Alaska 23rd May - 8th June
Our 3 weeks in Alaska was in 3 parts.
1 week north of Anchorage in and around Denali National Park, 1 week on a
cruise from Juneau (1.5 hour flight from Anchorage) and 1 week south of
Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula.
Part 1 - Denali National Park - home of wild beasts and North America’s tallest peak – Mt McKinley
We picked up a hire car after our flight from Vancouver,
and after a night in Anchorage drove north and stopped at Walmart for a poke
around, and some lunch. Healthy food is
very hard to find in America and our options were pre-packed sandwiches with a 6
week use-by date, or Maccas.
Imagine having to resort to McDonalds as the best food choice for lunch.
Who knows what was in the ham and turkey sandwiches to keep them fresh
for 6 weeks!
Downtown Anchorage
Every hotel has at least one bear in the reception area
We stopped in a lovely typical Alaskan cabin in Talkeetna
for the night. We’d planned a
flight around Mt McKinley and a landing on Ruth Glacier, but the entire mountain
range was clouded over for 2 days and no planes were flying.
We spent the afternoon at a local pub eating the healthiest food we could
find, and drinking Alaskan beer.
Although we saved $600 on the flight we left the next day disappointed we didn’t
see the mountain.
Our cottage in Talkeetna
We drove passed the entrance to Denali NP and all the
typical tourist accommodation and souvenir shops to a little town called Healy,
then more miles up a side road to yet another very cute Alaskan cabin for 2
nights to give us plenty of time in the park to see all the wild animals.
Private vehicles aren’t allowed in the park and all travel
is on a school bus. Our tour was
106 miles, 6.5 hours, and when the driver started pointing out magpies we knew
the wild animals weren’t going to show their faces that day.
Driving back to our little cabin we were pretty excited to
see a moose on the side of the road, so we could have saved more money not going
into the park!
We had planned our return trip to Anchorage to take us
along the Denali Highway, a dirt road which cuts across from one main highway to
the other, and we hired a car from the only company in Anchorage who allowed
vehicles on this road. Americans
turned pale when we told them we were going to drive this dirt road in our
Nissan Altima sedan and warned us about possible breakdowns, windscreen damage
etc on this deserted road. They
obviously haven’t been to Australia, because it was a well formed gravel road as
good as we’d get back home.
.
It was a spectacular drive through the snow-capped Alaskan
Range, beautiful rivers and lakes and best of all – a clear view of Mt McKinley.
We now belong to the 30% club – the percentage of people who have
actually seen Mt McKinley. The only
breakdown we saw was a busload of Aussies stuck at a roadside restaurant for
hours while they waited for another bus to come and rescue them.
Part 2 – Cruising the
Inside Passage
We returned our car in Anchorage and next day flew to
Juneau to join our Un-Cruise adventure on the Safari Explorer for 7 nights.
Compared to the other ocean liners docked in Juneau, our 36 passenger
boat was tiny. After a feast of
fresh Alaskan crab at Tracey’s Crab Shack, we boarded the boat and met our 34
new friends, sailing off into the sunset with a glass of champagne in hand – it
wasn’t really sunset because it doesn’t get dark until 11:00 pm, but you get the
idea.
The Safari Explorer
.
Randy the hyperactive Ranger from Glacier National Park - he joined us for a couple of nights on our boat
Drinks on the back deck. Alan with Zach - one of the 21 year old twins
Our 7 nights were fantastic, and we spent days kayaking,
skiffing in inflatable boats, bush-whacking, strolling along the shore, and
generally having lots of laughs with the other passengers.
Everything was included in the price so we gave all the top end liquor a
good nudge, testing Jill the bartender’s knowledge of every cocktail we could
think of. Alan had her stumped with
a Harvey Wallbanger, but he was more than happy to give her instructions.
There wasn’t ever a problem if Jill wasn’t there – we just helped
ourselves. We spent quality time
around the bar getting to know our new friends and were amazed, and felt very
normal at times, when we learnt we were in the company of lawyers, judges,
psychiatrists and CIA spies. We’re
meeting up with one couple when they visit Australia for the 3rd time
in September.
.
.
Chatting and enjoying the sunshine
Out skiffing
.
Bear prints!
.
Flora, our gorgeous guides digging up worms
Our favourites were the American couple who were ex-spies for
the CIA and had lived all over the world.
Back in their spy days they were friends with prime ministers, Russian
mafia, presidents and royalty.
Steph regaled us with fantastic stories from his past life, including working
with ASIO in Australia in the 1970’s.
Alan and I felt very privileged as he saved his best stories for when we
were alone with him in a quiet corner of the bar.
Steph is now the Vice President of a company whose job it is to get you
out of any sticky situation you may find yourself in, so if you’re held hostage
in Iraq, he’s the guy to call.
Two of our favourites - Susan and Delaney - gay girls married for 21 years
We watched the ocean liners sailing past our little Safari
Explorer, so glad we weren’t one of the thousands on board who couldn’t get up
close to whales breaching, sea otters playing in the water, or seals chatting on
the rocks together. We saw enough bald
eagles to last a lifetime and loved every day on our little boat.
We did have a problem every time the captain weighed anchor as our room
was closest to the action, and it sounded like the chain was going right through
our room.
Glad we weren't on this ship
Iceberg pic taken from our kayak. Alan and I left our kayaking until the last day, just in case he couldn't get in, or out
We finally got the fresh healthy food we’d been craving on
the boat, and how the 2 chefs worked in their claustrophobic galley is a credit
to them. It was a treat to see
everyone on board able to use a knife and fork which seems to be a very
difficult thing to master here. We
saw a family at TGI Friday the other day and their daughter looked bewildered
when her steak meal was delivered to her.
She didn’t know how to cut it up, so gave it to her mother to do.
She was at least 18 years old.
It’s easy to be blasé about where we are - surrounded by
mountain peaks at every turn, friendly locals, strange bearded men and even a
guy today with an enormous gun and bullet belt across his shoulder waiting for
his young son outside the post office.
The weather has been beautiful, and each day sunny and
relatively warm. We were told many
times on the cruise that most people didn’t get to see mountain peaks and it
rained all the time, so we feel very lucky we’ve had 3 weeks of lovely weather.