Wednesday. It was
a shorter day in port today at Juneau which is the capital of Alaska. I always
thought Anchorage was the capital but nope, it’s Juneau. Deb and I found
ourselves saying Juneau, you know, who know, Juneau, for the first five minutes
until we realized we were not 10 anymore. We docked early (before 8 which you
know is outrageous to me) and pretty much had breakfast and met our tour for
the morning around 9.30am. Today, we took a helicopter flight up to Mendenhall
Glacier and walked around with some guides who were up there for the day. We
scored it lucky and got front seats in the helicopter and I was pretty thrilled
to be up there amongst the dials and gauges like the nerdy student pilot I am.
There were three helicopters that flew us all out
to the glacier all flying in single file. It reminded us of a scene from the
beginning of a MASH episode but in a much different scenario. It was nothing
short of amazing to fly over the mountains and glacier and then land on it. The
ground was icy despite looking like powder from above. We were issued special
spikey boots that slipped over our shoes so we wouldn’t slip over. The weather
was brilliant – cool of course but the sun was shining which is the best for
glaciers to show their colour better. The guides have a hardened tent up there
in which they shelter for the day in between the constant flow of ‘ice hunters’
flying in. They are up there for about 12 hours a day and many were native
Alaskans and as we have found, they were super friendly and great to chat with.
They had a big Alaskan flag in the ice and it felt
like we were doing a moon landing. There were small rivers of glacier water
flowing and I braved the cold water to have a mouthful. Deb kept asking me to
keep doing it so she could get a better photo – I don’t think she clicked that
it was freezing bloody cold water and my hand was going numb by the second. We
could see where the glacier used to be many years ago before it receded to its
current position. Glaciers are very interesting natural features and I knew
nothing about them before we came here. But, I have to say that seeing these
massive ice structures is magic and well worth the visit to Alaska.
Deb’s cold has taken hold pretty hard and she is battling
it with some cold/flu tablets and rest as much as possible. It’s so typical to
get sick on holidays – the body just collapses with rest and falls vulnerable
to every bug in the air. Fingers crossed I don’t get it next. I am writing this
as we sail out of Juneau, you know, who know, Juneau (couldn’t resist) and the
weather is warm. So warm in fact that people are in their shorts and shirts and
dare I say ‘bikinis’ – is there no age limit for those things? The people below
me are sharing a bottle of red and I finally got to see the ‘elephant’ above
me. Wish I could say something about their stomping and running !!
Tomorrow is our last port stop and we have another
tour booked. Now it’s onto dinner, more food and more food and more food. I
don’t know how people do this for weeks and weeks. I took my dessert outside to
the big screen to catch the last hour of Star Wars The Last Jedi. I wrapped
myself in blankets but it was great to watch the big screen in the open air.
We
met some lovely people tonight from Melbourne (S&T). We had a good chat and
a laugh and it made us miss Australia even more. We were discussing our
thoughts about cruising and they said that there are 3 types of people on
cruises - newly weds, over feds and the
almost dead !! This is so bloody true.
Whilst I think we fall into the over feds, I think the way Deb is battling this
cold I’d say she could well be in the almost dead category.
Thursday. We
were late into Ketchikan as we left Juneau last night late – not sure why
though. It was a very long line that snaked along Deck 6 in and out of the
dining rooms as people queued to get off the ship. We were only a little late
for our tour but everyone was in the same boat (pardon the pun). Today’s tour
was a wildlife fast boat cruise for a few hours. We saw a whale breaching and
got to see it put it’s tail up before a deep dive – totally awesome to see but
not quick enough with the camera. We trawled along the water’s edge to look for
black bears and just when it seemed like it was not our day, the captain
spotted a black bear laying on the grass. Wow, no way would I have seen that.
The boat slowly floated towards the shore and even though we could watch it for
a few minutes, it got up and walked around a bit before heading into the
forest. It was better to have seen one bear than no bear. We also saw several
bald eagles which are quite majestic birds. We’ve seen quite a lot up here in
Alaska.
Ketchikan is Alaska’s first city with a population
around 8,000. It was the first major community travelers come to as they
journey north. This place is known for salmon, salmon and salmon. Five
different species of Pacific salmon are found around these waters. But it also
known for the largest collection of totem poles in the world. After the cruise
we had a quick bite for lunch and then Deb headed back to the ship to bed. She
is pretty snowed under with this cold and I managed to get her some strong
cold/flu tablets today that should help her a bit more. I headed into the town
to check out the sights and grab some last minute Alaskan gifts. Like all the
Alaskan ports, there are more jewellery shops than New York 5th
Avenue and I still don’t know why. I found it hard to buy an Alaskan made gift
as most things were cheap trash or made in China. I ended up with a cheeseboard
made of Alaskan Birch and a little bear eating salmon made of Jade which is the
State gem (it's State mineral is Gold).
This is our last Alaskan port and we sail now direct to Vancouver and our cruise ends. I still haven't found a bingo game yet so I"m going to see if there's any action tomorrow. I've heard it is on but I'm just not on the grapevine apparently !! Let's hope Deb recovers a bit more before Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment