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Published: November 15th 2008
It's like the End of the World (again)
It seems I was worth a shout on the radio: "
HEY! I just picked up a tourist, from SCOTLAND!". That was Sheila, owner and chief driver for Mr. Kab in Unalaska and Dutch Harbor, and also my guide for the afternoon. She's not cheap, nothing is in Alaska because of the cost of importing everything northwards. But whilst the rest of Alaska was expensive compared to the Lower 48, Unalaska is expensive like Norway. I hired her for 2 hours, but she was happy for me to stay another 2 after that when she went back to picking up fares, so I stayed and helped people with the doors & their luggage.
She spoke non-stop with a narrative of who's boat that was we were passing, which places were bombed in WWII, why its so hard to get land to build a house here, I didn't try and write any of it down I wouldn't have been able to keep up, but she's a goldmine of information. She's used to taxi in Barrow inside the Arctic Circle, and the US's most Northerly point, then she worked on the Trans-Alaska pipeline
before coming here 15 years ago. I told her she should write a book, she was full of so many tales. If you're ever here (can't think where you'd be on your way to, nobody just 'passes through' Unalaska) just stand at the side of the road for 30 minutes, she'll probably pass you twice, the place is so small.
I've wanted to see this place for years, and like Newfoundland, it was because of a book: "Polar Star" by Martin Cruz Smith had one chapter that was set even further out West along the Aleutians (
"...the where?") and I had to open an atlas to see where the place was. I think Unalaska is the furthest worthwhile place to visit, though some people do live on the further out islands. Everyone I met assumed I'd seen the Discovery Channel's "The Deadliest Catch" which is filmed on the draggers, longliners and crabbers that work out of here. I've seen a couple of episodes and it's not bad TV. I know nothing about fishing and fishermen, but if they're anything like the boys that come down to Aberdeen from Peterhead,
boulie-cruising with fast cars they look too young to own
Bald Eagle
Spent some time (successfully) creeping to within 30m of bald eagles in Juneau and Sitka, then I get to Dutch Harbor & they sit on the skips looking at me from just 20ft away.yet, then they'll earn a lot of money they don't know how to handle and spend all of it on fun, some of it illegal fun. Everyone was friendly though, and when I took a seat at the bar it wasn't 5 minutes before the next guy (not many girls here) turned around and we were talking. And the novelty of a Brit here just to see the place got smiles all around.
Unalaska and it's port, Dutch Harbor, were bombed for 2 days by the Japanese 6 months after Pearl Harbor. They didn't fancy the idea that now Russia was our ally, the US had a route through which to fly bombers along the Aleutians and down the Russian Pacific coast to threaten the Japanese mainland. So they hit Dutch Harbor for 2 days and landed troops on Attu and Kiska a good 600 or more miles further West, and it took the US 19 days of fighting, over 2000 wounded and 500 dead to get them back. The beaches here are still studded with concrete pill-boxes and the hill-tops have gun emplacements but a land-battle was never fought on Unalaska island.
But the Russians were here
first of course, they sailed past here on their way to discover mainland Alaska. They left the Cathedral of the Holy Ascension though, which is the prettiest of the Russian Orthodox churches I've seen so far.
I was lucky with the weather too: bright sunshine and blue skies with occasional snow shower and it only dipped below freezing at night. Normally the weather's foul, dangerously so. Three weeks ago a local vessel, the 'Katmai', had lost her rudder and rolled over in a storm with, I think, 7 lives lost and Sheila knew most of them. The weather also means sometimes the plane can't get in and with 5 flights a day from Anchorage, the bodies pile up when no-one can get on or off the island. So the Grand Aleutian hotel gets busy. I walked to it from the airport as it was just 20 minutes away. I'd seen it from the plane window: large hotel, remote location, snow everywhere - Jack Nicholson charging around with a big axe is what it put me in mind of. They do a seafood buffet on Wednesdays that I can recommend & it feels like the whole town is there. I've
never eaten crab so big, the red kings they pull out the water can get to 4ft across.
The Aleutians are a volcanic chain, so there's little flat ground here: the airport runway was built on a causeway extending into the bay just across the channel from Makushin volcano, which still makes the odd noise once in a while. The landing was like entering the trench around the Death Star: our little Saab 340 (27 pax tops) flew between the volcano and Mount Ballyhoo and as the runway appeared she banked sharp left and dropped almost to touch the water before landing on a runway that is too short for the Boeing 737's that come in & out of Aberdeen. It's so jaw-droppingly beautiful here, if I haven't posted enough photos to make that obvious. In the Summer the brochures show the place bright green with wild flowers everywhere. On the flight back to Anchorage we lifted off in bright sunshine surrounded by saw-tooth mountain tops, then passed Shishaldin volcano on Unimak Island which was smoking. It was the finish to two such perfect days that if all the rest of my flights are cloudy, I'll be happy enough
I got to see the view from this one.
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Mart
non-member comment
I forgot the Porsche-count!
Sorry folks, here's the numbers: Juneau: 1/3 days (!) Sikta: 0/3 days Unalaska: 0/2 days