Ach it’ll be reet

May 2017 - April 2018

A 332-day adventure by Mandee Read more

101footprints
6countries
332days
571photos
0videos
56.5kkilometers
45.0kkilometers

Follow Calendar Share Bucket list

Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jun 26, 2017, 8:38pm
- ☁️ 13 °C
- Altitude: 25 m
- United States Alaska Anchorage Municipality Turnagain Heights Didlika Park 61.19655, -149.9480561°11’48” N 149°56’53” W
Day 29
Anchorage, Alaska
June 26, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
And so begins our trip proper, flying into Anchorage, Alaska! A bit of a hectic start with delays redirecting us via Heathrow and Chicago. We've had a week or so of teary goodbyes, but after our practice run in Scotland we're champing at the bit! Our first few weeks will be a bit of a holiday before we start our first job in Whitehorse, so we're tourists for a bit longer.
Anchorage gets a bad rep with tales of ugly buildings, high crime rates and boredom, but we've actually found it very welcoming. Ugly is true for the most part for the actual town, but it's surrounded by so many parks, mountains, lakes and the sea that you don't really notice. Awesome Airbnb in Spenard - the 'up-and-coming' part of town. Took advantage of the free bikes and cycled the coastal route out of town to Kincaid Park. Saw our first moose on the way back - the calf was right on the path in front of us with no sign of moving.. So we very carefully walked our bikes past as far away as possible to find the mother standing in the trees a few metres behind.. Possibly not the most sensible idea we've had, but she wasn't bothered by us.
Great food and beer to be had as well In Anchorage - they have a brewery which does fantastic beer and a restaurant boasting the best pizza in the US. It was huge, delicious and well worth the wait!Read more
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jun 28, 2017, 1:00pm
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 89 m
- United States Alaska Anchorage Municipality Alyeska Girdwood Airport 60.95789, -149.1099360°57’28” N 149°6’36” W
Day 31
Alyeska, Alaska
June 28, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
So it turns out we're very charming people. So much so that the airbnb owners entrusted us with their vehicle so that we could take a trip down the coast! After cycling to Paul's (new friend) downtown yurt, we picked up our wheels for the next day.
We took a day to drive down the coast (Turnagain Arm) down to Portage, Girdwood and on to Seward. Our first stop was to take the cable car at Alyeska and we had our first bear encounter about 30 seconds after leaving the car... Walking down the road, about 500m from the large hotel complex, cars started pulling over and reversing towards us. Maddie's extensive experience in Canada last year ('when I was in Canada..') has trained her to spot a bear jam when she sees one.. But not so hot on what to do when on foot. Cowering behind a van we spotted 3 first year bear cubs - the man with the van happily snapping away and pointing out the mother 'just behind that bush in front of you'. After several seconds of dithering between 'aw how cute' and 'holy feck, we don't have an escape route', a kindly bus driver pulled up to tell us how dangerous a position we were in. Our panicked expressions made him take pity on us and let us on, although it might also have been Andy's foot in the door...
The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful, although we nearly fell over a few times due to constant over-the-shoulder looking. Everywhere was SOLD OUT of bear spray due to unusual dangerous bear activity in the past few weeks. Very reassuring. But we managed to obtain some and resisted the urge to spray it at every squirrel we saw.Read more
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jun 28, 2017, 5:00pm
- ☁️ 12 °C
- Altitude: 28 m
- United States Alaska Kenai Peninsula Borough Seward Resurrection Bay Historical Society 60.10468, -149.4436460°6’17” N 149°26’37” W
Day 31
Seward, Alaska
June 28, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
The route down the coast is spectacular. With the coastal inlet on one side and mountains and glaciers on the other, we were constantly stopping for photos. Portage was beautiful, but the boat trip rather expensive and very cold! Seward was not the most exciting of towns, but the view down the inlet was fantastic. Shame about the clouds, but it was still very impressive. A winter boat trip to the fjords is most definitely on the list for when we're rich travellers. Still, we got to see a sea otter chewing on crabs just off the coast which was pretty amazing! A quick stop at the very nice brew pub and then a long drive back to Anchorage.Read more
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jun 29, 2017
- ⛅ 14 °C
- Altitude: 503 m
- United States Alaska Denali Borough McKinley Park McKinley National Park Airport 63.72966, -148.9007763°43’47” N 148°54’3” W
Day 32
Denali, Alaska
June 29, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
Denali national park is a beautiful place. We stayed in Riley Creek campground, which was in a wooded area. The park has an abundance of wildlife and we saw everything from bears, moose, beavers and caribou among other things. We did the Savage river alpine trail which is a post later on (stunning). We met a guy in Anchorage and he had asked if on way to Denali to check out his band in a top secret bar in the park which for legal reasons can't be named or even its location :) I have posted a pic though. We also took the bus into the furthest part of the park (Wonder Lake) mile 85, the closest point to mount McKinley also known by original name Denali (named by first nation). This is also on a later post.Read more
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jul 1, 2017, 5:00pm
- ⛅ 18 °C
- Altitude: 850 m
- United States Alaska Denali Borough Jenny Creek 63.718471, -149.2572263°43’6” N 149°15’26” W
Day 34
Denali Wildlife - Bears
July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jul 1, 2017
- 🌧 13 °C
- Altitude: 777 m
- United States Alaska Denali Borough 63.73925, -149.291963°44’21” N 149°17’31” W
Day 34
Savage River, Alaska
July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 13 °C
Savage river is mile 15 into the park and the last free stop by bus. A permit is required to go further. We visited twice, the first time spotting the beaver swimming up and down the river getting harassed by the gulls. We did a mile or so loop down the river and back up. The view here from the bridge south is absolutely stunning. The second time we visited we trekked the Alpine trail and really got some elevation to take in the stunning view. One of the biggest views we have experienced. Alaska is a must so far!Read more
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jul 2, 2017
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 645 m
- United States Alaska Congressional District (at Large)63.45368, -150.8622563°27’13” N 150°51’44” W
Day 35
Wonder Lake, Alaska
July 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
The bus ride here takes 8hrs and has some impressive views through the Polychrome area and the Eielson visitor center. I may add that we saw wildlife on all our travels into the park. We got to Wonder Lake mid afternoon and ventured down to the lake. Not being accustomed to bear country and after a close encounter back in Alyeska we were quite nervous about camping out here. In the evening we went to the amphitheater where Ranger Doris gave an account of a local women (Fannie Quigley) who against all odds managed to live a life out here, amazing! Although we didn't see the whole of Mount McKinley we still managed to get some pics of parts of it. It was quite surreal sitting outside, covered head to toe to avoid mosquitos, watching the sun go 'down' over the mountains catching glimpses of Denali every now and then! In the morning before we left a lady said hello. It turns out she was from Beaconsfield, Lol. You come 4500 miles and venture 85 miles to a campground that has 20 pitches in the back end of nowhere... well what do you know.Read more
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jul 2, 2017
- 🌧 12 °C
- Altitude: 850 m
- United States Alaska Denali Borough Jenny Creek 63.718471, -149.2572263°43’6” N 149°15’26” W
Day 35
Denali Wildlife - Moose and Caribou
July 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 12 °C
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jul 3, 2017
- 🌧 11 °C
- Altitude: 850 m
- United States Alaska Denali Borough Jenny Creek 63.718471, -149.2572263°43’6” N 149°15’26” W
Day 36
Denali Wildlife
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 11 °C
0 likes
Mandee Ach it’ll be reet
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Jul 6, 2017
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 137 m
- United States Alaska Fairbanks North Star Borough Westgate 64.82688, -147.8064664°49’37” N 147°48’23” W
Day 39
Fairbanks, Alaska
July 6, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Fairbanks is a very spread out city and quite flat, after arriving at Sven's Basecamp hostel it became apparent that we would need a car. We spent a week here in total and meet some great people. Tom and Ulli both from Germany became the heart and soul of the place and excelled in creating a camaraderie among all the guests. We all had dinners together and even got into a volleyball match. The 24hr daylight led to some late evenings with plenty of beer! Tom and Ulli let us ride along with them to do the Angel Rocks hike and also the Chena hot springs which was around 60c, Very HOT (esp on the hottest day so far) ! On one day it was so hot we had to go into the ice museum and ride the sled on ice. I have to reiterate that if anyone goes to Fairbanks then a stay a Sven's Basecamp is a must, this hostel truly is the most friendly, amazing place we've ever been to. A real family feel. Plus, they had sled dog puppies, if you needed another reason to go...Read more
0 likes