Arrived Anchorage

Unpacked some of the bulky gear, now we have a hire car to put it in. Paddles survived in the Bennett paddle cover (2 paddles in one cover and shrunken down to be under 1.5meters)









Accommodation in Anchorage





We sent of another signal from Spot tracker device to see if it could find us. It did eventually find us in the beer garden next to the worlds biggest sea plane lake. I was actually out on the lake when I triggered the message. There is also a, 'most likey location', function in the software, that I think I left turned on.
Click to see where we are having dinner at the hotel  in Anchorage Alaska - Zoom in to see the seaplanes
 

REI is the biggest outdoor store around, 7 cash registers, sort of a co-op, I joined three years ago with Daen and they still had us as members. Their prices seem to have gone up a lot compared to Australian outdoor gear shops. Capsicum bear repellent spray $50.00 per can, very expensive and you can only use it once.

There is a very effective home made insect repellant that simply requires a couple of cup fulls of a mixture of the insects that are most likely to bother you.( flys, sand flys, mosquitoes, leaches, bees, wasps etc.) You put them in a blender with equal amounts of water.(2 cups) and stick the mixture in one of those hand pumped insect sprays or a kids 'Super Soaker' or something similar and spray it on yourself. Those bugs then won't go any where near you.They have the 'Super Soakers' on special at the local $5.00 shop.
I just need to borrow a blender and a bears foot from the zoo. For a fraction of the REI price, I will have my own special bear repellent spray.

Got some Mountain House freeze dried beef stew to try, before I buy, our race supplies. Going to make it up for supper tonight, "just add boiling water and soak for more than ten minutes if over 10,000 ft" it says on the instructions. I will see how it goes. It will be Steve's job to do the cooking, part of which involves a little mountaineering.

Oh and my broken tooth is still stuck in place

Yukon1000


Trip on VAustralia was great. We sat in the middle section which has 3 seats and it was very comfortable. Food and service was good, the best audio visual setup every, 50+ movies, 40+ Cd's TV shows etc , all very clear. Can also use it to sms around the plane. That is every one except the blond hosti in business class and the pilot.

Managed to spend some time on the river maps. Trying to commit them to memory. I felt a bit like the guy who steers the 4 man sled on the luge. Except he has to only remember 75 seconds. I have to remember 75 million seconds.(but I can take notes)

Break of 4 hours was good in LA, takes about an hour to get processed, customs and immigration and by the time we had Starbucks Coffee, did some more work on the maps, and interrupted by some geological surveyor who gave me a lecture on how bad dams are for rivers, we were back on a plane, this time from LA to Anchorage, 6 hours. Alaska Air. Fortunately the seat in my kayak is more comfortable than theirs. They make the seats in churches uncomfortable so you don't fall asleep in the sermon. I waited 6 hours for the sermon to start. It didn't.

Got to Anchorage, 1.30am and it was dark. This is supposed to be the land of the midnight sun. The last time we were here you had to wear sun cream at midnight, but this race is a month later.

Had a jog around the sea plane lake (Lake Hood) this morning, while Christine slept in. This lake is the biggest, and busiest seaplane lake in the world according to the sign. And you are not allowed to drive on the lake ice and no swimming or wading. Sailing,general surfing, kite surfing, kayaking are all apparently OK.