From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

6.45 am ... it is very early to get up on a sunday morning! And definately too early as we did not sleep a lot this past month as we were preparing this trip.

We took all our stuffs out of the car and gave it back to the rental. Then we stopped in the departure hall to put our bikes in the cardboard boxes. Once they were checked in, we could see our bikes taking the usual way of all oversize luggages. We are worried as usually: will they be in Anchorage when we will get there? Will they be in one piece? We had 2 more hours to kill before boarding. So we went outside and had some yoghourt cake that Sara had baked.

This is a long flight ... 10 hours ... We went far North, passe Denmark, then some Novegian fjords and the Arctic ocean and its icefield: it is so pretty! We saw a lot of cracks in the icefield. Is it beacause of the earth getting warmer? Or is that normal for this time of the year? We cannot answer those questions.

We tired to kill the time as we could. On Condor flights, you have to pay to get headphones for music and movies: 6 Euros. We had deceided not to take some ... and tired to sleep a bit.

We also listened to the conversations around us and discovered that 4 Slovenian people, who were sitting just behind us, came to Alaska to climb Mount McKinley. This mount is one of the highest mount of the wolrd and the most difficult. The uphill grade is not too hard, but the weather conditions can be very hard. A lot of people tries to climb it and many never came back.

We arrived in Anchorage on time, after seeing the large plains of Alaska. It is so beautiful!

Going through the border went fast, we were the only plane to land at 11am. the custom guards tok our digital prints as well as a picture of us. We are in the American files now!

We took our bikes that travelled pretty well and put them together. At 1pm we were riding them and went to discover Anchorage. The way to get to the Bed & Breakfast we booked is easu and fast. We tok our time and were followed by clouds of mosquitos ... Insect repellent will be definately compulsory!

While in a junction, we hesitated ... turned our head ... and saw a moose which looked at us, not suprised at all, eating slowly... We stopped and took lots of pictures, of course!!

We are too early to go to the Bed & Breakfast. So we went into town and looked for a bank (not easy at all on a sunday!!) and a place to have lunch. We began our "American Food" regime by ... a burger! What a surprise, is not it? We also began to go around in the shops to find our equipment (we have not bought it in france, because it is less expensive here and there are more choices). The people working overthere were so suprised in front of our bikes and envied us a lot!

At abour 5pm, we went to our Bed & breakfast. Our hosts are very nice and told us that we could, if we wanted, leave our bikes in their garage, that will be locked. Of course, we accepted this nice proposition!

We throw our bags in the room and went to REI, a big store that is specialized into outdoor gears. Sébastien had found it on the Internet from france. We bought some warm clothes! Then we stopped to have a salad and went to bed at 8.30 pm ... very tired but happy to be here!!