Leave hotel and grab a taxi to airport (shuttle wrongly booked) hotel has cost us extra $50 in taxi fares... Full flight to Utqiagvik ( vik =place) 90% get off at Deadhorse/ Prudhoe Bay oil fields massive area full of rigs processing plants and accommodation...looks beautiful from the air in the dark...lights everywhere on the tundra....snow abounds.
Arrive Utqiagvik and there has been overnight snow and we're a bit excited. Inupiat Louis picks us up and we have a quick meal at hotel (midday) reindeer sausage & eggs Meki has French toast that is ridiculously ginormous!!
Tour around the area which is really interesting a true remote community ....inupiat are a tough bunch for sure .....snow is deep in some places up to my knees and in some places up to waist ( I don't test it!!) good photo opportunities, tour about 3 hours and we finish with some muktuk which is whale blubber with the skin attached... it has been boiled upon slaughter and is kept frozen until needed... kind of tasted like raw sea scallops very nice and oily. A staple of the Inuits ...Kepi quite liked it and Meki had a piece and kept it down!!!
No polar bears to see they are out on the point with the whale carcasses and the road is closed cut by storm erosion. Been a good day ...most northern city in USA has such a lot of services for the locals gyms, stores, schools, techs and super modern hospital...
interesting housing... some US army barracks converted to housing.
VERY cold ....temps -13 but actual -18 due to wind etc
Awake to snow .... the days are short. Sunrise is at 1013am and sets at 1808
8 hours of dim pale sun ...rises and sets in a small arc on horizon. We are very far north .....in fact most northerly town in USA. 71.2906 N so we are not many degrees from the pole.
We have a good sleep this morning iour days have been usually 4am to 5 am get up and keep going til about 11pm so this is a welcome treat.
Been about 3' snow overnight and it's like a blizzard outdoors ...so many layers 4 pairs pants and 5 layers on torso all merino or duck down. Visit the local inupiat museum and get some freebies. Hang around til 5pm wandering through the snow fall to the coffee hut ...-13 ❄️
Flight back Anchorage and our bags are totally searched by TSA. Back to the Aviator crap bed but it's somewhere to sleep.
