June 22. We crossed the 60th parallel as we entered Northwest Territories.
Two beautiful falls on the Hay River. We are camped by the Louise Falls – and met ‘Bulldogs’. They are flies as big as - and some bigger than - horse flies, and they swarm like bees.

June 23. Met a man from Alberta this morning who said he had just arrived but was going home. He had been delayed and now we are just at the beginning of the worst of the bug season. The mosquitoes and black flies are here and with the bulldogs we had to use netting gear. Then we saw the Mackenzie river! Wide, fast-flowing and beautiful. The bridge will be finished in 18 months so the ferry took us across in about 10 minutes.
And – just beside the highway as we left the ferry, there were two groups of male Wood Bison. This is the edge of their sanctuary and they apparently thrive in this environment. There are 100s of them in the park and the males weigh up to 1000kg; bigger than their prairie cousins.
We are still 320 km from Yellowknife and decided to camp at Fort Providence here by the river. Though our campground is beside the river, sadly there is no way to get down the 12 metre high/steep embankment to fish. We did get our licenses (free for those over 65).

June 24. The drive to Yellowknife took 5 almost hours; the road is less than perfect so we held speed to about 75-80 km/h max. About half the drive went through the Wood Bison Sanctuary and we have pictures of many families. The bulls are by themselves now and herds with calves and mothers also grazed and rested by the highway. We didn’t quite dare to stop because they can be aggressive and can reach 40-50 km/h in no time. Such dents would be hard to explain to the insurance company.

June 25-28 in Yellowknife. The city sits on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. Here the rock formations suddenly changed to Ontario-like granite and the precambrian shield reaches up here too. The city has about 20,000 people (1/2 native), and 42,000 live in the Territories which has 11 official languages! NWT is the third largest producer of diamonds in the world (after Botswana and Russia), and the three mines have done great things for the local economy. The “Government Certified Canadian Diamond” is 100% mined, cut and polished in the Northwest Territories. Smart move!

The car has now travelled 6200 km from home and an oil change check was due. The rest of our first day went to general sightseeing and with Kyle. We found him courtesy of the info centre and he showed me how to get rid of the error messages that I have had on this blog. You are (I sincerely hope) now going to get words, map and pictures together. We still have 3 nights in YK as they call it here.


Here is the updated map.


View Cross Canada in a larger map

Jun 17 & 18. Fort McMurray where we stayed overnight in a hotel. Arrived after lunch and toured the Oil Sands Discovery Centre to learn about equipment and processes. The oil sands are literally that – very fine grains of sand (hydrophilic = absorb water) coated with a micro layer of water and one of oil. By adding hot water and stirring, the bitumen separates and can be removed. Two barrels of hot water to make one barrel of oil; 90% of the water is recycled. The sand that remains is incredibly fine and is used in the tailing pond reclamation process. Interestingly, Suncor announced when we were there that no new tailing ponds will be built and the current number will be reduced. We saw their facility on a bus tour the following day, and I hope we can post some pictures for you to see as you read this. The two days were extremely interesting and well worth the long drive.
Correction to the last posting – Fort McMurray is at 56.5 deg. latitude. We shall be much further north when we reach Yellowknife; the border between Alberta and NWT is at latitude 60.

Jun 19. We left our campground in Plamondon and drove to Joussard at the west end of Lesser Slave Lake, which is only 78 km long. Terry and Debbie who manages the Lakeshore Campground are super friendly. The following morning was Father’s day and we were invited to a great local community breakfast. Then on a fishing trip and caught 4 walleye. Anne-Grethe caught the first one and our two fishing partners donated the other three. The weather is fantastic and we chose to stay an extra day and relax.
I mounted a big sheet of plywood as an extra stone guard at the front of the trailer and Terry gave me some silver paint, insisting that I paint it to match the trailer!

June 21. 470 km north to High Level. We are within 200 km of Northwest Territories and have decided to visit Hay River and then on to Yellowknife. We got our fishing licenses for NWT today so we hope to try Great Slave Lake for a few days.