Rob's Roamings 2023

Weather wise, a perfect day to spend at sea- hot sunshine, so most people were on deck. I think I might have annoyed some people as I ran rond the running track 30 times. The running track was bordered by a lot of sun loungers! At the end of the day, on our approach to Vancouver, we sailed through some really pretty fjords.

Ketchikan is a really attractive frontier town , steeped in the history of the first settlers here, who were gold prospectors.  We didn't have much time before we were whisked off for a canoe trip and Jeep drive in the outback. The paddle across the lake wasn't very exciting, but afterwards we were given the chance to drive jeeps through some very rough terrain on rocky and very bumpy tracks. An experience neither of us would want to do again. It was Extreme, but rewarded with a nice view at the top.

 Alaska's capital, Juneau, is an ugly looking place viewed from the port.  Quite busy and uninspiring from a visitor point of  view.  So we were glad that we'd opted for two trips today. The first was what we thought would be a gentle float downstream in a a raft. It turned out to be white water rafting! After a small row across the lake in front of Meldenhall Glacier, we headed for the rapids of the river. Great fun taking on grade 3 rapids!, after which it was what we'd come for - a peaceful float further down the river, followed by healthy snacks and hot apple cider. In the afternoon , we went to The Glacier Gardens, a area of temperate rainforest , husbanded by one man over 40 years. It's a beautiful place. Then on to Nugget falls, pouring water into the lake next to the glacier.  Huge powerful torrents pouring off the mountainside.  Amazing!

 Day 3 took us (almost) to the face of  Hubbard Glacier.  The blue colours of the ice are beautiful and inspiring. The ship stayed quite close (0.5kmaway) for about 2 hours enabling lots of photos to be taken . Here are just a a few. We saw a huge chunk fall off the front of it. Our friend caught it on video:  It really is awesome to be this near to a glacier and to see it in action.

  Sitka is a very small town and which was originally the state capital of Alaska. The castle overlooking the town is where the American flag replaced the Russian Flag in 1866 when Russia sold Alaska for a paltry $7.2 million.      There is not much to see in this town , but they do look after what they've got.        In the afternoon, we went on a Kayak trip around the islands North of the town. Neither of us had kayaked before- we were well looked after, - it was great fun, and incredibly peaceful paddling around these small islands

 .... is a strange expression when our ship, "Eclipse", is powered by huge marine diesel engines. With 2,998 other passengers, we departed Vancouver headed into what we thought would be the icy North (although "icy" is a slight misnomer. In Summer, Alaska is largely  now and ice free, apart from the mountain tops) A full day "At Sea" followed to relax and enjoy the chilled out feeling you get when on board a well appointed cruise ship. We kept bumping the various friends we had made on our trip across Canada. Our dinner table for the week by fortunate fate was to be shared with the two people we had become most friendly with- Rosemary and Doug , from the Lake District.