Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
We liked our seats just fine and the narration was plenty colourful. Our driver, Gloria, is
a retired lady who has been wheeling these buses around the park every summer for the
past 14 years. She readily admits to being a parks junkie. Now that she has officially re-
tired from her winter job she has tried to cut down the number of bus tours she does in the
summer too but cannot help herself. She must get out into her back yard a couple of times
a week at the minimum. So why not get paid for it?
The winter jobsheretired fromwasassupportstafftothe American Antarctica Expedition.
In Antarctica! For her, returning to Alaska after a winter at the South Pole must feel like
Hawaii.
Her partner is a park ranger here so they've hiked virtually every inch of it. She is a great
wildlife spotter and a fount of knowledge about the animals, the history of the park and
the geology of the terrain. For example, if a grizzly sow has not put on enough weight in
the summer to nourish herself and the baby cubs through the winter hibernation, the fertil-
ized eggs within her uteri will not implant. They are simply absorbed back into her body so
there are no babies for that year. Sounds sensible.
We also learned that caribou are the world's sorriest creatures because an especially evil
species of fly has chosen caribou as their preferred host body for reproduction. The flies
implant their eggs in the caribou's nose where the larvae hatch then crawl down into the
increasingly demented caribou's throat to develop.
Another kind of fly plants its eggs in the caribou's haunch. When the larvae hatch they
crawl along the crazed caribou's spine until they find a nice fat place to grow. There they
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