Since leaving Palmer and the warm
hospitality of Cathy and Mark Lee, the weather has played quite a dominant part
in our Life on the Road, as we headed south from Anchorage and onto the famed
Kenai Peninsula.
 |
the coastal road from Anchorage to Girdwood along Turnagain Arm, the inlet that Captain James Cook sailed along, thinking it was the coast, only to realize his error, thus forcing him to Turn Back Again
It began raining once we’d set up our tents
at the community campsite in Girdwood. That
was the start of what has been a very wet week for us! |
 |
| camping in Girdwood |
Packing up wet tents in never much fun, but
once done, at least we had a warm (if a little steamy) car to take refuge in.
We headed off to the small town of Portage,
which sits at the end of the Turnagain inlet, on a small piece of land that
connects the Cook Inlet to neighbouring Prince William Sound. Along the way, we
stopped off at various sites, always in the rain and always happy to climb back
into the car!
 |
| wetlands boardwalk |
 |
| Explorer glacier across Portage Lake |
 |
| a viewing site from which to see the spawning salmon (though not through the telescope, as Max is demonstrating!) |
Then, for want of anything better to do, we
decided to drive through the hole in the mountain to see what was on the other
side…
 |
the toll tunnel from Portage through to Prince William Sound
|
…to the ex-naval town of Whittier. A friend once quipped that
there was “no place Shittier than Whittier”. We have to admit, that we had to
agree with him!
 |
Trudging through relentless rain in the grey town of Whittier
|
Although it must be said, Whittier’s port
into Prince William Sound was very pretty
 |
| Whittier Port |
Needing to find a place to stay for the
night, we headed south down to Seward,
where although grey, it was temporarily no longer raining and we found ourselves a site right on the ocean front with a
beautiful view of snow-capped mountains
 |
Seward town campsite
|
Seward is so-named due to the Secretary of
State Mr William H. Seward, the man responsible for the purchase of
Alaska from Russia, back in 1867. For those of you interested, this marvelous
piece of land was bought for a mere $7.2 million. Put another way, that equates
to approximately 2c per acre!
We awoke to following morning to a wet,
cold and grey day…
 |
| wet, cold and grey |
Then it was back to a soggy, cold tent!
 |
| soggy indeed |
The next several days were spent continually wet, as a Hawaiian hurricane wreaked havoc on our little town of Seward. To add to the humour,
Kumba, our Jeep Cheroke, decided she needed a new drive shaft, so we had to stay put for a few more days of rain, wet, and forced laughter!
 |
| Ben, only slightly mad |
 |
| breakfast inside the tent |
Day 3 of rain, after a particularly wet and
horrendous night, brought on mutiny in the troops: three of us stood our ground
and declared we were simply NOT going to spend another wet night in the tent!
So we checked in at Moby Dick’s backpacker’s lodge and took over a ‘dorm’
 |
kids on top bunks, oldies on the bottom
|
Day 4 actually saw a break in the weather -
at least for an hour around lunch time. Still, it raised morale and meant to we
got to see the true splendor of Seward…
 |
| overlooking Seward marina
|
 |
| a visit to Exit Glacier |
Day 5, the day we’ve been waiting for; the
day that
Kumba gets fixed; the day
that we leave Seward and, hopefully, the rain!
 |
| the glacier from which mountaineers exit the Harding Icefield at the top. The Harding Icefield, by the way, is the largest icefield on mainland USA |
Continued rain whilst at the glacier made
us all turn a little crazy…
 |
| Max, Mands and Ben |
 |
| Max with some ice |
 |
| Ben, Gus and Max |
And so farewell to Seward. And farewell to
the rain…Until the next time!
