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The weather in Fairbanks improved
considerably on Wednesday night. The
skies were clear in Fairbanks for our departure. We flew RAVN Air, and there
was only one flight before ours. Check
in was quick and easy.
Robert Thomson, our guide, has trouble
buying milk and vegetables in Kaktovik - when they are available, they are
expensive. We filled a produce box with
milk and vegetables and brought it along with us. RAVN did not charge us for the extra bag, and
were very accommodating with a few overweight checked bags. Actually, they were
a pleasure to deal with.
This was the departure before ours. Our plane was even smaller.
Because it was a small plane with only 9
seats, there was no room for carry on baggage, aside from one small personal
item, which we could fit under our seats.
So the camera bags had to be “gate checked”, but the pilot and co-pilot
were the baggage handlers and they promised to be gentle with the equipment.
Take off was smooth, as was the
flight. Ron is not such a good
traveller, but given the appropriate medication, he was well behaved.
Most of the flight was above the clouds. I was sitting on the right side of the plane,
so the sun was in view. This made for
some interesting sunbursts.
All in all, it was a smooth flight. And all
of the camera equipment arrived safely.
But the weather in Kaktovik was worse than
it had been in Fairbanks that morning.
No rain, but winds of up to 45 miles per hour made the landing approach
much faster than usual. There had been
some snowfall earlier in the week, so the runway was icy and covered in gravel
to provide some traction.
The luggage was taken off the plane in the
middle of the runway, and with the winds, it felt like we were being
sandblasted.
We arrived at our bed and breakfast and met
Robert, our guide. There are bear
spotters which drive around town, so it was safe to walk around the town. But the wind made that a challenge as well. Here is a couple of shots of our bed &
breakfast.
We had lunch at the Waldo Arms Hotel, one
of the few restaurants in town. Here is
a shot of Ron on our way out of the hotel.
We walked around town to try and get our
bearings. Here are a few images.
We did stop in at the grocery store, and
true enough, everything was more expensive.
A bag of chips, for example, was $9.00.
As I write this at 4:00 pm, the weather looks
like it should clear later in the evening, so perhaps there will be some aurora
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Thanks for reading...
Mark
