I arrived in Anchorage on Wednesday from Denali, and the
camp site is not exactly the best, being beside a railway line and under the
flight path for many of the small planes that fly out of here up to the
mountains, but fortunately both of these don’t seem to be too active at night,
despite the light. And the showers are
clean and hot. Unfortunately, their
wifi is pathetic and you can’t even go into google, so it means I have to go up
to Starbuck’s yet again to get wifi, which is a
30 minute walk and is a royal PITA.
But apparently it is the best camp site in Anchorage !!
Had a lazy Wednesday evening, mostly spent chatting to
the hoards of Aussies that rolled in in 20 motor homes - I had met some of them in Fairbanks and also
passed quite a few on the highway, so we all kind of knew each other
anyway. They hand their motorhomes back
in on Friday morning, and then catch the inside passage cruise back to
Vancouver, from where they fly home. For me,
a visit to the shops to get some food and beer, and I bought some spare ribs and
salad for supper from the shops which were delicious for a change from my “home cooking”
!!
Thursday was fine, so after visiting SB I spent most of
the morning in the information centre and various travel offices that are
concentrated in the middle of town.
Anchorage is still not a very big city, and the central tourist area is
actually quite small. I find it very hard to work out what to do, as one has to
wade through hundreds of magazines and brochures, and of course every single
choice is “not to be missed” !! (Another
disadvantage of travelling on your own is that when I am driving all day, I
cannot read the map / brochures, so one tends to miss things. Then when you get to the campsite, you are
tired after the day of driving, and have to try and struggle through all the
brochures – Very difficult - For me.) Anyway I
took all the info back to the campsite and slowly tried to formulate a plan. I came up with the following rough plan for
the Kenai for the next few days :-
Go to Whittier and go on a 26 glacier cruise in Prince
William Sound.
Catch ferry from Whittier to Valdez and explore Valdez
(not a lot there, apparently, except the end of the pipeline !!).
Drive from Valdez north to Glenallen, then west back to
Anchorage. This road is supposed to be
stunning.
From Anchorage drive down to Seward, and go out on a
Kenai Fjords Nat Park cruise – Supposed to be excellent for whales and
wildlife.
North from Seward, then west to Soldotna, then south to
Homer. I have someone I met en route in
Kasilof who has offered to take me out on his boat fishing, so need to firm
that up once I have an approximate date in the area. Out of Homer there is apparently a really
good little cruise on a boat called the Danny J which specialises in going out
to the Puffin colonies, which is supposed to be really good, so I shall investigate that.
And in both Seward and Homer there is the opportunity to
go kayaking – I so want to do this, and although all my fitness from Kayaking
for the past year or two at home has all now gone out the window, I think I
just have to do it.
There are also several other things on route, like the
Exit Glacier which you can drive to, and sled dog ride in Seward with the
people who won last years Iditarod,
So that was the idea initially.
I then rolled
all the way back down the hill to my campsite – Hardly had to turn the engine
on !!
Woke up this morning (Friday) and went back up to the
Tourist info places and cruise places to double check that my plans were
feasible. One has to consider one way
tunnels in Whittier that allow traffic one way for half an hour, and then the
other for the next half hour ! No point
in being in a hurry round here !! Once I had done that and checked emails etc at
SB, I then set off to find Joe Terrell who was another Lotus acquaintance I had
not only met on the internet, but he was also in Seatlle when I went to the
Evergreen Lotus Club meeting and lunch about 6 weeks ago, and had invitied me to
pop in and see him. Another Seattle
member had also kindly burned a couple
of Moody Blues’ CD’s I didn’t have, and sent them up to me c/o Joe, so I had to
pick them up too. Thanks, John, you are
a star – All safely received !! Had a long chat with Joe, and he mentioned
that his plane is currently undergoing its annual MOT so is in the workshop at
the moment, but should be back soon, so when I come back through Anchorage we
can hopefully get to go for a bit of a fly in the area, which would be
fantastic.
I think the photos speak for themselves, but it took me
two very long hours to get up there, and I literally made it to within 20 feet
of the top. But that 20 feet was pure
snow and ice, and while I may have struggled up it somehow, coming down I just
knew I would slip, and if one slipped there, it was about a 200 metre slip all
the way to the rock pile !! Several
people did slip and go down, although they made it safely to the bottom, they
were a great deal younger than me, and I really did not feel up to it. So I whimped out ! But I still had quite a traumatic half hour
or so getting back down the very steep and rugged rock section – My heart was
in my mouth quite a lot of the time, especially since my thighs were starting
to turn to jelly due to the steep climb up and descent down. I would say that physically it was just as
hard and scary (for me) as the Angel’s Landing hike in Zion NP, and I have no
problem with not climbing those last 20 feet to the top. I will leave that to the Dall sheep, and the
youngsters !!
Anyway, made it back down OK, and met a young lad called
Cody from Memphis Tennessee in the car park. First person I have ever met from Memphis Tennessee !!
Nice young lad, working here in Alaska for the summer before he goes
home and back to College. Hope you
find everything you want in life Cody – Good talking to you.
Another good day in Alaska – Love this place more with
every day that passes. I will be coming
back here.
Pics for the day :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/Anchorage?authkey=Gv1sRgCPyuv7rfjq6KugE#
