While we’re on the ship our postings will be limited to descriptions. At seventy-five cents a minute, the Internet connection will be as brief as possible. I’ll edit these posts and add photos later.
We stayed up late last night to watch the sun set behind Mt. McKinley around 11:15 PM. The majestic mountain revealed itself to us for the third straight day, which all the locals found amazing. The best view of the day was near sunset, when the entire mountain range was clearly in sight, but at the very moment of sunset a cloud moved between us and Denali and obscured its peaks.
This morning was cold and heavily overcast, so after breakfast we just hung out in our room and in the lodge waiting for our 11:30 AM coach to take us to Talkeetna to catch the Alaska Railway train to Whittier.
The “train station” from Talkeetna was simply a gravel parking lot with some logs for benches. Our coach arrived a few minutes before the train. Before long five hundred people were boarded and headed toward Whittier for the Diamond Princess.
The rail journey took us through some beautiful wilderness areas. But it was the final stretch between Anchorage and Whittier that was the most amazing. Our path followed alongside the Turnagain Arm, an inlet with tide variance that is second only to the Bay of Fundi. The difference between high and low tide may differ as much as 35 feet, and it all comes in at once in a huge wave called a bore tide that surfers sometimes ride into the bay. The water fills the miles and miles of the bay. When the tide is out the mud flats are exposed. The mud is made up of a fine flour-like dust from glaciers, deposited over thousands of years. The mud is several thousand feet deep, and to attempt to walk on it is to guarantee death. You cannot be extracted from it. Signs along the way issue the warning.
As we passed by the bore tide was coming in and the bay was quickly filling with water. Snow-covered mountains surrounded the huge bay and waterfalls of snow melt rushed down to meet the incoming sea water. A bald eagle flew over the clear dome of our railcar. Dall sheep clung to the steep rock cliff that rose up on our left.
The last bit of the journey was through solid rock. The train passed through two miles of tunnel that brought us out into the fjord where the Diamond Princess was moored. No other ship was present. In minutes we were passing through security and boarding the vessel that would be our home for the next week.
We found our room, found some food, walked about the ship for a while to get our bearings, and then retired for the night.
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