Beautiful morning when we woke up in Eagle River north of
Anchorage, with the sun shining………but still no bear !! After a leisurely breakfast and pack up, we
went for a walk down beside the river, but after 20 minutes or so the
mosquitoes were getting REALLY bad, so we turned back and hit the road and
headed into Anchorage for fuel and a grocery shop – We were almost out of both
after our Prudhoe Bay and the Denali Highway. We were rewarded by getting our
diesel for $1.05 per litre !! Then got our groceries and some beer and wine,
reloaded the fridge etc, and then set of south out of town towards Homer on the
Kenai Peninsula.
Leaving Anchorage, it wasn’t far off lunch time and I
suddenly saw something I recognised – Wee B’s hamburger Joint. This is not a chain – just a single stand
alone, privately owned – And last time I was here I had enjoyed a great hamburger
here. So we had to stop again, although
we did force ourselves to share one this time !! We had a ½ lb Buffalo burger (they also do
Elk and Beef), with EVERYTHING, plus fries and onion rings, and it was SO good
! Juicy, hot, tasty – Everything a good
burger should be. When we left we
spotted a car outside advertising that the driver (now inside Wee B’s) skinned
caribou !! Interesting !
It was then out along Turnagain arm – Again ! Unfortunately it still wasn’t really clear,
but at least it was clear enough to see about 2/3rds of the mountains
!Certainly better than last time – We will have one more chance when we come
back into Anchorage in 5 or 6 days time ! There were even some kite surfers
having some fun out there.
Just past the end of Turnagain Arm we came to the Alaska
Animal Conservation Centre. Although the
animals are in a kind of “open zoo” type of environment where they can roam
large areas, most are part of a breeding programme with a view to restocking
wild herds of endangered species. This
particularly applies to the musk oxen and the wood bison – while other animals
were either injured and rescued, and may or may not be released dependent on
the human dependency. A red fox there
was found injured, but because it is so friendly with humans they believe it
had actually been kept as a pet some time in the past, and so cannot be
released as it would not last 5 minutes in the wild. It was also a chance for Janet to get up
close with some of the animals she has seen, and some she hasn’t been lucky
enough to see in the wild yet. In the wild, it is not only hit and miss, but
also the animals often run away into the scrub as soon as they see you, so you
rarely get an opportunity to watch them for a decent length of time. The moose here were very friendly if a bit
scraggly as they (like all other animals in Alaska) are currently shedding
their woolly winter coats. The porcupine
was bigger than any we have seen beside the road, while the musk ox are just
plain prehistoric looking ! There is a
big bull in the paddock that a couple of years ago defeated another big bull,
and when the defeated bull died 2 days later, they found that its skull had
been completely split in two by the force of the impact of the two bulls
repeatedly charging each other and butting heads ! The skull of the defeated bull is on display,
while the victorious bull is still grazing out in the field, seemingly none the
worse for wear !!
It was good to see caribou with antlers – Most of the
ones in the wild still have minimal antlers at the moment, and even the moose
only have small stubs. Then we found the
bears, and while we have seen wild black bears, Janet hasn’t yet seen a
grizzly, so it was good to see a couple in the water, swimming, and lying
around in the sunshine playing in the grass.
There was also a tiny little new born musk ox - Cute little fellow. He has to be separated
from his mother because these animals come from way up north where the
nutrients in the soil and plants are very different from those down south, and
in the past a lot of the calves have died within the first 9 – 12 months. Now
they have found that if they feed them a doctored formula instead of just
leaving them to their regular mother’s milk, they are surviving. Once they are
back in the wild there will be no problem.
Lastly we found some wood bison – a breed separate from
the more common and plentiful plains bison which was at one stage thought to be
extinct. So these animals are being bred for release in the wild – And Janet
found out that they have a temper – You don’t want to mess with a bison –
especially a big old crotchety bull !!
Janet went up to this (not very robust) fence and tried to get up close
and personal with this chap, and got a bit of a shock (to put it mildly) when
he head butted the fence right beside Janet !! She was out of there very
quickly, while I was laughing so hard I could hardly take any photos ! Got enough to capture the spirit of the
moment, through !!
After that, it was back on the road south to Homer. A Harley past us soon after we got going,
with the lady on the back waving enthusiastically, so we assume she was an
Aussie !! Or really likes Aussies,
anyway !! Then it was on down through
the prime salmon fishing areas of Cooper Landing, Russian River and so on – The
rivers running off the glaciers are a dramatic blue green, and the road winds
along beside rivers and lakes, heading out eventually to the ocean. While the weather was reasonably nice, when
we got closer to Homer where we should have been able to look west and see 3 or
4 active volcanoes in the Peninsula-Aleutian Range, the 10,000 foot tops were
all obscured by cloud, unfortunately. Then, just as we dropped down into Homer,
we could see the mountains ahead, and the 4 mile long Homer Spit reaching out
into Kachemak Bay. We were going to camp
right at the very end of the 4 miles, and I couldn’t wait to get there – I love
this place.
We drove through the main part of Homer and out onto the
Spit, and found the campsite I had stayed in 2 years ago, ending up in almost
the same camp site ! We immediately went round to Woody and Wendy’s site, to
say hello. I had meet them in Valdez 2
years ago, and after bumping into them a couple of times on the road,
eventually found them in Homer, and they invited me to join them on their charter
boat to go halibut fishing – If you read my blog of that trip you will remember
we had a very successful and enjoyable fishing trip. So it was great to catch up with them again
this time, even though they were leaving in the morning to return home as they
were at the end of their holiday. While in their van having a cup of tea, a
couple of Orca fins were spotted out off the beach, so we all ran out to watch
them – Although they disappeared soon after.
By the time we had finished chatting, it was getting
quite late – too late to be cooking supper, so Janet and I wandered up the Spit
and found a great little restaurant called Captain Patty’s and had the most DELICIOUS
grilled halibut. Just superb. Then it was time to turn in with the sound of
the waves breaking on the beach right beside us – And a glorious sky with sun
beams shining through the clouds taken at 9.30 at night.
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