Still dark at 0800 . Grab our breakfast and head off to the Russian Orthodox Church for morning Liturgy at the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church dedicated to Saint Herman who lies instate ...traditional Russian Onion dome church ...been on this ground since1795 ... beautiful singing /chanting of all prayers and sermons nothing is spoken ( except the children's scriptures). All a bit wasted on us but the people were lovely and it is a gorgeous old church.
Bright sunlight shining through the cathedral windows (Meki blinded by the light and Kepi received a blessing from Father Innocent)...
Wandered the waterfront and docks and got lucky spotting a huge stellar sea lion cruise past ....and a met a few drunk Inuit cooking their food courtesy of the power pole (has a socket!!) sure one of them wanted Mekis fur trappers hat.
Late afternoon head to the Kodiak brewery for a Sarah Palin Pale Ale ... Brewery will "can" any beer you like into a quart can roughly a litre. Had a run out to Walmart and Safeway !! Incredibly cheap shopping !! We are Walmart converts.
Back at hacienda now for a margarita or two and Chinese takeaway. Monday Q our driver picks us up and we head off in his 4WD to Pillars Creek a good deep hole by a culvert there are huge silver salmon in here about 60-70 cm they haven't been able to get up the culvert to spawn and are trapped here. Have a fish with Q and haul in a couple of beauties.
Drive a bit further to pillars creek beach a few seals around ...then to manuscha river another great hole of fighting salmon and reel in another one ...we kiss them all goodbye and return them to the water and drive back into town to check out Buskins river and just miss seeing momma bear and baby bear they scarper off from the bear hunting photographers. Meki meets here hero photographer Frank (from facebook fame) who turns out to be an arse wipe...
We pick up our car and try searching for bears. No luck so drive to near island where the sea lions have their own dock ...fisheries have a good little display of marine life and touchtank.
Tuesday sees us with an early morning start and driving all around Buskin river bear hunting ....meet up with Winona who is local amateur photographer and we end up with about hour of greatbear viewing ...a juvenile Kodiak about 3-5 years old he is so close at times , he can smell us .... We have good drive around the island down towards Fossil Beach , see quite a bit of the island . No northern lights we have rain most of the day.
Wednesday we leave Kodiak ...great 4 days ....scenery here has been spectacular from the fishing harbour to secret bays to deep clear running creeks ...people so friendly a real hunters paradise .... whether hunting fish bear deer or photos .arrive Anchorage head to the Aviator hotel where Mekis charm has nil effect in fact quite the reverse.
Wander around town some interesting shops with Inuit jewellery and artifacts. Head to 49th state brewery for dinner of yak-a-dilla and reindeer meatballs. Join a couple of boys drinking whiskey with pickle juice shooters which Kepi tries...not bad not good bit of a waste of good Irish whiskey I reckon ....supposedly no hangover follows.
