Overnight we have sailed from Juneau to Skagway, and are pulling in to dock as we wake up. As we are now accustomed to it's raining with low cloud.
Today we have an 08.30 booking to catch a train on the White Pass and Yukon scenic railway, so it's an early breakfast and straight to the waiting bus which will take us on the 250m journey to the waiting train
This single track narrow gauge railway is now run purely as a tourist experience, taking people up to the White Pass summit and then returning straight back down.
The above description does undersell the trip. The rail cars are all vintage or reconstructed carriages, heated by a large cast iron stove. You can stand on the open-air platforms at the end of each carriage and it's reassuring to see the brake wheel: I have seen too many old films where the rear section of the train becomes disconnected and hurtles back down the tracks
This is where I spend most of the journey as the inside windows have a tendancy to steam up. The views are quite spectacular as the route clings to the steep sides of the mountain with the river of glacial meltwater far below
The track meanders upwards, across mountain rivers, climbing 3,000 or so feet in 20 miles.
As we climb the trees thin and the clouds thicken. This adds an eerie atmosphere, the bridges ahead appear to be floating on little more than cloud
At the White Pass summit we see the border marker and the US and Canadian flags on either side. It's difficult to imagine what this place would have looked like during the Klondike gold rush, before the railway arrived, as thousands of prospective prospectors had to haul their one ton of supplies up the steep and rocky path to the pass at the start of their long journey to the goldfields
The train turns around on a loop and takes us back from whence we came
We head off to explore the city, population 1,200. This more than doubles during the cruise ship season, and increases more than ten-folds as passengers disembark from their boats. There is one main street, Broadway, which has a bit of a frontier feel with it's raised wooden sidewalks. Jewellery shops seem somewhat over-represented, and the streets thronged with window shoppers
We head into a nearby saloon on a sidestreet, run by the Skagway Brewing Company
and sample their range
Walking along a small stream. This is full of salmon, in the last stage of their lives as they spawn in the gravel.
We have to take a 250m land-train journey back to the ship. Walking is not allowed, something to do with the danger of landslides, which are evident in the scarred mountainside. Why thousands of tons of crashing rock is more survivable in a vehicle, I'm not sure
Back on the ship we go and sit in the hot whirlpool tubs on deck 10, sitting in the warm water as a cool drizzle gently falls, taking in the views of the cloud and tree clad mountains
As we sail away, the views of waterfalls tumbling out of hanging valleys and down to the coast is quite spectacular
This evening we are again cooking on hot rocks and eating outside. Strangely all of the indoor restaurants were fully booked when we looked to book, rather late in the day. There is an atmosphere of gentle rebellion in the air. I think the staff are unhappy at having to work in what for them must feel uncomfortably cold temperatures
Vera opts for fillet steak again whereas I go for the salmon. Bizarrely, despite being surrounded by an abundance of local fish, this has come from the Atlantic ocean more than 3,000 miles away. Still, it does taste good!
No comments:
Post a Comment