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Published: September 4th 2007
Skagway (1)
These cruise liners seem so out of place. Any character or charm that Skagway may have had was lost as a result of the 1000's of tourists squeezing down its little streets***IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE MY PREVIOUS JOURNALS, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM AND CLICK ‘PREVIOUS JOURNALS’***
***PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE***
***MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS IS Colin.d.snowdon@hotmail.com ***
**PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD MY DIARY ONTO ANYONE YOU FEEL MAY BE INTERESTED***
***PLEASE NOTE THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE PAGE OF PHOTOS - TO VIEW THE OTHER PAGES SIMPLY CLICK THE PAGE NUMBER AT THE FOOT OF THIS ENTRY***
Now that I am back in Vancouver the internet access is excellent and I will be getting my diaries fully up to date, before heading off down the west coast of America to San Diego.
It is very weird being back here, having completed a full loop of British Columbia and Alaska, and cycled over 5,000 km. Suddenly there are millions of people. Supermarkets are enormous and have everything that you could ever possibly need. The people are less friendly, or shall I say everyone has somewhere to be. Traffic jams and traffic lights, mobile telephones, sky scrapers, coffee shops. All this stuff everywhere.
In addition I feel different. Apart from being about a stone lighter and much fitter, the last time I was
in Vancouver I was nervous and unsure. My trip was about to begin and I still wasn’t convinced on my sanity for quitting an excellent job and dumping myself into what was going to be such a completely different environment than I had ever experienced before. In only 3 short months I feel so much more confident. I find myself smiling all the time. I talk to people without any prejudice or preconceptions. I never watch the television, I just read books instead. I haven’t read a newspaper or seen any world news in 3 months. I only ever look at my watch when setting my alarm.
Anyway, enough of this airy fairy reminiscing stuff…..let me take you back and fill a few gaps on my trip. The following covers off Skagway, Juneau and Whitehorse.
Skagway is a bizare place. It is nestled at the foot of the Klondike Highway and has a population during the winter of around 400. However, during the summer months the population increases to about 4,000 in order to cater to the enormous cruise liners that dock every couple of days or so.
Despite the name, which reminds me of some dreary,
Skagway (3)
At 6pm the cruise liner hooters sounded for dinner and the main street turned into a tumbleweed town. Kitt and I did try to get on a ship for dinner, but they wanted cruise ID wet, cobble-stoned mining town in the north of England, Skagway does, or shall I say would have, a lot to offer the tourist. Unfortunately like a number of similar small towns on the cruise liner routes, it has lost any charm or character through total over-tourism.
The cruise liners are absolute monsters and they can carry up to 5,000 passengers when fully booked. It is really hard to believe how they manage to squeeze down the narrow Inside Passage that makes up the Alaskan coastline.
There were 3 of these liners in dock when I arrived in Skagway. If you can imagine the main street of this tiny town with 8,000 or more tourists descending on it like a tidal wave, all fighting and jostling to buy the “I have survived the wild’s of Alaska” t-shirts. It was a nightmare!
Skagway itself has been lovingly recreated to resemble the 1890’s gold rush era, but you can only really appreciate this before 9am and after 6pm. This is because before 9am all the passengers are having breakfast and at 6pm the boats hooters sound for dinner.
This evening signal creates a phenomenon equivalent to the running of
the salmon, with circa. 8,000 people, now additionally laden down with all manner of crappy gifts that nobody would really want, herd desperately and blindly to get the best dinner tables and fill their already ample bellies. Only the truly agile make this epic journey without falling or tripping over each other, or the bags of ‘Caribou antler slippers’ or ‘Moose dropping fudge’. Children’s faces were streaked with tears as they are dragged, the rich rubbing shoulders with the comfortably well off.
After 6pm, once the final stragglers had limped back on board ship, the town is literally deserted. You can imagine a tumble weed blowing down the main street and even stage a gunfight in the middle of the road and nobody would know any different. All you would need to do is mentally block out the sound of 16,000 knives and forks frantically cutting and sawing and it would be as silent as the grave.
So Skagway is a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde place, which leads me nicely onto the hostel that I stayed at, where the people were even odder.
The owner was a hippy, but without any of the happiness or
love of life that hippies tend to overdose on. She was I believe, a relative of the Canadian custom’s guy that I had met in Stewart earlier in my trip.
Sullen faced she handed me a list as long as my arm of hostel do’s and don’ts. She also allocated me a house task, which supposedly is in-keeping with the hostelling tradition; to me it just appeared to be a nice way of keeping your house clean without having to do anything yourself.
My task for the day was to hoover my bedroom, which in itself was not too painful. I plugged the hoover in and began a wonderful rendition of ‘I want to break free’ by Queen as I skillfully whisked in and out of all the nooks and crannies. ‘Sullen face’ came to see what all the racket was about, so I grabbed her arm and started swaying with her - although she was still sullen faced, I could sense that she also needed to ‘break free’.
The other hostel occupants were odd too. There were several burly, short haired women wearing home made clothes. They were very unfriendly despite my cheery advances.
It really
doesn’t take much just to be civil, a simple “Hi” or “Hello” is enough to keep me happy, as I understand that not everybody wants to be engaged in a conversation. To be ignored however, I find quite rude. I got the distinct impression that they didn’t like me, so I made all the more effort to annoy them by asking all manner of trivial questions.
“What has the weather been like?” “Where do you come from?” “Are you all lesbians?”
There was another group that didn’t talk to each other, let alone me. They sat at breakfast in absolute silence. It reminded me of my Monday morning commute to work, where everyone just sat staring blankly into space, as the train took them to their eternal damnation in hell.
The following day I was allocated mowing the lawn as a house task, which I think was ‘Sullen face’s’ punishment for me trying to get her to enjoy herself whilst hoovering, as it took me over an hour to complete. Cheekily she also wanted me to strim the edges of the lawn, but I got out of this because I ‘accidentally’ broke the strimmer. Much to Sullen
Ferry to Juneau (2)
Waterfalls crash into the sea everywhere face’s efforts she couldn’t mend the strimmer so had to concede that my task was complete. Ha ha - you don’t know who you are messing with my old girl - years of ‘accidentally’ getting myself out of tasks, has made me a Jedi master!
I decided to take a day boat trip to Juneau, which also doubled up as a wildlife tour.
Approximately 95% of the boat was filled with the Adventure Caravan group, who were about 35 strong. They had come from all over the US and were touring around Canada & Alaska together. They were a great bunch of people and there were some really colorful characters, which frequently ended up with the entire boat singing (particularly when the wine began to flow).
The trip to Juneau was packed with excitement and beauty. The narrow channels that we passed through were extremely deep and in some places were well over 2,000 feet. You had to stretch your neck almost 180 degrees to find the tops of the mountains. Waterfalls came tumbling and crashing down like old men’s grey beards, stopping abruptly when they met the ocean itself.
I saw Humpback whales breaching the water
Ferry to Juneau (3)
All the girls together - the Seal sunbathing deck in the distance. I am truly lost for words as to how to describe these magnificent creatures as they nearly clear the water, before performing the world’s biggest belly flops. I don’t think scientists fully understand why they actually do this. Some believe that it is because they are cleaning barnacles from their skin, whilst others believe that it is a result of a specific feeding technique. I’d personally like to think that just before the break the surface they let out a “Yeeeehhaaaa” in the pure delight of being alive.
The water here is just teeming with all kinds of amazing life. Jelly fish of all colours, shapes and sizes float passed, pulsating like they are hooked up to the electricity mains. Star fish, plankton, seaweed and salmon jumping everywhere. And feeding on this veritable feast are harbour seals, Stella sea lions, all sorts of dolphins and whales, orcas, sea otters, Golden Eagles and Bald Eagles. Even David Attenborough would struggle to keep pace with it all this going on.
My new favourite animals are the sea otters. They lay on their backs floating in the water and it looks like they are sitting in arm chairs.
Ferry to Juneau (4)
Hey look girls here comes a male, look at the blubber on him, I saw him first -the escalator to the Seal sunbathing deck You can imagine them with a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, as they watch their Sunday afternoon version of Coronation Street floating by.
Then there were the seals, which are just as humorous to watch. They are so laboured and awkward out of the water. We approached a sunbathing deck where a number of females all lumbered their way up an escalator type slope, to where they could parade their rolls of fat in front of a few disinterested males. Add a few packets of chips (English fries) and some dodgy perms and it would have been Clacton beach on a sunny day.
Juneau is the capital of Alaska and not Anchorage as I had originally thought. It is only accessible by plane or boat and has about 100 miles of road that come to dead ends.
There is a heated debate currently raging as to whether the capital city should be switched to Anchorage. I have discussed this issue with many local people and the vast majority believe that it should be Anchorage, as this is by far the largest and most accessible of the two cities. It is
only the locals of Juneau that are fighting the campaign against the switch, as the feel it would sound the death toll for their currently flourishing city.
Juneau reminded me of Skagway, only much, much larger. I really liked Juneau though, because you didn’t feel so cramped and you could breathe.
I visited the supposedly legendary (I have never heard of it myself) ‘Red Dog Saloon’, which was a recreated salon bar from the 1800’s, complete with manic piano player and good time girls (or they could just have been pissed tourists).
I swung through the swing doors with my pistols at my hips, my fingers strumming the leather holsters. Someone was going to pay for the death of my wife and that cotton picking varmint was gonna suffer good. A bead of sweat sat on my lips. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye someone came towards me with menace and purpose…….
“Hi, is that a table for one?” a terribly squeaky, high pitched voice crashed through my dream.
“Oh, er, yes please”. Dang, I was irritated out how polite I had been. I should have used proper cowboy speak.
The Red
Ferry to Juneau (6)
Bald Eagles at every turn Dog Saloon was nothing more than a fancy restaurant and about as tough as the Cambridge knitting circle. The swift retribution of my wife’s death was put on hold whilst I ordered a burger and fries and a half of lager.
On the boat back to Skagway I met Kitt. He was on holiday with his dad and was part of the Adventure Caravan group. We got on immediately, as we both had a similar, stupid sense of humour. Kitt and I went out a few times and it is thanks to him that I tripped over a chain and landed face first on the road, whilst searching drunkenly for a waterfall we could hear from the road. We never found the waterfall but I did find that I had an amazing bruise coupled with a Tequila hangover the next day.
We spent many hours and had a great laugh in Skagway, basically taking the p*ss out of the tourists (even though we were tourists ourselves). Meeting Kitt (and the smashing Flo and Sandra) basically made my stay in Skagway and I can honestly say that I can see myself staying lifelong friends with him - take it
Ferry to Juneau (7)
"Look I am right on the edge here, can you please move over?" easy my friend.
Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon and I was surprised that for its size, it was a beautiful, friendly place. For some reason I didn’t take any pictures here, so I can’t show you just how pretty it was.
The city is named after a set of rapids that used to flow through the mighty Yukon River that looked like a horse’s mane. The rapids are no longer there, but the river is and it is still an impressive site.
Joan, the owner of the B&B that I was staying at, was a wonderfully friendly person who made me feel so at home. With her brother, she drove me out to the nearby Takhini Hot Springs where I sank down into a fantastically hot natural bath. I could feel the aches and pains of cycling soothing away, as we talked about this and that. Joan mentioned that they visit the springs during winter time and that you can sit in them whilst it is snowing all around you. That must be a truly great experience.
Thanks for all your kindness Joan.
***IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE MY
Ferry to Juneau (8)
"Right then, I will just lay on top of you." PREVIOUS JOURNALS, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM AND CLICK ‘PREVIOUS JOURNALS’***
***PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE***
***MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS IS Colin.d.snowdon@hotmail.com ***
**PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD MY DIARY ONTO ANYONE YOU FEEL MAY BE INTERESTED***
***PLEASE NOTE THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE PAGE OF PHOTOS - TO VIEW THE OTHER PAGES SIMPLY CLICK THE PAGE NUMBER AT THE FOOT OF THIS ENTRY***
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Jamie
non-member comment
cool fotes
Hey Colin, The sushi dinner was fabulous. Thanks again for treating us. These are some pretty cool photos you've got here. Nice work. Jamie.