Well we made it to the east coast. First stop Ocean City and a visit to my uncle Brendan and aunt Elinore. Had a great time enjoying the beach and catching up with the relatives. Next and last stop is NYC. We can't believe it's nearly over. From mexico to cuba, houston to san diego, pink floyd and prince in the desert, las vegas and the grand canyon. Camping through nevada, arizona and utah. Driving the big sur to san fran and getting hitched among the giant red woods in santa cruz. Drinking mojitos in san jose with some old friends to celebrate. Then the best of all a trip to the top of the world, point barrow alaska. What a place, glaciers calving, a moose on every corner, grizzly bears, snow peaks, hot springs and camping at zero degrees. A fantastic experience. So this the last day of project walk about and sadly the blog. Brian and Sarah living the dream.
More pics
Well we made it back from Barrow on Thursday. Next up was a 2 day trip to the Hot Springs in Chena. This is a remarkable place. The entire resort is powered by harnessing the heat from the hot springs through an award winning geo thermal process. The free tour of the operation was excellent. We spent the day relaxing in the hot springs and walking in the surrounding countryside. In the evening we visited their ice hotel which was fun. We had a cocktail in an ice glass. But could only stay for one as the temp in side was -5c. I did get Sarah the rock, see pic. Last night was our last in the tent which has housed us well. We left Chena this morning and visited North Pole City, Santa wasn't in! He takes Sunday off apparently:) Next up is white water rafting tomorrow and them back to anchorage for our last day in Alaska.
More pics from Barrow
So we made it to point Barrow, the most northerly point in the USA. It's about 200 miles north of the artic circle and 1200 from the north pole. The town has 4000 inhabitants mostly Inuit Eskimos. The town is very rural with limited facilities and can only be accessed by air. The locals still hunt whale, seal, walrus and polar bear when they are allowed. The whale is at the centre of their lives and it was really interesting to hear them talk about hunting whates. They have already killed 9 bowhead whales out of their annual quota of 22. We were offered whale meat to eat (muk~tuk) but gave it a miss. The town is on the artic ocean which is still frozen over but does melt by mid summer. It called the land of the midnight sun as it gets 82 days of total sunlight each year. Take a look at the photos.
We arrived in Talkeetna on thursday, pop 800 people. It's a really nice town which gets a lot of tourists and climbers set to conquer Mount Mc Kinley. We are really enjoying the camping, so we pitched the tent close to town for a two night stay. We had one of our best days on friday, we took a flight seeing tour of mount mc kinley, 20,000 ft, the highest peak in north america. We landed on the ruth glacier at 6000 feet right on the snow. It was an really cool experience. Went out for a few pints on friday night to the local pub, there was a good local band playing which kept us out to the wee hours. Got up saturday and drove the 120km north to the Denali National Park. We are camping here for three days and as i write this we have just returned for a great day spotting wildlife. We saw grizzly bears, moose, caribou, snow hares and a mammot and that was in the first 2 hours walking in the park. All at a safe distance thankfully. Check out the grizzly paw print, sarah found in the mud
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We are having a great time exploring Alaska. Since my last update we have travelled most of the Kenai peninsula. We went to Wittier and took the 26 glacier cruise which brought up within 1000ft of the face of a tidal glacier. We witnessed first hand the calving of the glacier where large slices of the glacier fall into the water. We them travelled to Seward on Americas Memorial day, which is a big holiday, we camped blog the beach front which was really beautiful. It reminded me of poststewart. We had a good oul session here with some locals and spent most of the next day recovering in our tent. Next stop was Coppers Landing where we camped a night on the Russian River before heading for Homer. Homer is at the end of the peninsula and has a 5 mile spit exte from the town. We had a great days fun here Kayaking in the bay. We were able to get up close to a few sea otters. We had a pint in the Salty Dawd to close this day out. Tomorrow with have a 300 mile drive north to Talkeekna.
More pics
Well we made it to Anchorage on Tuesday after a long days travel. Small city with not much going on outside of the tourism. Had a lovely meal and a a nice few pints in the local micro brewery. Travelled to Wilawaw on thurs and what a drive, the scenery here is truly spectacular. We stopped along the way at an old gold mine and got a chance to pan for gold, which was fun. We are camping below snow covered mountains in bear country. As I write this it is still bright at 11pm and won't be dark until after midnight. This place is fab, take a look at todays pictures. Tomorrow we go on a boat trip to see the glaciers. Class!
Recent Comments
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jfar said:
[this is good]Greetings from Texas, just wanted to drop a long overdue note, as you know, had to leave Alaska early to... read more
on 28/05/2008 -
cheevo said:
Take a tip from one who knows ,Finish the job and have a quicky wedding over there! read more
on 17/05/2008 -
Damo said:
Brian & Sarah, Heartiest congratulations on your engagement. Always knew Mullan had a romantic side behind thatmacho Dungiven exterior. Have... read more
on 17/05/2008 -
Looks bloody cold! read more
on 050620081054