Daily photos from the Yukon River
Every adventure has a beginning, and our adventure on the Yukon River began in Horsens, a large town in Jutland, Denmark. Horsens is the birthplace of Vitus Bering, and it was our plan - one of the few we had - to follow Vitus to the Bering Sea. (Cue homemade map.)
I could tell you all about Vitus Bering, but I could also link to Wikipedia, because in these days of AI, Wikipedia is my go-to source of information. The potted version of Vitus’ life is that he was born on August 5, 1681, in Horsens, and he later sailed with the Imperial Russian Navy as a cartographer, explorer and officer. He would die on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Bering Straits were named after him, and our very rough plan was to follow(ish) in Vitus’ wake, without dying. The without dying part was very important!
As with many things Danish, hotdogs were involved in our planning - what little we did - and, according to Jane, the best hotdogs in all of Denmark are to be found at this hotdog vendor in, you guessed it, Vitus Bering Square. (Plads is the name for square in Danish.) We had planned to visit the Vitus Bering museum, but a recent cloudburst had flooded the place, and we were forced, forced I tell you, to console ourselves with a hotdog instead.
I’ll just add that one of the things you can have served with your hotdog in Horsens is strawberry jam. Yep. Weird. But the Swedes eat hotdogs with mashed potato, so you take what you can get, really.
Back to the Yukon River, the plan was to paddle from Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada to Emmonak, Alaska, USA. We planned to paddle in two canoes with our friends Lars and Suzi, and their two kids: Tiuri and his younger sister, Liva. I say planned, because there were many things that we had not fully thought through, and until the very last moment, we were not sure we would even be going with Lars and family, as there were conflicting family festivities, and final decisions had yet to be taken.
I had taken a decision, however, and quit my job at a boarding school, with the intention of spending a few months on the Yukon River with Jane, and possibly Lars and Co. We bought our tickets on the adventure flight out of Frankfurt that flew directly to Whitehorse, in the Yukon. Many Germans are wild about the Yukon, and back then, there was a special flight for several days each summer. We made travel plans to get to Germany, and hoped for the best.
Visiting Horsens to get a feel for our coming adventure was, we felt, a good start, despite the closed museum, and the threat of flooding. The Vitus Bering experience, was not to be in our future. Flooding, on the other hand… Well, we’ll get to that. ;-)
The story continues on June 19th.
Paid subscribers can enjoy a little more ‘behind the scenes’ anecdotes and more in the Yukon River Xtra posts.