North to Alaska - apologies to Johnny Horton...

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North to Alaska and back to civilisation.

Ok, so we have been back home for 6 days already, and this is not being sent from Vancouver really... You have no idea how much things accumulate whilst travelling; not to mention repairing the front fence, which was a job I had been putting off for months (3 or 4) so I could get as much done as possible on the kit car before the trip.

Picking up from where we left the Rocky Mountaineer back in Vancouver, we had 2 nights in the very nice Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. I always find it fascinating when looking at an itinerary that says 2 nights as it really means only 1 day. Nevertheless, we were very happy to be in those surroundings. On the day that we had in Vancouver, the tour took us for another trip around Stanley Park (as we had really only a very quick visit last time) and to one of Vancouver’s sight-seeing attractions – the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Geoff had been building up on his tolerance to heights and was fairly confident about this particular excursion. Things changed very rapidly however when the Suspension bridge was sighted! No doubt it can support 22 double-decker buses, a herd of stampeding elephants and much more, but...it moved, violently, and so did Geoff – a long way from any chance of accidently finding himself on the bridge and in need of his brown corduroy trousers! With the exception of one other, who started and then retreated, our entire group made the journey across the swinging, oscillating journey through hell. The bridge was created initially to avoid the need to climb down and up almost sheer cliff’s that contain the Capilano River. It has certainly been upgraded and is a very substantial structure now, but Geoff was not standing on anything that moves when the next step is 137 mts down.

Next stop was a flying visit to Granville Island markets. As we had been there on a previous trip, we did not mind too much that the ‘free time’ exploration was only 30 minutes long, but really it could have been a lot longer for the others. I guess the idea was just to give people a taste of something they could enjoy later if they chose. So, after a bit of free time in the afternoon, it was time to enjoy the hospitality of APT as we bid farewell to the 4 travellers from the UK. They were great sports as you can imagine it would not have been great being a Pom amongst 40 Ozzies... Mind you they were very diplomatic about the whereabouts of the Ashes at the moment.

Next day was the beginning of the end. We had our bags packed and ready for porting to the ship where we were to commence our cruise north to Alaska. As we were leaving Canada and entering America we had to go through border control. Fortunately the cruise line people have got this down to a fine art; as you can imagine moving 1800+ people onto a single vessel in a matter of a couple of hours could be a tricky job if not handled efficiently. I have to say it was almost painless – just like being at the dentist...

Eventually our bags caught up with us, although we had plenty to do orientating ourselves with the ship. Seven days later, we were still getting lost! The weather was very kind to us as we set sail in the mid afternoon and headed for the Inside Passage – no, it is a body of water – not in the ship (or colonoscopy for those of you with that mindset)!! Before boarding the ship the Tabers and Ritchies had purchased 7 bottles of wine between them to be shared on the balcony before dinner which was at 7.45. This worked very well, but it wasn’t until the day before we disembarked that we were told that we could be ordering cheese and crackers to our cabin for a snack to go with said wine. Ah well you win some and lose some. And so to dinner, which we had elected to be “Open Seating”; that obviously means something else when on a ship, as we still had set times at which we could line up, and more particularly, only one restaurant where we could be ‘open seated’. That small issue was somewhat exacerbated when we arrived at one of the appointed times to be told that we had to wait until a table was ready while others, who had obviously not chosen “Open Seating” , walked up and were shown to a table straight away... a lesson for next time/others?

If we had not put on weight on the trip before this, we had little hope of avoiding it now. The menus were extensive and all 3 courses were very inviting. I mean we really had to make sure each course supported the other – right?

The second day at sea was a full sailing day as we were to visit only 3 towns on the trip, meaning that we by-passed one town on the outbound journey so that it was not all ‘days at sea’ on the return. More eating... exploring...eating ...trying to avoid the fine art auction...eating...trying to avoid the casino...eating...trying to avoid the jewellery auction... oh, and ...you know.

And so it was that we arrived in Juneau. This is the capital of Alaska, and was home to Sarah Palin when she was in politics. It is also home to approx. 30,000 other people and the biggest town we were to visit. We had elected to take 2 tours here, one to some private gardens and the Mendenhall Glacier and the second to the Mt Roberts Tramway. The gardens were extraordinary due to the fact that they extended over nearly 500’ vertically (feet – we were in America) and secondly because they had utilised the trees that they had to remove as upside down tree planters. That’s right; the trunk had been planted in the ground and the root system used as a plateau on which to grow all manner of flowing plants. It was here that we were introduced to the Devils Club (or Devils Claw) plant which is a particularly nasty, poisonous, thorny and ugly weed. Well, I call it a weed, but the indigenous people of Alaska have found that they can tame the plant (very carefully I would suggest) to produce medicines for all manner of ailments, from ingredients for cosmetic products to muscular aches and pains from various parts of the plant. There was another nasty plant called Skunk cabbage which we learned that the bears use when waking from their periods of hibernation as it produces copious amounts of diarrhoea to expel the faecal plug which bears form before hibernation by eating gravel and soil (see you are getting a biology lesson here) – nothing like a bit of Skunk Cabbage to clear the bowels after 6 months in a cave! I don’t want to be around to see that!!! After that piece of information the Glacier was a bit ho, hum – just kidding. It was our first encounter with a glacier that was terminating in a large body of water, and although the viewing area is several hundred metres from the face, it was still spectacular.

The tramway turned out to be a bit of a non event as it was very late in the afternoon and the main area had been booked for a wedding. So when we got to the top of the mountain, everything was closed – except of course for the ubiquitous gift shop! The clouds came down before we made the descent and the view was not as spectacular as it could have been. The tramway is definitely something you have to do as it rises from the waterfront, across the road and then straight up with only one supporting pylon until you reach the top station. There are only 2 gondolas and they operate as counterbalance to each other. On reaching the top, the town of Juneau is literally at the tip of your toes.

Enough dilly dallying, more eating to be done and then we were off to the next port on our itinerary and nearly the most northerly point of the journey. Skagway is a VERY little town that boasts a permanent population of 800, but that get up to a bit over 3000 during summer – and that does not count the cruise boat people – just those who come to service the incoming tourists! There are also about 12 diamond and jewellery shops to service said tourists. Fortunately we were the only ship in port at the time, so things were not too crowded. We did however happen to be in town at peak hour and have a photo of the traffic jam – that’s right, two cars in the same street – at the same time. Amazing, but true.

All is not bad in Skagway as it is the ‘railhead’ for the White Pass and Yukon Route railway which carried miners across the mountain range and on to the goldfields (although the gold rush had all but finished by the time the railway was completed). It is an amazing piece of engineering taking a railway up some 3000’ (1000 mts) in slopes that would challenge a mountain goat. I mean they were seriously steep in a lot of places, and there were occasions when you could not see any ground beside the carriage – on the downhill side. This area is also popular for trekking and the railway people have located a couple of renovated disused carriages along the route as temporary trekker accommodation. Believe it or not, but at one of these carriages, Marg and I both saw a couple from South Aust. that we had chatted to in the Auckland terminal as we waited for our connection over to Canada three weeks earlier. It was my previous boss in Lake Louise, and now fellow travellers on the same flight to Canada – spooky. Maybe it fitted with Skagway – almost a ghost town.

The next day we sailed on to Glacier Bay Nat. Park. We could not stop, but were able to sail up close to one of the glaciers (Reid) and watch as small chunks fell from the ever moving river of ice. It was agreed that one of the most amazing things about this glacier was the incredible noise it made almost continuously as it moved and broke the solid ice somewhere mostly unseen behind the face. Occasionally, the sound would herald a fall into the ocean and cameras would swing around to where the sound came from, but more often than not there was nothing to show for it – at least not that day. We viewed 2 other glaciers, one quite small (Lampluph) that was not very active and the massive John Hopkins Glacier that we could only get to within approx. 5 mls. (8kms) from as the waterway narrowed quite a lot and there was concern that the ship’s wake would cause unnecessary damage to the face of the glacier and also the seals were pupping at that time. Disappointing, but perfectly understandable, and the long lens brigade managed some good shots anyway. This day was a parka day on deck and was very cold, as you can imagine.

Ok, there was more eating and drinking as we headed to the last port of call for this voyage. We woke to a miserable rainy day in Ketchikan. The cloud was very low and covered parts of the town, and the part that was visible was very wet and getting wetter. We had booked an excursion called ‘the best of Ketchikan by land and sea’, and the bus awaited. We were not the only cruise ship in port that day, so we had to wait a little while so that we did not overcrowd the attractions we were to see. Totem poles were interesting as much for the stories behind them, although I might suggest that the poles and the stories might well have been manufactured for the gullible tourists – perish the thought. Then on to the salmon cannery where a native guide gave a excellent description of the operation, but one needed a very good imagination as it had not been in operation for many a long year. The trip back to town was done in a boat, but lacked a lot as we were in fairly constant rain all the time which we hasten to mention is not at all unusual for that town as it is known for its 7 meters of rainfall each year.

There was more eating and drinking as we sailed through another day before arriving in Vancouver very early on the last day of the trip. The disembarkation process was even better that the process for getting on board, and we were ashore, with our luggage in a very short time. We were fortunate to be able to store our luggage at the Fairmont (as it was part of the cruise booking), and were able to do some free-time sightseeing on our own. The weather turned on a cracker of a day and we chose to explore Granville Island thoroughly before making our way back to town and heading for the airport for the journey home.

Marg was desperate for a shower before hopping on the plane and the check in lady advised that it might be possible to obtain one at the Fairmont attached to the airport as they had a gym/spa which they would let visitors use for a fee. On presenting ourselves we were advised that it was $15 each which was definitely on for Marg. We asked if it made any difference if we were Fairmont President’s Club members and lo and behold it was “complimentary”. A refreshed couple of travellers boarded the plane several hours later for the 14 hour flight to Auckland, the 3 hour wait at Auckland Airport and then the 3 hour flight back to Melbourne. Customs at home was painless and the car was where Kimberley said it would be. With much judicious packing Geoff and Rob (neighbour and fellow traveller) got six suitcases and one backpack and 4 people into Marg’s Jetta and we arrived home about midday.

Unnecessary Fact: Marg put on half a kilo and Geoff put on >2. I wonder who wanted that published?

Apologies for the size of this blog, but it does mean we can put in a lot of photos.

Until next time cheers from the Ritchies.

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Photos

White Pass & Yukon Route
Did I mention how steep the terrain was...?

Glacier Bay
Cloud making Reid Glacier all the more dramatic

Comments

[Eug]

Looks like a great trip
Happy you are both home safely - Eug