And pretty well all of them live in the
same block. What a unique experience! I am not enjoying this at all ! What a mad weird place! We're Marianne and Chris in 2018 we quit the
nine to five and bought Trudy our camper van. We are currently on an adventure to
drive the circumference of the World. Good morning, we've had a fab couple of days here
in Valdez, it's still a good place to wake up to! but we were hoping to show you some cool
shots over the mountains, what mountains? they've all disappeared in the clouds! It was cloudy when we came in and it looks like it's going to be cloudy when we go out, although knowing Alaska weather, it might be clear just the other side of that mountain! I think Valdez is secretly sad we're going! Oh maybe ! Anyway today we have
got a five and a half hour drive to Anchorage, are you ready to
hit the road? I'm ready let's go! Just leaving the town and we saw a red squirrel,
it's an unusual sight for us because we don't really have them, not so common back home
anymore since those naughty greys got there! As we said look we've just
driven 10 - 15 miles and look at the waterfall, but it's blue
sky it's starting to brighten up! Look at the size of this waterfall, there's
still snow melting off the mountains and it's making a nice spectacle for
us this morning! That's fabulous. So we've just pulled over, look at this i said
the blue sky was going to come out and it has! And we've just seen this little track coming off
the road, and i thought it could be an epic picture opportunity. So i'm just going to have a walk
down and see if we can get a good shot of Trudy there you go guys look at this for a beautiful clear morning up here
in the mountains just north of Valdez we decided we couldn't bring Trudy down, but we just had to walk up this little
pinnacle and bring you to this spectacular view, wow ! i got a feeling that just over the top of this
hill there's gonna be a bit of an epic reveal shot! Wow look at that view, that is just epic ! Do you feel like you're on top of
the world - I am on top of the world! Aren't we just being treated
with the views this morning? So we jumped into Trudy and we're
carrying on our journey to Anchorage. i don't know whether you can see it? but
you can see the oil pipe there, heading towards Valdez, all the way from
Prudoe bay! That's a one hell of a long pipeline. We're just stopping for a quick hot dog and fill up with gas, because it's lunch time
and we still have about four hours to go! There's one thing about Alaska ... what
the hell are these bugs? Everything here is on steroids the beautiful views but also the bugs, best fill up with fuel while we can see it. Because you never know when the next
one's going to be, clean that windscreen well it just helps reduce the amount of guts! you're doing your bit to get rid of the mosquitoes I am ! And Trudy is the bug slayer! There is a bug on my boob ! Look at the size of that ! Get - Get Get off! In true husband fashion, i laughed
and got the camera rather than getting the bug off her - Sorry! He is such a knight in shining armour! i thought i'd capture the moment! okay all fuelled up. I'm not sure whether this is coming out but you can see the road, and then over the next bump there's road, and then over the next bump there's road, as far as the eye can see .... towards that hill right in the distance! 187 miles to go down this road, and the fridge
isn't locked! Holy moly - we've done it again! Okay all done! See how quick the weather changed here
in Alaska?! Just like that it's gone from blue sky to really dark clouds, and we
haven't sealed around the window - oh! We haven't - we've got a little bit of a
leak in the roof, so as soon as we stop - as soon as we stop for a dry day,
I have got to seal it ! Very dramatic sky, we've escaped the
rain so far, we're in between two storms! Just be aware when it's raining it's
harder to see the van killer potholes ! as we call them in the road, and every once
in a while the road just throws one at you! The drive to Anchorage is giving us some
more epic views mountains the whole way. We've come all the way, Valdez was the
other side of the mountains over there, we've come all the way around
and we're heading over there! So we just stopped by the side of the road
because on the way there is this most amazing view of a glacier coming off the mountain! It is another long drive ! Yep but it was worth it, because we got to spend an extra day in Valdez which is so far my favorite place here. 35 miles to go to Anchorage, we've got proper dual carriageways! I'm just keeping an eye out for moose because
apparently 380 moose have died on this road! and i don't want to be the reason another one gets it ! They're big you don't want to be hitting a moose! There you go we're just coming
into the outskirts of Anchorage we're boon docking at the back of Cabela's, We're having a party in the car park! this takes me back to when we were in Unye on the Black Sea coast, oh yeah and we had a party in the car park! And we were greeted
with rose petals thanks kids! that's just amazing Good morning well we had a fabulous night
catching up with our friends we had a whole party in the car park, and this morning before
we leave Anchorage and start heading south, we're going to go and have a look in Cabela's, it's apparently a big outdoor store! uh so we might be able to get an
Alaska baseball cap maybe? Yeah you want a baseball cap to to remember Alaska! I do. When we arrived yesterday the kids had actually written our name on a rock, and put it in the parking spot next to them - thank you thank you oh wow, oh my goodness! look at the
size of this store! Are those real? Is that how big they really are? yeah! That
is mad! Look at this fireplace, well if you look they've done it like they're
like pictures in the background, oh my goodness this store is insanely large! Look as you come in they've got a fireplace here looks like a front room, and we're going to go and see what they have but this is an outside store extraordinaire! I've never seen a store this big! They got grinders, camping stuff! they literally have everything there's
shoes here - a massive section of shoes! they got a huge section of fishing rods and fishing stuff . They got a huge display here of stuffed animals i'm not sure about the stuffed animal thing..... better to see him alive! There are some alive animals too, and then they've got a
fish tank here look there's salmon in them wow it's a very cool shop, it's like
a museum really isn't it? like a .... It's got literally got like everything you
could ever want for outside stuff! I remember watching a program years ago about tank builders
aquarium builders, and i reckon they were brought in for this tank! A huge section of camo clothing,
bear spray, archery, They have got loads of rifles, scopes, So while i was in Walmart yesterday, I bought some walkie-talkies because i thought it would be fun to keep in touch on a road trip with the guys, and we'll do a quick test - James, have
you got your walkie-talkie on? Hi Tread the Globe! Oh barking mad it's working good! Yep ! Come in Tread the Globe - are you ready? We're following you - off you go! okay so we jumped into Trudy and we are driving
to the town of Whittier. this is a little bit of an unusual town that we just had to check out. There are some strange places in the world and i think this might be one of them! I think it's one of them - it's a bit unique, the radios are working good, they got like a 20 mile radius. So we got no chance of losing them, but we thought it would be fun for the road trip, and Ben and Chesca when we meet
up somewhere down in Mexico we're already prepared! These would have been handy - and we'll be able to
radio the guys in front if we see a bear or we needed to stop, rather than flashing and trying
to wave our arms out the window, plus it's fun and also next time i go to Walmart and i lose
Marianne ... i'll be able to see which aisle she's on! We've got two roundabouts in a row here today, I remember uh years years ago the states didn't have roundabouts, and the National Lampoon's
European vacation movie with Chevy Chase kind of got stuck on a roundabout in the UK! But they do have them now
they make so much more sense than a four-way stop. Okay so we've done a bit of manoeuvring
and we are all now in a parked area, going on the hunt for moose! The elusive elusive Alaskan moose! Everyone's got their phones out Chris's got his camera out, I've parked Trudy, and i'm going to go and see this moose. How cool was that! We saw another moose, no horns we
haven't seen a big male with the horns yet, But it's on the list we're going to find one! The drive today down this road the Seward highway beautiful drive it's a little bit misty,
and the tide is out at the moment. so it does indeed look a little
bit like Weston super Mare! All the way along this road, there is a train line which will make a little bit more sense
when we get to Whittier - you'll see why! So this route just south of Anchorage is one of
the main sort of excursions one of the main trips - from Anchorage, people either go up to
Denali park and Fairbanks, or they come south towards Homer which is what we're doing for the next few days. We've just turned off the main highway, we've got 12 miles to go to Whittier I cannot believe how blue
that water is, and how much snow there is on the mountain for
this time of year - absolutely crazy! so there's only one way into Whittier, and that is through a tunnel, which you have to pay for it's a toll tunnel, in fact the tunnel is the longest tunnel in North America, so here we go we're just coming up to the toll booth now, hello, how are you? We're amazing, how are you? Have you driven through the tunnel before? Never, okay it's a single lane tunnel
which is two and a half miles - wow! $13 for your vehicle okay, next release is at 2 30. okay - once you pay you must stay here at the staging area, okay. 25 feet limit make sure your headlights on
and now stopping in the tunnel unless it is an emergency, And line up at lane number 3 - Okay Perfect - thank you - you're a rock star thank you very much, see you later - I'll subscribe! Thank you ! There you go lane number three, So yeah there's only one tunnel in and one tunnel out and it's only one lane, so you just have to join the queue
and wait until they let you go through. It says on the sign there that there is a release
at 2.30, so you have to wait until 2 30 to come out. So we've all parked up, we've got 25 minutes to wait, so we've all dug in and had a sandwich whilst we're waiting, quick lunch before the tunnel opens! Half an hour wait! So they're sending us through one lane at a time, trucks going first. Okay we're off - what a unique experience! Wow that's quite strange isn't it ? this is really weird! What happens if the tunnel collapses ? We would end up being in Whittier forever ! the tunnel's a little bit weird guys, i'm not enjoying this at all! no good for your claustrophobia, i really find this unpleasant ! We'll be out soon! you can see the wettest running down the rocks as well! It's a bit like the Georgian ones, where they're not lined it's just like you can see the rocks, that's weird isn't? it is really really unpleasant! Yes i can see daylight coming! There you go - we have made it out! What a mad, weird, place! Bizarrely looks like exactly where we went in! Doesn't it look like we've just done a full
circle? it does, but we haven't! More snow, there's a waterfall coming down there, Oh there is a glacier there! a huge glacier up there! What does that say? Whittier the
gateway to Prince William sound. the guy in the visitor centre said
Whittier is just wet all the time and cloudy and it was sunny when we came through
the tunnel, and now we've come out it's cloudy! It doesn't make any sense it's
only two miles away, it's got its own climate! So here you go we're just coming into Whittier now it's a very small, very strange little place. That's it! Andy doesn't know where to go, you're spoilt for choice on where to turn now! We're just going to try and ...
uh are you going to go that way? We were going to park in there, but it
looks like it's just for ferry passengers? So we will just look around. They have also got a car ferry here, that
goes to i think it goes to Valdez. Whittier is an ice free port and back in 1941
a Port and railroad project was started by the US army to get fuel and other products into Alaska. In November 1943 the first train ran through the tunnel. The Whittier tunnel is a massive two and a half miles long, and is the second longest tunnel in North America! The first time you could get there by road was back in 2000 when the state of Alaska combined the railroad tunnel and a road. There's basically just one road in and out! So the town actually has about 200
residents that live here, and pretty well all of them live in the same block, which is one of the
old army blocks from back in the day. And there's are some other army blocks here but they're
uninhabited due to asbestos and stuff like that. And look there's another
one of these great libraries the detail it's so lovely that
somebody's taken all this time and energy to make something so beautiful to share
books in a place that just seems like at the end of nowhere, something we've noticed
a lot since we've arrived here in Alaska there's lots of chalk drawings on the floor, i think it's just a way of entertaining the kids and keeping them busy while mom and dad are spending their money in the shops, but it's a really pleasant thing to see and there's always
some lovely messages including one that says love right outside Whittier fudge, which makes me think i should go and check it out! So just walking through with you it's
not particularly big, but there is a underground tunnel, that leads
i think it goes to the other side of town, to the block where everybody lives? In fact i
was just chatting to the girl in the fudge shop and she was saying to me that Whittier is actually
known as town of the tunnels, there is a tunnel that goes under to the school, she was saying that one of the processing the fish processing factories also has accommodation for their workers, and there are also some cabins in the wood now how cool would that be? There apparently are three bars, and i was saying to her as a young beautiful you know hip girl in this building do they put all the cool noisy kids at one end? and all the old grandmothers and granddad's at the other end? And she said no because the building is so solid - this building was actually designed for the captains, the majors, the generals and the building over there that's now derelict, yeah was for the lower grunts and soldiers - so that building is way stronger and that's why that one is still going and that
one's been left to rack and ruin - there you go! Because this micro climate here it's cloudy um most of the time which makes it the
perfect place for a secret army base! Now a city of the tunnels there will be
many many many tunnels to various locations but apparently she said the one that is loved
the most is the one for the school kids, to be able to go to school in the winter and
not have to face the elements because it is freezing ! and scary! oh my goodness guys We thought you were coming before and scared someone else !! i heard it - i heard it ! so there you
go we've come out of the tunnel almost takes you to the
block - the accommodation block. What do you reckon do you want to move to
Whittier? No - but there is a ferry directly to Valdez! So we just met a local lady that lives in
the in the building block and apparently in the basement there's some old photos,
so we might as well go and have a look. And before you come in you have to make sure that all your gear doesn't smell of fish! Oh there you go, look there's pictures here these are the old buildings, the old pictures
of the building here being built. There you go, how cool does that look for
a little gift shop - isn't that amazing? Fascinating, we were just chatting to the lady
inside and she was saying to us, that walking around they're finding bones, like prehistoric bones, because the glacier is receding, and just digging and panning for gold, they're finding bones! Apparently less than 20 years ago they found a full mammoth! So just in the back of this store they've actually got this sign here talking about the massive earthquake in 1964 that sent a tsunami over here, and look what it did! This is the actual tire from a truck and the force of the water was so strong it put a stick through the tire! All the way through ! That's crazy! In fact it's a plank! If you look at it from this angle
you can see it was actually a plank of wood, that's gone through you can see by my hand! So this is the harbour port of Whittier. where all this mist is, and just over there where
the blue is that's on the other side of the tunnel. These are the old barracks here, this is the
old accommodation, but now they are all derelict looking a little bit grim. This building looks
incredibly depressing really cold war style grey building. But speaking to local people they've
told us that the expense that it would take to safely deconstruct this building, remove it, or replace it, would cost so much that actually it's not worth the bother, so it's just been left to rot. And been abandoned forever. We've driven just out of town and there's some cabins in the woods here. We found this little park up,
there's a beautiful river down there look at that! I can't believe - can you imagine living
in one of those cabins in the wood? Oh my goodness this would be so cool! Well they've got these nice picnic areas with with barbecues, smells good it smells good Ah cool and you caught dinner by the looks of it? Wow look at this for a spot! How did you get down? over there ... oh this way - thank you! There's a dead end that's
like a viewing platform oh this right here oh yeah this is amazing! oh my goodness that's Alaska freezing, that is
ice cold ice cold Marianne - how fantastic is this this is a real little spot of ...
look bald eagles, right there! that's amazing! We wandered down to the end of this
little pinnacle here, where we parked up, you can see the town over there. Andy spotted a sea otter somewhere, didn't you? just over there in front of this boat, there is also this fantastic view, of that glacier - look at that! Right there. There's all these mussels these baby
mussels all over the rocks here, it's a nice spot cheers guys, see you later! Okay we're going through the tunnel
again, that's the weather on this side cloudy, let's see what it's like when we come out? thanks for watching we hope you enjoyed
this episode if you want to see more then check out this video
right here, see you next time!
