waypoints.ch - on the move worldwide since 2005

July 2018

Bald Eagle

Denali Highway and National Park

The Denali Highway with 220 km is situated outside the Denali National Park and leads through Alaskan Wilderness. Its centre piece is Mount Denali = Mount McKinley. In the Denali National Park, one is only allowed to drive the first 24 km in own vehicle. For the remaining 114 km a shuttle bus has to be rented. Travel friends of ours highly recommended us to book this 11-hour tour.
When we wanted to book a camping spot and the tour we were informed that the campsites were fully booked for the next couple of days and seeing the full busses made us feel claustrophobic. We thus abstained from this touristic highlight.
By now we have managed to view all the game expected inside the park, just as well on the outside.

Follow Me Car

Follow Me Car in America

As everywhere else in the world roadworks are also conducted in the USA. Consequently, sometimes long stretches of roads only have one lane to drive on. The traffic is mostly regulated by people signalling with flags, which is fine as jobs are being created this way.
Speed is reduced to 20 miles/hour. Within the roadworks zone speeding is fined with double the amount.

June 2018

Husky

Sundowner just before midnight

To be able to charge our 2 x110 Volt AMG Batteries during the long sunny hours – days with over 19 hours of available sunlight in Yukon and Alasca -  faster whilst parking, we had a second solar pannel mounted onto our Northern Lite. This required quite some effort.
Our preferred, special-sized panel would have been deliverable within one day in the USA and Canada. But we received the information of a waiting list for the fitting of the panel of 2 to 6 weeks. Ridiculous, if one knows that the part supplemental to the first panel can be fitted in one and a half hours maximum.
Flexibility is definitely not an option in the huge, styled brand garages and the many large motor home vendors in USA as well as Canada.  Extreme, obstinate bureaucracy and red tape are unfortunately predominat. We took a turn on Vancouver Island and were back in Vancouver in time for the long-awaited appointment for the fitting.

PS: For longer standing periods we still have our 3KW Honda Generator as last resort. Solar is just so much more elegant!

The Mile Post

The Miles Post, the bible for traveling up north

The legendary Alaska travel planner with detailed road descriptions for the northwest of Canada and Alaska. Places of interest, attractions, accommodation facilities and more are collected on over 700 pages. A very helpful “bible”. www.themilepost.com

 splitting wood

Gouvernment campsites in Yukon, Canada

12 CAD are to be paid for...

May 2018

RAM with Northern Lite Truck Camper

Northern Lite our new Truck Camper

Brigitte’s wish was to have an oven again like she had in our vehicle Robusto. Yes, and I have been studying options as to where to store our new golf equipment. Why not?

After visiting one of the many RV dealers the exchange of our Cirrus for the new Northern Lite Truck Camper was quick deal.
Our new vehicle also offers other advantages. Five-star rating over the past 15 years and a 6-year structure warranty on a very well isolated hard-shell polyester suitcase. With the same total weight as the Cirrus we have more storage space suitable for our needs. On the same width we now have gained 30 cm interior space thanks to differently mounted hydraulic stabilizers.  Technically and qualitatively better processed and equipped than the Cirrus. But also more expensive.  

A little drop of bitterness – we preferred the European Design of the Cirrus far more. In return the Northern Lite promotes its sapele veneer panelling and we have gotten used to it by now. Every medal holds two sides. In the months to come we will be able to tell you more. Specifications and pictures under www.waypoints.ch/vehicles and www.northern-lite.com

LeMay America's Car Museum

Le May – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma/Washington

This museum with its more than 300 vehicles, exhibited in a huge, four-storey hall impressed us immensely. The up to one million gems were exhibited

April 2018

San Francisco Skyline

Undulating San Francisco with the infamous prison island

We spent several days on the large parking area of the view platform Vista Point at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. During our visits to this interesting town using Hop-On Hop Off busses, our vehicle was well guarded by the many tourists taking pictures of the Skyline of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. The sheriffs also had a watchful eye on the place.
Our recorded impressions of San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge

Exiting search for camping spots in the USA

At the Baja California in Mexico we had many camping opportunities, especially on beaches where we could stay cheaply. But now we are traveling the USA again.
Back in the days it was possible to stay over free of charge on the huge parking places of the Walmart shopping centres. Especially at the Westcoast this possibilities are nowadays limited. To blame are the users of these premises themselves for not adhering to waste removal and other instructions.

We met German travellers in Mexico who are traveling south in a truck. They proudly told us...

March 2018

Rio de Santa Rosalia, Mulege

Fascinating mix at the Playa Juncalito

Blue skies, behind us a palm forest, a pebble beach with a large ocean lagoon in front of us with a little island. Colour intensive sun sets in the evening, in the morning some dolphins, enchanting us with their ballet performance at breakfast.

Not to worry, this is not the prologue to a love novel. I just wanted to explain why we stayed at this beach relatively on our own for over a week.

At the end of the lagoon a somewhat desolated village in the distance. On a visit to the village we were positively surprised by its charm, which the partly uninhabited, deserted houses radiated.  

Many Canadians and Americans have rented properties from the community for two to four thousand dollars rent annually. They built houses or huts or just parked their large campers or mobile homes with pergolas in front. Fresh water is supplied plentifully by the mountain. Electricity is provided by own generators.  

Probably some of the people passed away and others did not pay anymore and did not return. Some few built beautiful houses and looked after their property. This is what makes the somewhat spooky, fascinating mix.

English spoken in Mexiko

After returning from a walk along the beach along the Playa Coyote a fully stacked vehicle from Oregon, USA was parked right in front of our RAM, virtually on our spot. The driver mumbled something about driving away soonest.

February 2018

Beach Life, Baja California

www.waypoints.ch amongst the Top 5!

The offroad-magazine Matsch& Piste nominates the best 20 offroad travel blogs each year. We are thrilled that we managed to be amongst those for the second time with our homepage www.waypoints.ch. This time we made it to 4th place. We are very happy and would like to thank the editorial department and the jury!
We also thank the thousands of visitors monthly for their curiosity. We always enjoy posting some of our traveling experiences in form of photos and notes on our homepage and thus inviting virtual travel companions.

the best Offroad Blogs 2017 

Carnival parade in the Mexican La Paz

Carnival is also celebrated in Mexico and on the boardwalk Malecon La Paz three parades are taking place in the evenings during this time. But the music bands are much smaller than the ones in Switzerland and they play Mexican music without any fault. They don’t march along on the streets, but rather play at fixed spots or they join the parade on huge semi-trailers.

For us gringos many of the presented, local topics on the parade vehicles were alien. Only the many beauty queens of the surrounding village, dressed in glamorous dresses, waving from their vehicles impressed even us. Some of the ladies