August 27, 2026

Saturday 27th of August

Felt a bit dizzy a couple of times during the night when turning and quite dizzy this morning, also nauseous but was unable to throw up. Apart from that I was okayish. After a slow breakfast and slow start on my part I am okay, just not completely fine. Feeling better after a short sleep on the train and a bagel.

We got all packed up and checked on the train. Chris bought the book Mind of the Raven and we were ready to go. It turns out we most likely got an upgrade on the train last time, we think because the carriage we should have been in was full of schoolkids. Carriage C was still okay, not as much space as the other but still plenty. We were extremely lucky on this trainride as we now saw Mt Denali that we hadn’t seen because of clouds on top of it the whole time in the park.

Unfortunately I got quite nauseous at the end of the trip but I think it was transport sickness more than anything and it slowly went away as we left the train station.

We got to Anchorage on time at 20.00 and took a taxi to the Qupqugiaq Inn. It is not as nice as it looks on the internet! I lifted the mattress to have a look at the boards under it and the bed lost a screw and came slightly apart! Well we decided not to do anything about it and instead pulled the mattress on the floor to sleep there. Of course we had showers before going to bed.

Anchorage! While I must acknowledge Jane not feeling well, I would be lying if I wasn’t excited about our destination. So, while checking Jane was as comfortable as possible on the train, I will confess to losing myself a little in my thoughts. Denali was amazing, and as Jane notes, we got to see the mountain from the train. It’s a little crazy to think we didn’t see it during the short week we spent in the park, but the view from the train more than made up for it. Plus, Denali had already delivered a wolf, and for that reason alone, I will never forget it, low cloud or not.

However, I can’t really tell you just how long I had longed to visit Anchorage. I had read about it in so many books, glimpsed it in Iditarod sled dog race videos - that would be VHS - and I had even sung along to the song about it. Now, I appreciate that Michelle Shocked can divide more than a few waters when it comes to her opinions, but her song, Anchorage, has been a favourite of mine for what feels like my entire adult life. I think it’s another case of the idea of something being stronger than the thing itself, and while Anchorage is definitely a city I like, it’s not like I tell people Ooh, you must visit Anchorage. But regardless, we had to go there, and my plan - a wholly selfish plan, I’ll add - was to be there on my birthday. That would be the 28th, and we arrived the night before.

The name Anchorage conjures up images of a safe place, not necessarily ‘safe’ per se, but a location, a port, a place to call home, somewhere to settle. I had yet to settle in my life, and while Jane and I were settled together, we had yet to find a home, an anchorage in which to settle down. I was 44 when we bought our first and only house, with Jane and I having lived - together and apart, before we met - in college accommodation, in community digs for volunteers, of couches in outdoor education centres, spare rooms, and rented apartments our whole lives. But the more permanent settling down would happen after Anchorage. I mention it though, because it feels significant. To me, at least.

So, on arriving in Anchorage in the evening of the 27th August, 2016, I had to capture the moment with yet another selfie. As you will know - all too well, perhaps - I took rather a lot of selfies on our Yukon River adventure, on and off the water, but this slightly blurry, poorly lit scene from a parking lot, happens to be one of my favourite photos of all time. Never mind that I failed to get the Alaska sign in focus on the building above Jane’s head, if you ask me, this photo is fabulous.

Finally. There I was, on the cusp of my 44th birthday (yes, we bought our first house the following year) in the city I had dreamed of visiting for so many, so very many, years.

As Michelle says…

You know you’re in the largest state in the union when you’re anchored down in…

You know the rest. ;-)

P.S. I intend to make a note about the different books this trip to Alaska spawned, but here’s three to name some of them.

1. The Starlighter

2. End of the Line

3. Lost in the Woods

These three novels, and The Starlighter in particular are my Yukon books, and they are probably the reason why I won’t write a non-fiction about the trip down the Yukon River. Yep, I know I suggest it, even set up a Kickstarter page for it, but I’ve said all I ever really wanted to say about the trip in those three books, and I said it in a way that works best for me.

I’m not a writer of non-fiction. It just doesn’t work for me. I prefer and I enjoy fiction, and writing it helps me work through all kinds of emotions, of which the above mentioned books include plenty.

The Starlighter is my climate book, and it visits all the places we visited on the trip.

End of the Line is my Anchorage and Whittier book, including the ferry we sailed on when I had another bash at The Ice Star and pledged to rework it one more time for publication.

And Lost in the Woods is my Denali wolf book, with more Yukon memories worked into the plot, not least in the settings of Fairbanks and Slaven’s Roadhouse.

So, thinking of the above, and as I near the end of this Yukon and Alaska reportage, I think I’m about ready to suggest there won’t be a Yukon book, because I’ve already written it - three times! ;-)