Alaska: 19th September - 27th September
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| I arrived at Anchorage after a long flight from Heathrow, via Frankfurt ironically enough (I've lived the last 2 years in Germany and had to fly through there again to get to Alaska). After checking in at the Spenard Hostel I went for a walk around Lakes Spenard and Hood, which together form the largest float plane aerodrome in the world. There were a lot of floatplanes there, literally thousands. Add in the 747s regularly thundering off from the international airport, and the F-15s constantly patrolling from Elmendorf AFB, and Anchorage adds up to an aviation nut's dream. |
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| Next day I hired a bike from the hostel and cycled around the Tony Knowles coastal trail (wasn't Tony Knowles a snooker player?) This is Westchester Lagoon, just on the edge of the Downtown area of Anchorage. |
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| Further along the trail, I almost missed this moose and his lady friend just relaxing in the shrubbery next to the trail. They were quite unconcerned at my presence but nonetheless, I didn't get too close because apparently they can beat Grizzly bears up for fun. These guys were only interested in the roar of the jets from the airport which went overhead every couple of minutes. |
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| The very friendly couple working at the hostel invited me to travel with them and a German bloke called Daniel down to Seward for the weekend. On the way down we stopped at a place where you can watch salmon swimming up the river to spawn. Once they've achieved their objective, they just give up the ghost and die. Nature is a never ending mystery, isn't it? |
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| The reason Chris and Natura were going to Seward for the weekend was for the folk music festival they had seen advertised. We got there and it was like a village fete with about 10 people in a giant hall, so we skipped it and just explored the town and harbour a little bit, then walked along a trail next to the beach to the far end of town and back again. |
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| Larking about on the quay in Seward. |
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| This is a view down from about a third of the way up on the Harding icefield trail. You can just see the tongue of the glacier on the right of the photo. We camped down in the valley, among the trees, roughly where the rainbow appears to end. |
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| Here's Daniel, Me, Natura and Chris with a few beers on the bank of the river that flows down from the glacier. |
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| Next day Daniel went fishing but Chris, Natura and I climbed up a trail next to the glacier which brought us up above the gigantic Harding ice field. On the way up we passed several black bears. They were happily feeding on whatever it is that black bears eat and leaving their droppings, which look like raspberry jam (yes Natura, they really do don't they), neatly spread on the trail. |
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| Back in Anchorage, I hired a car to get down to Homer at the end of the Kenai peninsular, because it was cheaper than the bus and I didn't fancy hitch-hiking. This view is of the Chugach mountains, near a place called Girdwood, not far from Anchorage. |
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| For reasons that should be clear, even if they may seem irrational, I have always wanted to visit Homer. It turns out to be a very pleasant fishing village with a somewhat eccentric, arty streak to it. Much like me. OK, maybe not... |
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| Just a view from the Homer Spit (a five mile long sand spit jutting out halfway across Katchemak Bay, to the mountains on the far side. After two nights in Homer I returned to Anchorage for my last night in one of the best hostels in the world, the Spenard Hostel in Anchorage. The next day I flew down to Vancouver to meet up with me family. |
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