Alaska Day 2: Kenai Fjords

"I dare the chill, the wind, the sleepless nights, the exhausting days,

Coz I, my dear, am born impatient and the habit stays.

Till there is that old rush in my body that always feels new,

Till there is a world out there for me, till I am there to inhale the view."

The next day morning at the train station, I tried to recall when was my last train ride. I could not find an answer. I settled for the fact that it must have been the time when I was leaving Jamshedpur for the last time. Although, in US this was my first train ride (and this is something you don't get  to do much in this country). Huge windows, separate food and drinks compartment and plenty of out-worldly beautiful scenery passing by every moment. Also, I met Christina, for the first time had reindeer meat in that wrap (you know what they say - when in Rome... blah blah blah). With the sun gradually rising over the lake to our right, it presented one of the most pristine sights to feel re-energized in spite of a mere two and half hour sleep the last night. None of us five felt a bit tired the rest of the day.

After 4 hours of this ride, crossing mountains, lakes and tunnels, talking to fellow passengers (there were a few desis too, Bongs to be precise!), we reached the town of Seward. It is a fishing town of Alaska with population barely reaching 3,000. But the harbour appeared to be used for tourism as well. The crew of the cruise greeted us inside the boat and like a 10 year old, the first urge I had, as soon as I was in, was to get to the upper deck and grab the best place by the railings. Less I knew, how empty the deck was going to be later that afternoon when we will be cruising real fast in open waters. Relatively closer to the shore, the captain took us close to the natural habitats of the seals and puffins (No! they are not penguins, they are puffins. Penguins are not found in the northern hemisphere).

Little further into the waters, the captain announced that there might be a herd of Humpback whales around. To our advantage, the water was still. But the best way to spot a whale is by the water it blows out from its blowhole when it surfaces to breathe. The entire population of the boat was now on the deck (for the first of many times that afternoon) and the eyes were looking at every possible direction to get a glimpse of the blowhole exhaust or of the tail. Luckily, my camera had a good zoom in it and was capable of taking super-fast photographs. Looking at the whales, for the first time in my life, that too in the wild was only the beginning of many mixed bag feelings. I had seen these creatures only in those television channels. That day, it sure was a weird feeling of finally believing in their co-existence with us (rather my co-existence with them).

The sun was not at all harsh that day. Neither it was raining in spite of an overcast. It was at that delicate perfectness. The temperature was going further down as we moved ahead. And then we could see something different approaching. It had no visible way around. And it was again something that brought back the feeling of the planet-ness from the previous day.

We were now in front of the Holgate Glacier. Years and years of accumulation of snow and ice. Seemingly so very stagnant but in reality, it is probably the single most dangerous eroding element on earth that is responsible for shaping the features of the massive northern mountains and giving them their valleys.

Our boat gradually lowered its speed and finally came to a complete stop quiet close to the glacier. Numerous chunks of ice were floating in the water around us. With the engine making no sound, it was like standing in front of a massive castle with its ruins surrounding us. We were completely in a hypnotic state ogling at the glacier when the glacier itself decided to break the hypnotism. First, there was a sound, then it grew out to be a huge cracking noise, then it turned into the sound of a nearby explosion and that's when we saw it. A massive chunk of ice falling off from the glacier wall, breaking into pieces in mid way and falling into the water just below it. When anything powerful like this happens right in front of your eyes, you are not left with anything to say or think. But when you come back to senses, you realize that it is not just the planet-ness that is there in your thoughts. Your thoughts now have a planet that is alive. So very much alive. A fraction of whose life is loaned by every creature living on it and in time, returned back.

Before the boat had started its engine, I looked up once more and surveyed my surrounding. It was beautiful, it was surreal, it was heavenly (It was so many things from my little collection of adjectives). I could not help but give up to the feeling that I must have (must have) done something really nice in my life to have deserved to be at a place like that.

"Eikhanei Shib thake na?" I am sure this was the comment from Asish da which made our captain start the engine without any further delay ("Is this not where Shiva lives?").

By now, I had made a lot of conversation with one of the crew members, a lot of talk on whales and how I always wanted to see some Orcas, whom I find the most beautiful of them all. I was sitting inside on our way back when David (the crew member. I forgot his name, but lets just call him David) called me outside, on the deck. There he smiled and told me "We are about to see some Orcas." I grinned from ear to ear, never gave it a thought to hold back my joy! Everybody was back on the deck in a few minutes and we all watched these stunning creatures real close in total amazement. They were there, the most beautiful of all ocean dwellers in their own open wilderness. David had told me about one particular whale which had lost its mother in an oil spill. That calf went into physical depression and now it can be easily spotted - the one with the curled dorsal fin (bottom left in that picture). The story made me sad. But suddenly when we spotted a mother calf pair a little far away from our boat, the smile made its way back. And strangely, when you see them going away from you into the open ocean, you feel that immense happiness within you that only gets expressed in your elongated breathing.

Back to the harbour, we boarded our train back to Anchorage at around 630 in the evening. Shortly we realized, that it is past our dinner time as per good old EST. All five of us went to the restaurant car of the train and decided to enjoy our meals while there is still some sunlight remaining for us to enjoy the view outside through those gigantic glass windows. And truly enough, the scenery through those windows in that dusk were adding flavors to that exquisite salmon soup and that cod entree. The trip had indeed ended at its possible best!

If some day you decide to visit Alaska (even for a short duration like mine), I would request you to consider me as a fellow traveler.

Till next time,

Cheers!