End of the road

The Bed and Breakfast house in Kenai is lovely, decorated in the wood and country style that I am trying to get together for my living room, my quilt with the reindeer on it would fit right in here, Lisa would love it, and it would cause huge arguments with Dunc because he would have seen so many good ideas and wanted to try them out at home, but would never have had the time.

The mosquitos seem very fond of my new trousers, I am too but I don’t get the urge to suck them! I cant think what took me so long to realise the old ones were past their best, Duncan always said he liked them and it was that which stopped me throwing them out a couple of years ago, anyway paddling about in a river after blue stones for Lisa has solved the issue for me.

I went for a walk in search of some of the wild blue Lupins which grow here and was followed by my cloud of mozzies, all wanting to come for a walk as well, like the chickens follow me up the garden, the mozzies followed me down the lane. They did get their way though, they found the only area of my body not covered in DEET- my hands, that’s just rude, unsporting, who gets mosquito bites on their hands? And this morning was the first morning I woke up not itchy. More blue flowers in Alaska than I have seen anywhere before, with occasional pink, it’s a colourscheme ready to go.

I am reluctant to leave, the house is great, the dogs are friendly, the sofa is comfortable, and Tina cooked a great breakfast but I had to get going on to Seward

I havent talked about the rivers have I?

here are some shots of Russian river and Kenai lake--some of them look like they are straight out of "Deliverance"

Ridiculous Red car

The stupid red car and I are becoming better friends, the speed limits in Alaska are fairly low, 25-55 and people seem to stick to them. The tiny engine reined in by the automatic gearbox doesnt show me up most of the time, its slow to accelerate but easy to park and manoevre, it has 4 doors, its easy to find in car parks (due to being about the colour and size of a ladybird) so its endearing itself to me.

On the way to Seward is Exit glacier, you can hike up the hill to the top but I took the 1.3 mile trail to the glacier viewing area instead.

On to Seward, the harbour is used for tours and fishing, by fishing I mean everything from little 2 man boats to the great big ships you see on Deadliest Catch, some of them are based there during the season.
 Seward  is the end of the road as far as the Alaskan road system goes, there are small dirt roads but nothing surfaced, car rental conditions usually state no going on unpaved roads in Alaska but I am going to take a little tour on one, only a problem if I fall off the edge!

The hotel says it is on the national register of historic places, for that read old fashioned, shared bathroom, small room hotel in need of painting, its not too bad sleep and a wash is all I need in a hotel.This one does have a rustic charm though.

The German heavy water plant in Norway

The final flight of the trip, PHX-ANC much delayed, I have had 3 boarding passes for this flight and finally I am actually on it!

The nice marine biologist going to St Paul Island that has been on the same flights since Philly had the window seat and it seemed a bit rude to keep leaning over him but there are a couple of shots, Wanita, who I sat beside from Philly and shared a room with last night at the hotel In Tucson pointed out a few times for things to see but I was too busy trying to get comfortable for most of the flight!

Only problem is its an Airbus 321, one of the most uncomfortable planes known to man, Agony doesn’t even come close, a bit disconcerting landing at 11pm and it still being light.

 One major drawback is that the Sat Nav hasn’t heard of Alaska, its an American one so I think it’s a bit rude not to include Alaska, its not like the maps are from 1959 when Alaska wasn’t part of the US. The hotel booked on the inflight wifi looks like a dump, a dump with nice views.

Good breakfast considering the hotel looked like it wasn’t going to be a success, the room was massive, with a huge view of the mountains, I would fit in in Alaska, I have no problem sleeping in the day or night and it wasn’t a huge deal getting to sleep with daylight outside.

Midnight at the hotel 

Pretty much everywhere you drive outside of town is scenic, lakes, mountains and plenty of places to stop to gawp at the view,

Sit back and look at some of the photos from along the route…….

Lake Hood seaplane base

Beluga point

The water is all muddy because of the rough sea and glacier run off

There was a gold panning demonstration at Crow Creek mine, I think you are supposed to pay for the dirt with gold in to practice on, then take shovels and pans up to the creek to pan for gold, no one up at the creek seemed to be finding any but it was a nice walk and some interesting buildings from the gold mining days.

One of the advantages of being on your own is that you can quietly tag onto a group watching a demo and no one asks if you should be there, wander up to the creek with everyone else and never get asked for your ticket!

Alyeska is a resort hotel but parts of it are open to the public too, like the tram ride (actually it’s a cable car) up the mountain . Some hardy souls hike up and back but by the time I had done that I would have been too breathless to enjoy the view!.

During the winter this slope is covered in snow which slowly slips down, it bends the tree trunks with its sliding down the mountain.

 They use artillery to trigger avalanches which prevents too many happening by themselves, the streaks down the mountains with no trees is where there has been an avalanche in the past.

Nice up there, I would have been there on my own anyway since nothing on earth would have got Dunc in a cable car, we went on an incline railway in Pittsburgh once and his knuckles were white by the time we reached the bottom, Alistair and I enjoyed the ride but then we don’t have a problem with heights!

As the cable car came back up it reminded me of an old film known in our house as “The german heavy water plant in Norway” I think the real title is something like Where Eagles dare, but no one can ever remember, I mentioned this to a couple of older blokes figuring that being American they would have a better idea of the film, Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton are in it . he had no idea but knew the film as well as I did . I guess that was back in the day when film titles weren’t chosen for their memorability. I am pretty sure it’s a colour film but since most of the action takes place at night on a snowy landscape, it could be black and white and I haven’t remembered properly!