Warm hearts re-connect in a cold climate
Dick and Milly and me and Poor John at Coldfoot Camp
One of the best things about travel is the people you meet. Over the years, our overland and other remote trips have connected us with scores of people from around the world.
Many of those connections have resulted in wonderful friendships that last on and on. There’s something unifying about pitching tents in the desert, cooking over an open fire, not showering for 13 days, eating food you can’t identify and being eaten alive by mosquitos, that bring people together.
As a result, loads of people have visited us in Australia (the welcome mat is always out when we’re home) and we’ve travelled with quite a few people more than once.
Our trip to Papua New Guinea was no exception. That’s when we met Dick and Milly from California. We had such a fun-filled time travelling together that, in June last year, when Milly suggested Alaska, Poor John went straight to work to find the perfect trip.
Milly suggested the World Ice Sculpture Competition in Fairbanks and Poor John went on to find the Road Scholar option that included the ice sculptures as well as a journey into the Arctic Circle to Coldfoot.
Fred, another Papua New Guinea travelling companion, and his wife, Zee, were to come too, but Fred’s health hasn’t been cooperating. They stayed home and were greatly missed.
But the four of us had a wonderful time, sharing experiences in Fairbanks (including the Mecca Bar) and Coldfoot (including dog sledding and one of Milly’s landmark birthdays).
Milly and Dick ‘going to the dogs’
Just so you know, the differences between Papua New Guinea and Alaska are huge. PNG temperatures are scorching, while Alaskan temperatures are freezing. We survived them both, and are looking forward to planning another trip—somewhere. Any suggestions?
Would love to hear about any great friendships you’ve made while travelling.
Where to next? 
http://www.canadianbucketlist.com/experiences/mountnimbus/
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Thanks, tempting! 🙂
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Friendships wrought in challenging circumstances do have a funny way of lasting despite time and distance don’t they? If you’re looking for remote, have you been to Namibia? It’s on my hit list and supposed to be vast, sparsely populated and eerily beautiful.
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You’ve made a great point. Amazing how many long-term friendships we’ve made on our overland travels. And you’re right about Namibia. We were there in 2009 and some of our fun included sky-diving. I need to write more about our year in Africa.
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Beautiful 🙂
The friendship has no barriers
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So true.
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😀
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Could not have named the camp any better.
Brrrrr!
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Luckily someone gave me some toe warmers. Very helpful.
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Ha hA HA!!!!
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We’ve met many camping, but not well enough for the friendship to go past the weekend. We’re very open to it tho.
I have a pin in Alaska. We’ll drag our box with wheels up there one of these days. 😉
Soooo going dog sledding!
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Oh yeah. Dog sledding is a must-do.
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Try a camel trek from Broome across Australia to Cairns. Deserts are quite magical.
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Good idea, but you may remember that Poor John is NOT a camel rider.
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Well he can ride in he support crew.
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He’d probably be happiest walking.
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Wow for me that’s an easy answer. Everest Base Camp trek. It is the most brilliant travel thing I have done. We (my husband and I didn’t make it the first time in 2013) but it felt like unfinished business and we returned last September/ October and made it. Training for it makes you very fit. It is a great challenge and we did it without problems. We would like to go again. And do a variation on it.
We have also had some brilliant cheap trips, lived in Buenos Aires and Milan, been across North West Africa, Sam has been all through central and South America, China, Mongolia Tibet, India. We met in Aswan, and somehow managed to get together. We live in Melbourne ( Im from Adelaide ). Doing Base Camp or even going as far as Dingboche or Tengboche will rate high on the scale.
Nepal needs the visitors. And it is briiliant. I am looking forward to reading more of your blog. i am still writing about our 2013 but have just finished writing up the 2015 trek. Still lots of posts planned. HAve a visit. theyearitouchedmytoes.wordpress.com
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So impressed that you trained for and accomplished the Everest Base Camp trek. You’re right, Nepal needs visitors. Need to put that on our must-do list.
By the way, Poor John (from Adelaide) and I met in Egypt too, and have travelled many of the places you have.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I’m keen to check out yours.
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Yes I know I read your about you post.
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Oh Peggy what a wonderful time you had – for me, it would be too cold! Thanks for sharing this wonderful post. I look forward to reading about your future travels! 🙂
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It’s plenty cold outside, but all the buildings were well-heated, sometimes too well and we slept without covers. Thanks for travelling along with us.
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My pleasure – I am enjoying the journey! 🙂
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I’m too much of a homebody to make travel recommendations but I so admire people like you and Poor John who travel the world. My sister, who travels world-wide, feels that the people of Costa Rica are among the friendliest she’s ever met.
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There you go—tempting me with a new destination. I’ve been to Central America but never to Costa Rica. Now we’ll need to check it out. 🙂
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Yes, do! I worked with a wonderful woman from Costa Rica years ago. She always spoke of her homeland in such loving terms.
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Great story.
The World Ice Sculpture Competition sounds very cool (frigid, actually).
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The competition was really cool—literally and figuratively. I hope to post about it later tonight.
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Perhaps the Cradle-Back Mountain to Lake St Claire in Tasmania? It used to be very hard with leeches entering your boots and socks. Now, the walk has many stop-overs, comfortable huts to sleep in, nice tucker. The Crosses where previous walkers passed away through hyperthermia or simply perishing/ vanishing, have now been taken away. I thought it to be somewhat discouraging when I walked the walk some decades ago. ( We used to burn the leeches off by hot cigarettes!).
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That’s a brilliant idea. Especially because the leeches aren’t such a problem now. I gave up smoking years ago. 🙂
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Wow what adventures you are having!
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We are having a wonderful time.
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I am sure! Love the pictures!
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LeggyPeggy, how about visiting… the
>>Top 5 most surprisingly safe big cities in America Feb 2016
In no particular order, here are some of the most surprisingly safe big cities in America.
1. New York City, New York
2. Los Angeles, California
3. Washington, District of Columbia
4. Chicago, Illinois
5. Boston, Massachusetts
Visit New York City. The Big Apple often gets a bad rap as being one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, but when you look at the crime data, you can clearly see that it’s not a fair title.<<
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New York has changed so much over the years and it really is a safe place to visit. I think all the others remain safe too, but I haven’t visited some of them for 10–15 years. Time to plan another itinerary. 🙂
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How fun to find friends with common interests and vagabond spirit to match your own.
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Really treasured when it happens.
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