Thursday July22, Homer Spit, AK

120 Miles

Tonight we are in the most amazing campsite, out on the spit at the tail end of the road on the Kenai Peninsula…and as Sarah would say…”I can see Russia from my kitchen window”!

We were feeling a bit apprehensive as to what we would find here, but although it is really busy, it has a wonderfully relaxed feeling with fisherman coming ashore carrying huge quantities of fish and boats and cars everywhere.

It was quite a different story in Soldotna this morning. This town is frantically busy with fisherman everywhere as the salmon are running, but they seem in such a great hurry to get out and catch fish that they forget about the common courtesy that we have grown accustomed to. We collected a few supplies in town and were jolly pleased to head south. We did stop though at the information centre and walked down to the fishwalks that follow the river, to watch as hundreds of fishermen were harvesting sockeye salmon, in what they call “Combat” fishing….wall to wall. In the short time we were there we saw a number of fish getting caught.

The roads got a bit quieter as we headed south, and we called into Ninilchik, a very refreshing change. Old houses nestled into the hills and a fishing port. It will be a stop for us when we head back north again.

Homer is as far as the road goes. We drove around and spotted a small campsite not far from the harbour that had a vacant site and it was right on the shore. A great little spot to spend a few days, especially as we are connected to power and have wifi. We were chatting with the neighbouring camper for a few minutes, and the next thing we now he arrives over with 2 huge fillets of fresh sockeye salmon for out tea and 2 jars of smoked salmon…amazing.

After getting settled in we pulled on our jeans and coats before heading off for a walk. It was 14 degrees but the wind was really icy. The sheltered harbour has hundreds of fishing boats moored, a large number are charter boats to go out to the halibut fishing grounds…tourism is very important. There is a great atmosphere.

We called into the Salty Dawg Pub for a beer, what a place, people have written on dollar notes and they are pinned all around the walls and ceilings along with bras and knickers! 

This has obviously been around for years and the wooden tables are deeply indented with initials.  

And finally I have seen bald eagles…we had been told we would see them here and sure enough they are sitting on posts and flying around. Will have to do some serious photography in the next few days.

I baked the salmon in foil with some onions and a bit of salt and pepper and butter….what superb flavour and a great welcome to Homer.