nanaimo bungee centre just for a look see (in my rented 4l Frodo Explorer SUV) but once I got there I decided to do the jump anyway! its Canadas oldest licensed bungee place and they have their ... [Continue reading this entry]

fairly uneventful trip today: went to the hills/mouintains around the city via various sites within the city (including the library which is a new building designed around the Roman Colosseum - its big airy and completely free to residents (up ... [Continue reading this entry]

well its time to leave the Rockies proper; so Vancouver next. got a bus to Calgary and then waited 6 hours to get a cheap flight to Vancouver ($99 + taxes = $145/75 quid) the flight took 1 hr 11 mins and ... [Continue reading this entry]

odd place -the 'town' : its basically a carpark with a number of shops around it, then to one side of that is a couple of inns and the hostel smashing hostel though - similar to Banff in that its in ... [Continue reading this entry]

well....Banff is like a proper town compared to Jasper (which feels kinda more of a community) the hostel is really nice - more like a hotel than a hostel - complete with cafe an bar ...which is nice ;^) the walks are ... [Continue reading this entry]

reet: Highway 93 "the Icefields Parkway" (road between Jasper & Banff, taking in Lake Louise) is THE most beatiful road EVER! the Athabasca glacier is a fantastic place - I took a ride on a snowbus onto the glacier...very cold (strangely) then ... [Continue reading this entry]

my previous posts from Canada have disappeared!!!! Ive managed to save the text from some of it, via google, but its basically just a big lump of text the Boots n' all servers failed apparently sorry :^( anyhoo, Ive managed to upload photos onto ... [Continue reading this entry]