Apparently the Nahanni National Park Reserve is a must for the outdoor loving Canadians. We will have to do it without the overnight camping, kayaking out towards the Liard river for several days and carrying the kayak over the waterfall. Instead we take the plane flight into the park to fly through the canyon and admire the Victoria waterfall (90 m). But let me not get ahead of myself.
The drive back from Yellowknife first on the Yellowknife Hwy and then over the Mackenzie Hwy went smooth. In some places the road is a roller coaster. This could be caused by the thawing of the permafrost under the road. Again we saw some herds of Wood Bison grazing along the motorway. One car was enclosed by the herd while he had stopped at a rest area. When the Bison moved on he could finally leave. A good section of the Mackenzie Hwy is not paved yet. The condition of the road is however good so it does not slow you down too much. The car does get very dirty from the flying dust and your view is sometimes obscured by oncoming traffic. We were too late to make it to the planned camp site at Sambaa Deh Falls Park. So we stayed instead at a roadside pullout used by trucks to get water for spraying the dirt road. The next day we stopped at the park and walked to two of the waterfalls on the Trout river. Like in the Hay river, the falls had cut a deep gorge into the limestone riff. To get to Fort Simpson you cross the Liard river on a ferry and then drive a further 20 km to reach again the Mackenzie river where the settlement is. We stopped in the visitors office and met some German travellers (four of them we met earlier at Sambaa Deh park), who are also looking into the option of taking a 5-6 hrs scenic flight into the Nahanni park. Most flights are already fully booked. We agreed to fly with 2 of them on Sunday (day after tomorrow). We have to rent the whole plane (6-seaters) so hopefully somebody else will join us. It makes renting the plane less expensive.
Walking in the forest here in the summer is challenging. There are so many mosquitoes! We have a mosquito netting over our hat, protecting our head but still they managed to bite you through your clothes. Tomorrow we go hunting for a stronger insect repellent spray as recommended by the park warden here. Hopefully this will help. The mosquitoes is making us prisoners in our camper. We cannot sit outside anymore.
Rudy Welling's Travels 