Barrow
Fortunately, yesterday exhausted us, and we got to bed really early, because we got up at 5am today to catch a plane.
Today was our trip to Barrow, the most northerly town in the USA. I had fondly imagined that our Alaska Airlines flight from Fairbanks to Barrow would be a cute but noisy propeller plane, but in fact it was an overbooked 737. Today, we are not independent travelers. We are package tourists.
We had a small backpack each, and had to check Debbie’s in because of the stupid liquid ban.
The plane went via Deadhorse (or Prudhoe Bay airport), a deeply unpleasant oil drilling town, as far as we can tell. It did mean that we got views of the vast arctic tundra, with the Alaska oil pipeline running over it.
(The pipeline is not in the photos)
When we arrived, our tour guide was waiting for us. There was no time to collect baggage, apparently, so we left the ticket with a tour rep, and trusted him to bring us the bag when it arrived.
60% of Barrow’s inhabitants are Inupiat Eskimos, like our guide Mona. There were another thirty or so people on the shaky but robust tour bus. We were driven from place to place.
We were shown signpost with distances to parts of the world. It’s another 1,311miles to the North Pole!
One of our fellow tourists asked Mona whether there was anywhere we could buy whale meat, to taste. She explained that it was illegal to sell whale meat, and that they were only allowed to hunt for subsistence — but she could go home while we were having lunch and cut some samples from her personal supply.
We were shown some tundra and the remains of an ancient native home.
We were encouraged to eat at Pepe’s North of the Border restaurant, for good Mexican lunch, which was fairly surreal. The proprietor, Fran, is approaching her 80th birthday, administers the Polar Bears Club (of which more later), and founded the restaurant in 1979, when, the menu claims, “its time had come”.
Barrow is not pretty, especially in summer. It’s a bunch of shacks on some muddy roads. When you find some undisturbed tundra, it does have some pretty flowers. We were 300 miles or more from the nearest tree, unless you count the three palm trees constructed from driftwood and baleen (the filtering “teeth” in a whale’s mouth).
The Inupiat Heritage Centre, containing exhibits on whaling and Inupiat life. Here we were treated to a display of Inupiat dancing. Each dance “the skinning the seal” dance, the “chasing a walrus” dance, etc. begain with quiet drums, and ended with loud ones. Two dancers, a father and son, stood out. We were encouraged to join in a last dance, and weren’t very good at it. Lonely Planet tells us that we’ll come away from Barrow and find the rest of Alaska “boringly American” — but the final song in the song and dance demonstration was a hymn thanking God for America in Inupiaq and English, as a Stars and Stripes was held up at the back, and some of the dancers got extra applause for having served in Iraq, even for being married to the man who’d served in Iraq.
Next there were some demonstrations of things like ‘Eskimo yo-yos’ and ‘Eskimo ball and cup’ (catch the seal bone in the seal skull — but it’s OK if you fail, because the bone is on a piece of string, so you can try again).
Debbie was most impressed by the baby juggling act. OK, it was just a demo of how Eskimos carry a baby on their shoulder, under their parka, but the manouvering to get it in and out was impressively fluid.
Finally, there was the blanket toss. A huge sealskin blanket was brought in. It had handles all the way round, for everyone to hold. Then a child (not a tourist!) climbed into the middle, everyone heaved three times, then on “now” heaved extra hard, and the child sailed into the air. An older boy did it next, followed by a younger one. Finally, a teenage girl took her turn, and was able to fly right up and touch the ceiling. It transpired that she was blanket toss champion at the Eskimo Olympics. You think I’m joking. I’m not.
In the gift shop they sell Spazz Stick lip salve — not I brand name I suspect will travel well.
Next, the bus took us North, as far as the road goes. There’s another two and a half miles you can do on foot — if you have a rifle to protect yourself from polar bears. Mona had brought a paper plate with samples of caribou meat, bowhead whale meat, and muktuk — the skin and blubber. All were cold from the freezer, and uncooked. The whale products were bland but faintly fishy - and not unpleasant. I could enjoy a plate of whale sashimi, if it weren’t for the bad vibes. I didn’t feel there was anything wrong with the modest amount of whale the Inupiat hunt here.
Next was the “AC Value Store”, just a supermarket, but we were there to “look at the prices” and possibly buy souvenirs. I bought a pair of board shorts, for reasons which will become apparent. We looked at the prices, as instructed, and weren’t well enough versed in American prices to really tell what any of it meant. It seemed like meat was cheap, and bread was very expensive.
We had been invited to join the Polar Bear Club - to swim in the Arctic Ocean. I thought I’d regret it if I didn’t do it. Debbie used the old ‘lack of appropriate clothing’ excuse. 7 other tourists joined me - and in we went. Fortunately it was hot today, and it wasn’t too tough to wade in and submerge myself. Honestly I’ve been in colder seawater in West Wales, but let’s not forget it’s July. I had a very brief swim around, but everyone else was contented with running in, submerging, shrieking a bit, then running out, so I got out. Apparently I will be mailed a certificate. Unfortunately the certificate will have today’s air and water temperatures, and the wind chill factor, on it, which will make my achievement look less impressive.
(Is anyone else reminded of Casino Royale?)
We checked into the “Top of the World” hotel. Our room was very warm indeed — they don’t have air conditioning presumably because it’s seldom required. Furthermore, the walls are very well insulated. I opened the window. We found nothing worth watching on TV, and made do with the Food Network.
We went across the street to ‘Osaka’, a Japanese restaurant, and had a very good sushi platter to share, with miso soup and edamame. We even had some blueberry pie to finish. Barrow has very strict alcohol laws, so no booze with our meal. You can order cases of beer and wine, for personal use, to be delivered by plane, if you have a permit issued by the local government. Crikey.
After dinner, we returned to our room. Past ten, and the bright sun was streaming in. We had a view West, so we had an enviable view of the sun failing to set. The best thing on TV was a repeat of Doctor Who. We stayed awake as long as we could, but it had been a long day. 11:30, and the midnight sun was obviously going to manifest. We wore eyemasks.