Dark Passage - Travels on the Inner Road II

Not to mention the fascination of the abomination. I learned, in short, a new way to read. I have been chasing the same buzz ever since. The very act of describing it makes it harder to grasp — and that makes the challenge all the more enticing. But there are other reasons ink gets spilled in universities and colleges. I could then, and can now, raise a few objections. Plus the fact that it is absurd to insist on modern values in a book written and published in a different age. Ultimately, however, certainty here is as elusive as it is elsewhere in the book.

Forty years and forests of paper after Achebe first raised his objections, there remains the fact that the Africans in Heart of Darkness are not portrayed in the same way as the Europeans. It will always be uncomfortable, even though we could argue forever about where the problem lies. Nor will anyone else provide definitive answers. But you can both love a book and find it troubling. The journey continues, even for books that are more than years old.

See a Problem?

Yet part of that journey into understanding was also one into disillusionment and disquiet. Topics Joseph Conrad Journeys in literature. Order by newest oldest recommendations. Show 25 25 50 All. Threads collapsed expanded unthreaded. Loading comments… Trouble loading?

Dark Passage

We waited a little to see if he came back, and just as we decided he had gone, he popped out about m further down and crossed there, making a truck and car slow as he did. As we pulled off, we both happened to glance to the left and spotted another black bear down a chained off road. This we did capture an image of. No more wildlife before Terrace, and too early for a lunch stop, we kept on going, and turned onto the BC37 to head to Kitimat, a road good for moose spotting at the right times which doesn't include June. We turned back at Kitimat, and returned the way we had come, 60km back to Terrace, where we stopped for lunch.

We then set off back west along the Yellowhead, before turning north up the gravel road to Shames Mountain ski resort.

We drove the 13km each way up the mountain, it was in very good condition and Olaf took it in his stride, even the steep sections. We stopped for mountain and valley views and then spotted a dog like creature crossing the road ahead of us. No photos to verify, but we think it was a young wolf. Back on the 16 we ran back alongside the Skenna, weather a bit more sunny now. No more bears in bear meadow area, and so we stopped at the Provincial Parks we had missed out on the way east. At Exchamsiks River I took the short nature walk to the river and at Prudhomme Lake, well you get the same view of the lake as you can from the road.

We got back into Prince Rupert around 5pm, took a drive down to the harbour to see if the Bald eagles were still around but not this afternoon, then headed to the Alaska Marine Highway System terminal. We were not the first vehicle in line and I had a mooch around to check out the place but no sign of life.

At just before 5. At 6pm, the staff came up to the queuing lanes, measured the vehicles, gave you a length ticket and then you walked down the hill to the Terminal about m to get your tickets issued.

Then back to the car, around 7pm we were allowed to drive into the Terminal and then queue up at border control and customs as the next stop was the USA. Another wait in line, it was starting to remind me of a busy Disney ride, where you move a bit, watch a bit, move a bit etc. More waiting, then boarding started just before 10pm 9pm Alaska time , we were nearly first on and got our first clear look at the MV Matanuska, our home for nearly the next two days.

Then after a quick look round decided it was time to climb into our bunks, not long after we set sail just after 11pm. On first look at our cabin Liz had asked had we boarded a prison ship by mistake! The ship is a bit older than I am, and is a working ferry, not a semi cruise ship as the BC ferry had felt like, so it was to be expected. However, once she had settled in and confirmed it did indeed have power points behind the drop down table she eventually started to feel comfortable in it, the three berth giving us more room than the two berth we looked into, and a good position forward with two big windows giving great starboard views from cabin 3C.

Dawn is very early up here at this time of year, and by 3am it was light, we were awake and had showered as we arrived in Ketchican at We toured the deck a while, looking at the tented village that springs up on the rear of the boat. Only passengers were on board from PR, and only three tents. Photos on the ship of later in the summer, showed the stern section around the Solarium looking like an aerial view of Glastonbury festival, but not this time of year.

Inside Passage to Alaska and back, live Trip Report and Blog - Road Trips Forum - TripAdvisor

I had debated getting off for a look at Ketchican, whilst we were in port for the 4. A lot more people got on at Ketchican, many of them First nation or Native Americans, heading for a festival in Juneau. After we sailed on towards Wrangell at Liz discovered the window sill was a perfect seat to look at the scenery and anything passing.

1. Internet: « Que sais-je ? » n° 3073 (French Edition)!
2. Its No Accident: Breakthrough Solutions to Your Childs Wetting, Constipation, UTIs, and Other Potty Problems.
3. Scarlet Revenge.
4. What future for human rights in a non-western world??
5. Vospers Revenge: Book Three of the Dragon Stone Saga?
6. The Believer.

We were due to leave at 4. I walked around town, took some shots of the boat repairs taking place, the main street, and the canvassing for the 4th July celebrations queen. Then found a bar, no name, attached to a liquor store, where I chatted with the locals over a pint or two of Alaska Brewing Cos offerings. Then back on the Matanuska in good time, welcomed by Liz waving as I walked along the bridge to the car deck.

We set sail for the next call in Petersburg at 7. This part of the marine highway was the narrowest and we crawled along at what felt like walking pace to stop the ferry from making too much of a wake. This section was stunning and made all the more beautiful by the blue sky, fluffy clouds and occasional rainbow. The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner, chatting in the bar and watching the mountains go by and I noted that we now had on-board. We eventually retired around 10pm, whilst it was still light outside. We were awake again early and hiked around the deck several times to get our legs working before our 7am breakfast.

We debated whether we would go into town, maybe to catch the start of the First Nations event. However, the car was blocked in and we have been to Juneau before, so we decided to use the time to catch up on the blog etc. Mostly all sorted, we headed for an early lunch to find it had been delayed by a fire drill… a fire on the car deck, resulting in an evacuation via life boat… passengers were asked to stay out of the way while all staff on-board were involved.

It was really interesting watching them lower the life boat into the sea and sail it away from the ferry and back. The drill meant our planned early lunch turned into a late lunch and the ferry loaded later than scheduled. We left Juneau about 30 minutes late. We decided to sit up on deck for remaining 4 hours of our ferry journey and we sat on the non-sunny side of the vessel looking out for any marine wildlife and enjoying the stunning views of glaciers, mountains and snow.

We had not seen too much marine life on the voyage, but as we left Juneau things improved, and Liz, looking at some floating debris found it was a whale fluke and then we were whale spotting, we saw several right up against the coast way too far for decent pictures though. I then spotted a large dorsal fin, Orca! Not just one, but a pod of at least five. They were travelling south as we were travelling north, so we only had a moment to grab a few shots. Quite pleased with ourselves the remaining hour went really quickly, with more views of glaciers as we pulled into our final marine highway destination, Haines.

We said goodbye to our cell and made our way down to the car deck to find poor Olaf had been further blocked in by a boat with no vehicle attached to it. We had to wait for all the other Haines bound vehicles to manoeuvre themselves out before finally the owner of the boat arrived, hitched it up and moved it out of our way.

The car behind us and Olaf were finally able to disembark and were waved and apologised to by all the staff as we exited the ferry 45 minutes after docking! Our home for the next two nights, a cabin in the woods, was located south of town I then went out for for supplies, to find Haines mostly closed apart from the Haines Quick Shop and liquor store near to the cruise ship dock. I got some coffee and a few breakfast type things and headed back after a quick drive around the town. Blog link is hare for photos, text not much different, other than a bit of editing when Liz wrote it.

When we passed through Haines five years ago on our move to Alaska, we had dinner at the old hotel. If I remember correctly, it was very good.