On Thursday it was finally time and we started the tandem tour.

As already in New Zealand we don't have to make an effort to get into conversation with the people. Wherever we stop we are asked about our vehicle. When announcing our destination, some people currently probably still assume a misunderstanding. :-)

On the Parks Highway to Cantwell we made good progress. On the generous shoulder it can be driven, with the low traffic, wonderfully. But we are not yet so used to the local units, so we drove past the first rest area, which was announced 1000 feet in advance. So we ignored the asphalt surface after about 300m and expected after a mile in vain a rest area, as we are used to...

Top motivated we reached the destination of the first planned stage of the day before noon: the gas station in Cantwell. After a short lunch break, we decided "cockily" to tackle the next stage of the day. We knew that this meant another 45km and we knew that we would leave the asphalt after about 3km for the next days.

With the pleasant temperature due to the overcast sky we made good progress in the afternoon. We were also happy about the Denali Highway, whose gravel surface was better than expected.

But slowly our mood was dampened a bit. For some kilometers we had to put on our rain clothes, because it rained in between. Further we realized that this gravel road was steep for our condition after the 50km in the morning.

We reached the campground Brushkana Creek after 7h 58 pure driving time and 97km distance with 951 meters of altitude difference. That was our longest tandem day since 2009!

While cooking, we were shocked to realize where the smell of gasoline came from, which we had been noticing for hours, depending on the wind: The gasoline bottle of our stove had got a small hole in the ground on the way. Since the gasoline was leaking from the bottle on the opposite side of the flame, we decided to finish cooking the meal.

So we also used our satellite messenger for the first time to get a new gasoline bottle in the next town in 6 days (Merci Lukas for your support!).

To finish the day properly, there was a sign at the water pump of the place that there is currently no drinking water available and that you have to boil all water. Fortunately, we were able to solve this problem with our water filter.