So here we go. 7.05 AM, Vienna Airport: Flight OS 121 takes me to Frankfurt, where I am to board an airplane to Anchorage, Alaska. What is to come is a three week journey through Alaska, with a RV (for my german speaking friends: a „Wohnmobil“).
I hope to see the Pacific coastline, Denali national park, lots of mountains and glaciers and also lots of wildlife. Oh, and there’s Elmo and his folks that need to be visited ;-). My journey will mainly concentrate on discovering the land, while two good friends of mine, Karin and Andreas, will enjoy Alaska’s and Canada’s beautiful underwater world on their scubadiving tour further southeast. By the way, if you want to read their holiday story, go to http://www.diving.co.at/ and check out the next newsletter. I am sure there will be a report on it. But back to my trip: If everything runs smoothly, the journey will take me from Alaska to Canada and back. Here is the route… but wait! Let’s make it interesting: Follow this journey blog and you will see, where I am each time ?:
After a sleeples night (to many things still to be done) I leave home at 5.30 AM. The cab’s waiting for me already and within half an hour I am at the airport. Gosh, it’s Sunday morning and the airport is crowded like I haven’t seen it for ages! I thought I would be the only passenger this early (well, nearly) and then this! Thanks God I checked in already the day before, so I pass by all the other passengers and head directly for the passenger area. For the first time then I manage to use the Diners Club Lounge and have a breakfast there – yeah! 5 croissants, a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice will keep me up for the next hours.
Next interesting thing is the Frankfurt approach. We head downwards for the runway, everything smoothly running as suddenly, 100 m above ground the engines roar like lions and their massive power pushes the vessel forwards and upwards and us in our seats. Shortly after (after we have gained enough height again) the captain tells us in a very laconic manner that he was ordered to have a go-around since another plane was still blocking the runway. Nice manoeuvre, in any case better than two airplanes kissing each other.
Condor takes me later to Anchorage on an 9 hours flight. A flight that passes quite quickly. The usual food, the usual films. A bit more unusual: Condor does some advertising before the films, indicating that they are much more fun, if you have earphones – which you of course can buy, € 3.- per piece. Well, that’s much more of an occasion as the also offered upgrade to business/comfort class, which would be slim € 600.-. Per leg, of course. I invest in the earphones and forego the business class.
The route already starts due north. Heading from Frankfurt via Hamburg, passing Oslo and Bergen, heading via Greenland, the polar sea and coming into Alaska from the north. After we left the clouds over Europe we had a fantastic view over Greenland and the polar sea with lots of small and big ice shelfs.
At around 11:30 local time I meet Ma and Pa in Anchorage – our first mutual holiday for years can begin.
Anchorage – Potter’s Marsh – Portage glacier
To make it short: I made it to Anchorage only as a drive through experience (so far). Let’s see if there is more time upon coming back to this place. Anyway the city doesn’t look too big. Let’s rather head for ducks and geese! Potter’s Marsh is our target and so we head for the natural habitat shortly out of Anchorage. A natural reserve for all sorts of (well-hidden) birds this is. But we were lucky and discovered a mama duck with her youngster as well as Niels Holgerson’s friends camping on the other side of the marsh.
And onwards we rush – there’s lot more to see today (as if it wasn’t enough already). Next to come is a scenery everybody probably would expect of Alaska. High snow-cap mountain range, lower down covered with forests, at its food a broad stream, rushing towards the sea. And this one was in a hurry! Natural river flow and the Pacific’s low tide teamed up to create a current of some 25+ km/h. Nothing you would enjoy to swim in.
We follow the river upstream until the junction to Portage, then up the valley to the Portage glacier – having a short stop in between at Williwaw camp ground to reserve a nice green camping spot under the trees for the night.
Then it is ice age! Portage glacier, here we come – the MV Ptarmigan (named after the state bird of Alaska) is due only in an hour, enough time to sit down and prepare for what is to come: with hot chocolate and a muffin.
The ship takes us over the Lake Portage to the glacier itself. Starting at nice and warm 14-15° C, the temperature dropped considerably near the glacier. After some minutes on the upper deck (the only one to take proper photos) the air feels like ice, the glacier’s icy fingers reaching for us. But the photos are well worth it! Ice flowing into the grey-green waters of the lake. Ice, colored in all shades of white, blue where it is dense and the light falls onto it, grey sprinkles caused by the gravel transported by the glacier. And they have something great here: a ranger joining us on the boat and explaining everything down to the smallest details. In this case, the smallest details were ice worms. Small black worms, maybe half a millimetre in diameter and some 5 millimetres long. They are said to disintegrate by the sheer touch of a human being’s finger, just by the warmth of it. Fantastic – temperatures that are hostile to us provide the ideal (and only) habitat for another species! Well, I should have expected something like this, given my scuba diving experience and especially the really great education of Andi and Karin (thanks, my friends!). Anyway, time to say goodbye to the ice worms and their living room, the cold and the long day has made us hungry. So it is back to Girdwood, to a place called “5 chair restaurant”. The place must have been founded by some Scandinavians, the street is called “Lindblad str.” and they have a lot of other Scandinavian names as well. To some extent even the waitresses look Scandinavian. Yummie! I mean the food, of course, what else?!
Heading back to the camp ground later there’s one more thing to be (re)discovered: even if late at night it doesn’t get dark here in summer. It is around 10.00 PM when I finally fall into bed, just very tired after this 70hrs day.