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OK, so the Inside Passage deserves its own entry. All the guidebooks, tourist information centres, etc. say that it is
THE most spectacular ferry journey in the world: and you think
"Yeah, Right", but in this case, they may have a point...
It was an early old start yesterday. We had to be up at 05:00 to get to the ferry terminal for 05:30 (somewhat ridiculously they load the ferry at 06:00, but don't set off until 07:30...
Mark Woods - how happy would you have been???...anyway...). The first couple of hours on the MV Northern Expedition were not that great as we bounced across the tempestuous maelstrom of the Pacific Ocean (Queen Charlotte's Sound) to get from Vancouver Island into the shelter of the coast islands. But once we made it across the sound, the seas calmed down, the sun came out, and the scenery ramped it up a notch or two.
Lots of lovely islands, pebbly beaches, little First Nations villages on the shortline. In some ways it's a bit like the Croatian Coast between Split and Dubrovnik, but somewhat chillier and with more trees and whales (
stay with me on this). And talking of whales... (
see, I was going somewhere)... we saw two separate pods of humpbacks, something unidentified that could have been a Killer Whale (we saw its blow, but not what it was) and a couple of dolphins.
Unfortunately we missed the rare, white Kermode Bears (but, allegedly, we might get chance to see one later this week in Terrace...): and we didn't see any Moose.
It was a LONG old journey. For the last two hours of the voyage we were shrouded in sea fog: so we missed the approach into Prince Rupert itself. But given that by this time it was 21:00, and getting dark, we were none too worried about it. We were definitely ready to get off by the time we docked, but to be honest, it didn't really feel like we'd been on the boat for as long as we had.
Anyway, better go. Now that the sun is up, we need to go and see Prince Rupert (in the mist!)
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MV. Northern Expedition
