On Tuesday it continued raining and Paul offered to go by car to Whittier. Whittier is a small town in the bay of Prince William Sound and built during WWII as a secret military basis. The only road to Whittier is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It’s the longest ‘railroad-highway’ in North America (2,7 miles). We’ve visited 1 out of 2 Begich Towers, which is still in use and almost the only place where the population of Whittier is living. There is a saying, the weather is shittier in Whittier and we can only confirm it 😊. The fish & chips we ate however, was very nice! On our way back to Gridwood we stopped at the Begich-Boggs visitor center where we had a limited view on the Portage Glacier (cloudy & rain). In the evening Barbara prepared us a nice dinner with barley. On Wednesday, the weather predictions were much better and we decided to hit the road again. After a last breakfast together and the necessary photoshoots, we said goodbye (it was hard to leave) and left Girdwood in the pouring rain. Luckily the weather became much better in the direction of Homer. We had to chance to have a view on the Redoubt Volcano (10197ft) and the Iliamna Volcano (10016ft) and the rest of the Aleutian Range. We said hello to a moose with 2 calves along the roadside and finally stopped in Homer, the halibut capital of the world! We camped on the beach and the rest of the evening we visited the Homer Spit. Thursday, we had a date with Mike, whom we met during the Overland West meeting in Flagstaff, and his wife Brenda at a campsite in the Resurrection Creek nearby Hope. Mike and Brenda prepared a nice sparerib and corn BBQ and afterwards he showed us some nice hidden spots in the national forest. We spent a very pleasant evening around the campfire and the day after they took us for a hike alongside the Resurrection Creek and we were able to see some real goldminers. Later in the afternoon we said goodbye and left to see the bore tide at beluga point. Because we had today an appointment for a tire change at the motorcycle shop, we camped at the free campground at the Harley-Davidson dealer in Anchorage. It was a cozy campspot where we met nice guys, especially fellow travelers and Cristian from Chili who’s already on the road for 2 years!
Today, Jaak and Mieke received their new shoes and are ready to bring us further into Alaska and Canada.
