Excitement was mounting in our room this morning. Our big 8!hour rail journey to Denali was on today. Steve particularly likes train travel.

It seems there are a lot of rail enthusiasts with us! Particularly the men.

We left the hotel around 8.15 after our bags were picked up from inside our room at 6! We had ours ready so stayed in bed when the porter knocked and came in to get them.

The train is beautiful. All seats are upstairs and very comfortable with big dome windows and ceiling.

The dining cars are downstairs.

The biggest excitement was seeing a bear just before we left the station! It was the only one we saw all day.

There is seat service for drinks snacks & cocktail’s! They love their cocktails here in Alaska. With names like Blue Caboose, Clumsy Conductor, Rail Runner, moose Kiss….. oh what to choose.

The staff are young and lots of fun pointing out things of interest as we travel along.

There are many gravel pits along the way. Gravel is used extensively on paths and roads as it is crushed and manages the snow run off from glaciers. They don’t use salt on their paths and roads because moose love salt and would be on the roads and paths licking it away. And moose cause lots of road accidents. They don’t get out of the way.

Another story involves duct tape. In Wassilla they use a lot of it In fact 325 miles a year and have duct tape events such as a duct tape prom! Imagine that! These are small places and need to invent their own fun.

Funny things our guide told us:

Turkey bowling. They use a turkey as a ball on the frozen lake.

……Alaskan saying. There are many more men in Alaska. So for the women……The odds are good but the goods are odd.

……Black spruce is like a Charlie Brown type of Xmas tree. White spruce is bigger more traditional. Aspen tree has black eyes in trunk. The white birch white bark. If it’s peeling it’s paper bark.

…….Moose eat willow. Asprin from willow bark.

……Braided rivers. Messy. Snow is melting spread on an open plain.

……Talkeetna a small town ( inspiration for the tv series ‘Northern Exposure’ ) a place where 3 rivers meet.

…….The mayor here has issues. Mayor is a cat called Aurora but now Winston the Alaskan dog is in the running.

……All mountaineers who want to climb Mt McKinley arrive at Talkeetna. May – Aug is the climbing season. This is base camp. Denali or Mt McKinley as it was called is one of the tallest mountains in the world. It is the tallest on the American continent and is one of the ‘seven summits’ of the world.

…….we saw a beaver diving in the river. Can be big. Beaver pelts are very soft. Warm and sticky. Top layer coarse. So waterproof. Next layer is soft and cosy.

The journey was 8 hours and just wonderful the whole way. We had lunch in the dining car with a lovely couple from the Blue Mts in Sydney.

We arrived into the Holland American lodge at around 5pm. It’s a big resort spread out over a large area. Half high up and the rest down below with a shuttle running the whole time to transport you to the different areas.

Our room is a good size – a bit dated! but the bed is comfy.

Our wilderness tour starts at 6.30! So we intended to be in bed early. But as it’s still light here at 10pm we ended up staying around the fire with the new Aussie friends we have made here.