The Call of the Wild

I should have realised that it was a mistake to allow Brian to negotiate the hire of an RV (ie, recreational vehicle, or motor home) by himself.

We had decided that if we wanted to travel to remote areas in the back country a camper van would offer more flexibility than a rental car and bed & breakfast. I imagined he would find something similar to the old Volkswagen camper we had many years ago, so I was mildly disturbed when he proudly returned with something slightly larger than Rose Cottage. Not that it wasn't comfortable - we enjoyed the luxury of a double bedroom, shower, kitchen with full size oven and microwave, colour tv, etc. We even had our own generator, which meant we didn't have to find an RV park to hook up to services.

After stocking up with a week's supplies (a case of beer, a bottle of Sailor Jerry, a few tins of beans) we set off cautiously to explore this mighty wilderness.

Alaska is big. It is twice as big as Texas, 69 times as big as Wales. There are only approximately 600,000 inhabitants, almost half of whom live in Anchorage, and 15% of whom are Native Americans. In its 570,374 square miles Alaska has 100,000 glaciers, 1,800 named islands, and 13 major volcanoes. 85% of the state lies on frozen ground that never thaws, hence its name, permafrost.

Alaska claims to have an abundance of wildlife species including grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes, lynx, caribou, of which we saw none; moose, of which we saw six; and 27 types of mosquito, all of which we saw and all of which bit Brian.

We spent our first night in the RV at an idyllic campsite by a whitewater creek. We cooked t-bone steaks and Yukon gold potatoes, and made a campfire to sit by and watch the stars come out (the sun didn't set until 11pm).Fabulous.

Duringthe rest of our week in the RV we saw all four seasons. Most nights the rain beat down on our roof for ten hours or more, some days it was so hot we wore only shorts and t-shirts, one morning there was fresh snow on the mountain peaks.

We were disappointed to miss seeing Mount McKinley, which at 20,320 feet is the biggest mountain in North America. This moody mountain, being so high, creates its own weather system, and was permanently shrouded in fog, totally invisible, all the time we were anywhere near it. Apparently it refuses to show itself to all but about 20% of visitors who travel to Denali National Park, as we did, in the hope of gazing on it in awe.

However, one mountain does not an amazing vista make. Whilst driving the 1,000 miles we clocked up we were visually stunned daily by huge, wild ranges of snow-covered peaks, tumbling white water rivers and creeks, blue glaciers, stark tundra plains, and vast forests of dark and light spruce mingled with dwarf willows and elder. Because of the permafrost, the trees in Alaska are mostly modest in height, unlike the soaring Douglas firs and cedars we saw in Western Canada.

In a week of ogling incredible scenery - mountain, forest, coast, river, valley - our most wonderful experience was walking on woodland trails to a glacier where we were the only two people for miles, then actually walking on the glacier. The same day we walked a trail along a riverbank where we watched spawning salmon of every variety (sockeye, king, silver, cohoe, chinook) swimming upstream in their annual quest to reproduce. Again, we noted the bear activity warnings, and although we didn't encounter any bears, we saw the bodies of fish they had discarded (when salmon are so plentiful the bears will often eat only their favourite part, that is, the head, and leave the rest). We also saw with our own eyes that they do indeed thit in the woodth.

Up Ship Creek

In 1915 thousands of ruffians, rogues and vagabonds (and possibly a number of decent god-fearing people) swarmed up the banks of Ship Creek in Alaska in the hope of finding construction work with the Alaska Railroad, or making a living from trading furs, or catching salmon, or finding gold in them thar hills.

When these early hopefuls pitched their tents on the banks of the creek, they surely had no idea that they were sowing the seeds for the smart sassy city that is now Anchorage.

What's not to like about Anchorage? Alaska's biggest city, it stretches more than fifty miles beneath wrap-around mountains and breathtaking coastal scenery.

We arrived in pitch darkness at 3am and dropped straight into bed when the taxi left us at our b & b. Next morning, we were delighted to see that our garden led down to a lake, with canoes, kayaks and a pedal boat thoughtfully provided for guests to use. (Yes, we did paddle all the way round the lake in a canoe one sunny afternoon).

Downtown Anchorage caters to the needs of every tourist; souvenir shops, hanging baskets and floral displays, reindeer sausages, cheesy t-shirts etc, while plenty of big malls accommodate all the stores and services the locals require.

We liked the miles and miles of multi-use trails and vast forested parks within the city, and enjoyed a gentle hike here and there despite the bear warnings.

Whilst walking or riding the bus in Anchorage we noticed a wide ethnic mix, indeed, it was an interesting gene pool, but we were still amazed to learn that there are 95 languages spoken in the Anchorage schools district.

Our hostess at the b & b fed us strange but wonderful breakfasts - salmon fishcakes, salmon quiche, blueberry crumble, blueberry pancakes, homestyle fries, apple and cinnamon oatmeal - until we were fit to burst. Luckily, we are in America, and although increasing in size by our standards, we're still significantly smaller than most of the people we see.

Tempting though it was to spend all our time in Alaska lazing around Anchorage, we knew we hadn't come all this way to neglect our exploration of the Last Frontier, so we prepared for a camping expedition.

Stop Press

Sorry the news hasn't been coming thick and fast lately - it's much easier to find public internet access in Central America than in North America!

I learned how to put photos on my blog, only to realise that I need a personal computer to do this, unless there's some mysterious way I don't know about to get my pictures on a public computer and send them to you.

Please be patient - photos and lengthy news of our exploits will be forwarded as soon as I can find a computer that isn't time limited or ridiculously expensive to use.

PS - writing this from Juneau, Alaska, and it's raining while you've got great weather in England!!!

Sightseeing in Victoria

Our trip to Vancouver Island wouldn't have been complete without a few days in the capital city of British Columbia, so we found ourselves a modest but pleasant hotel right on the harbour.

Victoria was almost more like an English city than a Canadian one, with impressive architecture, beautiful gardens, and an excellent museum. For a city though, Victoria was very laid-back and easy-going - so maybe not at all like a British city!

The highlight for us was a visit to the magnificent Butchard Gardens, where we spent a whole day admiring the flowers, the fountains and the sea views.

Victoria was an easy place to wander the streets just people watching and admiring the colonial buildings, and the sunny but cooler weather helped with this activity.

Western Canada has been brilliant, and we had chance to enjoy the fabulous coastal scenery all over again from the top deck of the ferry as we began our journey to Alaska.

Out in the Boonies

Not sure what the 'boonies' are - it's Brian's word for the back of beyond. Anyway, despite the heat, we decided we should travel up country to see what else we could find on Vancouver Island.

We hired a car for a few days and set off along the coastal highway, way up into the Canada of school geography lessons where there seemed to be nothing but huge mountains and thousands of acres of trees. Evidence of the logging industry was everywhere, and we enjoyed the contrast of this wilderness and its forty shades of green after the pampered gentle pace of Central Vancouver Island.

We spotted Bears 6, 7 and 8 on this trip, or rather I did. Brian missed one of them, so he is a bear behind, if you see what I mean.

As usual, we were tempted by a dubious gravel road and left the main highway to follow it to an old gold rush town ringed by high forested mountains and bordered by a sparkling deep harbour. This town was quaint, weird and beautiful all at once, so we stayed overnight to make the most of stepping back in time. Driving back the 24 miles to the highway, choking on the dust with teeth rattling as we bumped over the holes in the road, we agreed we couldn't be persuaded to live there despite the stunning beauty and peace of the place, and we set off back to the creature comforts of Parksville.

Another Picture

This is Bear number 3, spotted by the roadside in the Rockies.

He is a black bear - yes, that's obvious, but some grizzly bears are also black.

Grizzly bears are bigger and fiercer than black bears.

Picture Post

Our first attempt at putting photos on the blog. We're going back a couple of weeks here to when we were in the Rockies.

Will practise and send more soon!