Thursday, 6 June 2019
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
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Curtains are useless at keeping out the 24hr daylight. Killing time before the tour of Barrow starts at 1200hrs. There’s not much else to do in Barrow apart from catch up on news for an hour or so on the internet, which is surprisingly fast given how remote we are. They’ve just had a new fibre connection from the satellite receiving station.
Opposite the hotel is the famous whale bone arch. Probably Barrow’s most photographed sight. The whale jaw bones extend about 15ft above ground and 5ft below. Sadly, there’s no sun to capture the well known photo of the sun through the arch. We later see in town, an intact bowhead whale mouth skeleton. It’s about 7ft high and 20ft long. So big, that even I can stand in its mouth.
Across on the sea ice, see a seal silently slumbering. A few raucous noises from the group and it lifts his head to see what all the fuss is about, which just about adds to the photograph of it. Shown a whale storage cellar. A non-descript wooden lid by the roadside lifts up to reveal a ladder down into the permafrost, although the opening is now blocked up with ice. Below will be a large storage cellar in which the whale meat, skin and blubber is stored.
Further up the beach are three whaling boats. The whale hunt only finished a couple of weeks ago with the killing of eight bowhead whales. The boats are traditional wooden frames which are covered in seal skin. Boats are actually quite small and narrow but hold about 10 men on the hunt. Captain sits at the back steering, followed by a number of rowers with the harpooner sitting up front. They will camp out on the sea ice for as long as necessary next to the water’s edge and go hunting each day. The local Inupiat believe that the whale gives itself up to them. Being harpooner is a bit more skilled than you would imagine, he has to time it right so as not to flood the whale with water when his harpoon and ‘bomb’ go off, which means they will lose the whale, as it will sink. Each boat has a flag and have seen various people around town wearing sweatshirts with flags on. These will be crew and team members. The boats we see are now on wooden sleds as they have been hauled across the sea ice back to dry land, to prepare for the next whale hunt in the Autumn.
Once the whale has been cut up, and the boats brought back to shore, everyone celebrates the successful capture with a party on the beach. Now, dear reader, when you read about ‘party on the beach’, you’re probably thinking golden sands, hot and sunny weather. Well, think of it as a black coloured grit beach, next to the sea ice, sub zero temperatures, blowing a gale and low cloud. That’s ‘party on the beach’ Eskimo style.
On the outskirts of town are locals’ ‘summerhouses’. Basic garden sheds where you might come for the weekend to have a BBQ and invite your friends over. Bizarrely, where temperatures rarely go above freezing, the local supermarket does indeed sell BBQs. Even now, in June, many of the summerhouses are still inaccessible due to snow and drifting. Told that it’s usually always cloudy in Barrow but on a rare occasion when there is blue sky and the sun shines, workers are given a day off from work to enjoy it and is actually called a ‘Sun-day’, note it’s not Sunday. At the moment, it’s minus 6C, windy, snowing and very overcast with very low cloud. There’s not much chance of any sun any time soon. Or a BBQ.
Interesting to note that the cloud over the sea in the distance is much darker than the white cloud over the land and sea ice. The local Inupiat use this knowledge to determine where to head to for open water, rather than heading across the sea ice towards white cloud, which denotes land and ice. Can only assume that this is because the dark sea reflects on to the cloud.
Never seen so many whale bones lying around. They’re everywhere. People’s yards and by the roadside.
Drive to the northernmost point accessible to the public. This is not the northernmost point though. That’s Point Barrow and the whole point (excuse the pun) of being here. Bit miffed that I can’t get there after coming all this way. The problem seems to be that it’s on Inupiat land and you need a permit to access it. And even if you could find someone to take you and buy the permits, it’s about a 5 mile ride on a skidoo across the snow and ice. Given that I only have thin summer gear and my guide has been unable to find anyone able to take me that far, the public layby will have to do.
As with most laybys, someone has done some flytipping. In the UK, flytipping would mean finding broken white goods, furniture and other household debris. But this is Barrow. Flytipping here entails entrails of caribou heads, legs, whale carcass and a whole seal. Were it not for them being wrapped in plastic bags, you would assume it’s to entice polar bears.
So, this is it.
The northernmost point I can go on my trip.
Unless, of course, I do a North Pole excursion…
Which has actually been looked into.
But that will have to wait until my Pole to Pole trip.
Pleased to have some warmth whilst visiting the museum. Given only half an hour, glad I actually spent some time here yesterday.
Today’s highlight though is tasting whale. Because of the conference that is on, a load of whale has been cut up for afternoon tea. There’s the whale meat, a dark red tuna like substance, and the whale skin and blubber. The whale skin looks exactly like a car tyre and the attached blubber is pink and fatty and glistens. We’re invited to try it.
Well, dear reader, it’s not as bad as one might imagine. The whale skin and blubber is obviously very fatty and has a gelatinous texture, like eating the fat from a ribeye steak. There are four stages of eating whale skin and blubber: hesitation, consumption, realisation and contortion. When you realise what it tastes like and how the texture feels.
The whale meat is frozen raw meat. The best description is that it looks and tastes like frozen raw tuna. Both dishes need a sprinkling of salt to add to the flavour.
Not as bad as the putrefied shark I once ate in Iceland, which was vile, whale meat isn’t that bad.
Could do with a mint though to get rid of the aftertaste.
And if that wasn’t exciting enough, a display of local Inupiat dancing at the community centre. If I had to sit through it, dear reader, then you have to watch the video below. There’s only so much local dancing I will put up with for you!
The tourists are invited to join in at the end. Rather than throw some Eskimo shapes on the dance floor, it’s more Dad dancing. Don’t worry, I won’t put you through it, to sit and watch me doing dancing. In any event, the video is safely in my keep, never to see the light of day again.
Finish off with some party games. Inupiat yo-yo consists of two stuffed seal skin pom-poms, the idea of which is to get them going in opposite directions as you flick the strings attached to each of them. Followed by getting the hole of an animal vertebrae through a bone, much like trying to get a hoop on a stick.
Final demonstration is of a tapered bone attached to a long string which is then spun round at high speed, which creates a whizzing sound. You’ll no doubt remember the film Crocodile Dundee, when Mick Dundee went to call in help from his aboriginal friends by whizzing around, in effect, the same thing.
There’s also a memorial to Will Rogers and Wiley Post, entertainer and aviator respectively, who crashed in Post’s experimental aircraft nearby in 1935.
Early evening flight back to Anchorage. Barrow’s airport is so small that security check by hand all the checked in bags. But hand luggage is X-rayed.
Soon flying over the Arctic tundra and into the clouds, which dissipate as we near Anchorage revealing stunning landscapes.
Positively tropical in Anchorage after a couple of days sub zero. Nice to see the sun set from my bedroom in the Captain Cook hotel (https://captaincook.com/).
Another room with a view.
