Day 4 Tracey Arm and Juneau

K Today was different. Glaciers, icebergs, bears, seals, bald eagles and whales. Left the ship by catamaran at 9 am on a 5.5 hour adventure tour of Tracey Arm, a fiord that ends at Sawyer Galcier some 30 miles upstream. 6,000 foot cliffs, icebergs floating in the fiord dead quiet environment. Fantastic tour. Quite reminiscent of Doubtful Sound in NZ, but with Glaciers.

As we ran up the fiord, past waterfalls, glaciers high up in the mountain  tops, we past the South Sawyer Glacier which in the height of summer we could sail up to but today the bay was chocked with ice. We went left up to Sawyer Glacier to within 50 metres of the glacier wall. Huge chunks of ice falling off the face of the glacier into the water below, rocking the boat.

A couple of small seals popped up to check us out while we watched in awe of the power of this thing. The boat captain was a bit upset as he said the glacier was really shedding more ice each day now than he has seen in 14 years of running the tour. Hmmmm.

This area is a declared world heritage area, has never been lived in and will never be lived in. You really feel you are in pure unadulterated wilderness. Wonderful.

On the way out we saw a mother and three black bear cubs feeding on the edge of the fiord.

We got within 50 metres of them. Huge waterfalls, ice floes it was spectacular. On the way back we came across a humpback whale feeding and a huge bald eagle sitting high up in a tree.

 Arrived back at the ship at 3.00 pm. It was now docked in Juneau. The weather had turned bad and it was pouring with rain, so we got a bus into town and quickly walked the streets, did a little shopping and back to the ship for an Aalaskan Brewerey Amber Ale.

Great day.

Please notice I did not complain about the 20 minute wait for my omelette this morning. See I am not grumpy. You are wrong Helen.