August 10, 2026

Wednesday 10 August - day 43

Going to have a slow day and paddle with Kristian and Corinna this afternoon and camp with them again tonight.

Our tent zip is now totally uncooperative. With help from Suzi I finally got it closed. Unfortunately when we were going to pack it down there was an opening again, after trying for a while to close it we gave up and packed the tent with open zips.

Had lunch before leaving. We paddled slowly from 14.15 to 18.20 ca. 28,4 km

Total ca. 4 hours 5 minutes and 28,4 km

N 66-11.654 W 148-30.204 camp 34

The Yukon River killed our tent. Twice! Back in 2014, we camped on an ultra smooth stretch of the river. The sand was so fine it was more like silt. The more I think about it, it was silt. Just walking around, while very pleasant, very flat, threw up small clouds of dust, the dust got into the zip, and an otherwise very, very reliable tent made by my favourite tent company, was ruined.

As Jane notes in her ‘notes’, we ruined it a second time in 2016, and struggled to close the zips again. This, too, would be a deciding factor when considering just how far we wished to continue downriver.

Apart from the tent, we were now very much in ‘river mode’. When something made sense, we just did it. Like Jane putting her gumboots on and sticking her chair in the river to do the dishes. It beat crouching by the side of the river, or carrying a bucket of water up the beach. The trick to living in the wilds is to keep things simple, practical, and to conserve energy. It makes all kinds of sense.

And at this point in our journey, we had become a fleet!