Woke up to rain this morning at about 3 am – was this to be
my first wet pack up ? If so, no matter –
I guess I must be getting used to this camping life !! But my mind did start to try to work out how
I could do it without getting everything (including the inside of the car) too
wet. The first thing I had to do was get
the roof on the car ! I had the shower
cape on in the hope it would stay fine – Whoops – this is Alaska !! So in a
lull in the rain at about 4 am I nipped out and got the roof on, then back to
bed for a while. I don’t really sleep in
the tent – More a case of dozing a it between frequent wake-ups ! Probably about every hour I either find
myself off my narrow sleeping mat, or need to turn over, or get some breathing
space due to having my beanie pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the
perpetual light, or because my woollen neck warmer is covering my mouth !! Certainly a regular bed will take some
getting used to !! Anyway, at 6 am, I
gave up, got dressed for the rain, and went for an hour’s walk around what
there is of Whittier. What an absolutely
incredible place.
It was always a US Army base – as was much of Alaska due to
threats from Russia or Japan. This Army
guy Buckner built this incredible building in the early 50’s to house everyone,
and it included a library, a bowling alley, movie theatre, swimming pool, as
well as offices and accommodation. At
the time it was the largest building in
Alaska. Then when the Army pulled out in about 1960, it wanted to sell the entire
town, but no one wanted this building as it was full of asbestos. So the Army
took that building out of the deal, dropped the price, and sold the rest of the
town, leaving this enormous Buckner building in the middle of town with no
owner, and no potential buyer, and it just rotted. Today every window is smashed, graffiti
inside and out, and it is just a festering sore in the middle of town that
everyone just seems to ignore !!! Weird.
There are two other buildings in which everyone else lives – and I mean everyone. There are no houses or other alternatives, just one enormous very 1950’s north of England style block of flats, and another older ex Army building. Even the school is attached by tunnel to the block of flats, so despite massive snowfalls here every winter, the kids never get a day off because they can always get to school through the tunnel, and the teacher lives in the same apartment block as well !! Every other building in town is either a warehouse, a store, or a shop. Oh, and a couple of hotels. In one of those, when you go in the entrance, the only general store in town is to the left, the museum is to the right, and straight ahead up on the second floor is the hotel !!
Rumour has it that when the army sold the town and left, and a civilian police force moved in, about 20 locals had to leave pretty quickly as they had Federal warrants out for them ! It really was a town cut off from the world. And the little 2.6 mile long one lane tunnel only originally took trains – It had to be widened and a surface laid that cars could drive on before you could get vehicles into Whittier other than by putting them on the train !! Interesting place ! A lot of the shop owners just come in for the 3 months of summer, and then go back out to another home and life somewhere in the lower 48 for the other 9 months.
Anyway, after my wet walk, and a bit more sleep, the rain
suddenly stopped and I was able to pack up I the dry, although the tent etc was
a bit wet, but not too bad. I went down
and booked my ferry to Valdez for 1.45 pm, then went to a little café and had a
toasted sandwich and coffee, before adering over to the museum, which was
actually really very interesting. As is the case in Australia, some of the
early pioneers and explorers achieved incredible feats despite atrocious
weather and conditions. Lot of
similarities between the 2 countries – Just swap the sand for the snow, and the
heat for the cold, and the old pioneering spirit is amazing similar – Nearly all
Australians up here comment on that.
When I got back to the car, two young boys were ogling it
and chatting together about it, so we started talking. Lovely kids – Dylan (9)
and Taki (12). Their parents work up in
Whittier for the summer so they had all that time in town, and I think maybe
find it hard to do much except fish ad ride their bikes ! But they were lovely kids and we had a great
chat – Let them sit in the car and have sme fun. I suggested they should have a competition
during the summer to see who could persuade the most owners to let them sit in
their cars, and see who could get the most different cars !! Anyway, if you read this, I hope you have a
good summer, guys !!
Getting on to the ferry I met Jim who works on it, 2 on, 2
off, flying home to the Lower 48, 12 months of the year –Just like oil workers
on rigs. We had a good chat, and he said
it can get pretty interesting working up there in the winter ! Then we got
loaded, and up into the lounges – Small boat but it only does Whittier to
Valdez each day, and tow other ports once a fortnight, so isn’t exactly the
busiest route. But they had lovely hot
showers etc which after last nights lack of facilities were very welcome.
The trip to Valdez was amazing, absolutely amazing. Maybe even better than the glacier cruise I had done the day before. Had a lovely couple, Bob and Roxanne, sitting near me and we had a great time swapping tales about where we had been on our trips, and about the incredible scenery we were now passing.
Snow, glaciers, basking sea lions, dolphins, sea otters lying on their backs watching us go past, even a couple of whale tails waving in the distance. Then we went through a lot of ice floes that we coming down off one of the nearby glaciers, and the boat tried to weave between them all although occasionally there was a load crash whenever we hit one. Thewind forms them into the most amazing shapes, and with all their different colours, it was probably the highlight of the trip. After 6 hours of endless beautiful scenery (it never gets boring, but you just become blasé abut it all sometimes !) we came up to Valdez, where on one side of the fjord is the oil terminal and the end of the pipeline I saw so much of when I drove up to the Arctic Circle, and on the other side is the little town of Valdez.
As soon as we got off, I just went to the nearest campsite
and got sorted, cooked my supper, tried to get the photos up into my blog, but I
had to sit out on the beach to get a good wifi signal, and I got so cold I had
to give it away at about midnight and go to bed. Wl I
was having my supper and convertible SL500 Merc came past and I commented that
it was nice to see someone with their roof down, and they stopped for a chat –
Mark and Emmie Swanson. After a while
they said they had a few shrimp and might throw some on the barbie tomorrow,
and to give them a call – Very friendly couple so I shall probably go up to
their place tonight.
And so to bed……….
