0036 - Fri 13th June - Glacier Cruise

It rained all night, quite heavily at times, and we woke up in the morning dry – On the inside, at least, even if the outside was pretty wet.  So success ! (This was in fact the first REALLY wet night we have had – only drizzle before).  The fly sheet on the outside of the pop top, and the tent – mostly – had kept the rain out, so I am well pleased !  Now, when we have wet nights, I won’t have to lie awake worrying that we have leaks everywhere !!

Kind of wet pack up, but we managed to find enough time when it wasn’t pouring to get the awning and fly sheet packed away, and by 9.30 am we were at the Whittier tunnel entrance ready to go through the world’s only one lane train / car tunnel – yet again. Queued up behind a car with a Kiwi fern on the rear window !   By now it really was raining quite hard, and it was not to stop for the rest of the day.  But this is Alaska, so what do you expect ?  Just get on with life regardless !  We were going on a 26 glacier cruise, and although it would have been much nicer and more scenic on a clear fine day, sitting on a big boat, being fed lunch, and having a bar on board, is not a bad way to spend a wet day !!  At least it would be warm and dry.   So after about an hour’s wait, we boarded our vessel Klondike Express, and shortly thereafter set off down the Whittier Fjord, and off into Prince William Sound for a 5 ½ hour cruise. 

 We had Barb sitting at our table, and adventurous lady who has lived in Panama in the past, and had lots of interesting tales to tell.  Tim and Ann from Alaska were sitting behind us, and on chatting to them, we found they had done a house swap a few years ago in Benowa, where we live in Queensland !  Small world.  Anyway, I won’t go on about a simple cruise too much, except to give you a few highlights of our day.

We were served a fish lunch almost as soon as we left the dock, and then it was off up through the Sound, passing glaciers shrouded in mist and cloud as we went – Still dramatic, but would have been even more so on a clear day. Continually passing groups of 3 or 4 Sea Otters lying on their backs watching us go past – But we didn’t stop as the Captain said smaller groups are more skittish and will dive as soon as we stop, whereas larger groups find bravery in numbers, and will stay on the surface.  So we were looking for a large “raft” of sea otters, as they are called.  And to cut a long story short, we never did find a big raft, so we never stopped !!

 Some amazing scenery, even with low cloud, as we went up the narrow passage between the mainland and Esther Island, seeing lots of eagles and various other bird and marine wildlife on the way, and always passing glaciers, left and right.  Eventually we came to our first glacier “stop” – Surprise Glacier, and it was magnificent.   With two other glaciers nearby, one on either side, it was a dramatic sight, and still blue despite the lack of sunshine.  Lots of sea otters were on the pack ice around the end of the glacier – They feel safe there with their pups because their biggest enemy, the Orca, never goes near calving glaciers as apparently they do not like the continual cracking and groaning noise of a glacier.  We pulled up pretty close to the face and the captain turned off all the engines and noise sources on the boat, and we sat and listened to the incredibly load and continuous noise of a living glacier – Quite remarkable.  Obviously we were all anxious for some calving, and eventually a little ice fell noisily into the water with a big crash.  Our excellent Ranger-on-board Don told us to watch that same spot and keep our cameras ready as a small slide often precedes a much larger one  - And sure enough, not 30 seconds later, there was an incredibly load crack and large lumps of ice started falling into the sea below.  As always, photos do not do something like this credit, but I was stunned by the load bang as the ice broke away, and the incredible noise as the ice hit the water, and formed 2-3 ft waves which quickly spread across the water.  And this was only a small calve – I can only imagine the noise and impact of a large fall.  But just one of those great moments in one’s life when you finally see this in person.  It was still raining steadily so it was also hard work keeping the camera lens clear of rain spots ! 

While we were enjoying the show, the crew were busy with a big net, leaning over the bow of the ship and scooping up some large lumps of fresh glacier ice that were 1000’s (1,000,000’s ?) of years old since they originally fell as snow up on the mountains. What were they doing ?

After a bit longer we moved off to another glacier where there was some minor calving, but not as dramatic as the first one at Surprise Glacier – But what was a surprise was that as we left, we noticed a group of kayakers camping right at the foot of the glacier, protected from any waves from large falls by a big rock.  Apparently this is a favourite kayaking / camping spot, and it really did look idyllic. In the photos the size of the tents gives an idea of the height of the glacier.

It was then time to head back towards Whittier – And the purpose of the ice gathering became evident – They make Glacier Margaritas using the ice !  And the ice is fascinating – Full of tiny air bubbles, and very hard – Almost impossible to chew on in your mouth like normal ice.  Drinks made with ancient ice !! You can see that Janet enjoyed hers !

 Shortly afterwards, the boat suddenly stopped – A humpback whale had been spotted almost right beside us !!  As always with nature, it is really hard to photograph well because you never know when or where they are going to appear !  Add rain to the equation, and it makes it harder, and I know I ended up with a lot of photos of empty sea !!  But I did get a few, and what was really interesting was that there were a lot of bubbles in a  big circle, and we were told the whale was “bubble fishing”, where he swims in a circle around a school of fish, blowing bubbles, and the fish stay in that circle, as if they were in a net.  They whale then comes up from below, mouth open, through the middle of the bubble “net” he has created, so getting more fish per mouthful !  Fascinating to watch as we could see quite clearly what he was doing – Jut hard to capture it in pics.

Anyway, at last, after 2 whale watching trips in Australia when we saw very little, we have now seen a humpback ! 

 On the way back into Whittier we passed a cliff absolutely covered in nesting Kittywakes – An amazing sight.  So by the time we got back to the dock in Whittier we were happy despite the rain, seeing both a glacier calving and a whale up close !  And when we landed, it was STILL raining, so we decided to head into Anchorage and camp there before heading east towards Tok and the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City in the Yukon.   We quickly went down to the other end of Whittier to give a small kangaroo stickpin we had promised to Tiki, the boy I had met 2 years ago – And when we came out of the restaurant found a couple of kiwis (Ben & Emma – www.flightlesskiwis.com) leaving a note on our car – They are doing the same trip as us, so we are bound to bump into them again en route ! Safe travels till we see you again, guys !   We didn’t really have time to chat because the tunnel only opens for about 15 minutes each hour, and we wanted to get into Anchorage, 1 ½ hours away, as we were quite tired.  And as we approached the tunnel, we saw the train coming out of the same tunnel, having come through from Anchorage.  Amazing that 5 minutes later we were driving through the same one lane wide tunnel as the train, but in the opposite direction !

Additionally we knew that Fred and Magda, the “Two Dutchies” travelling in a Troopie similar to ours, were in the campsite. We had never met but had been corresponding on email for a couple of months, So we wanted to catch up with them before we headed east out of Alaska.  Unfortunately they drop the sump plug from their 4WD gear transfer case when coming into Anchorage last week, so are waiting on spare parts to arrive from Holland so they can get reapirs done and continue their own adventure.  As we approached Anchorage, the weather started to clear, and by the time we got to the camp site there were even patches of blue sky !!  We found Fred and Magda, and had a cup of coffee and a good time swapping tales of our relevant travels before we turned in at the end of a long day.  From them we also found out that the Toyota dealer in town was open all weekend, and would do oil changes, so we decided to see if we could get our oil changed in the morning.  We have now done 9,000 kms, and as the oil is due to be changed at 10,000 kms, it is better to do it now in a main dealer in a city than in some little town in the middle of the Yukon !!  So that is our project for the morning, before we head east towards Tok.

We spent some time trying to get onto the camp site wifi – But nothing !!!   So we turned in at about midnight (still light of course !) and went to bed.

No pics yet as cannot upload due to poor arctic wifi !!

Here they are !!   https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0036WhittierGlacierCruise?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_MqYKh9JLuJw#