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Alaska and British Columbia

July - August 2022
Vancouver then fly to Nome Alaska for the cruise back to Vancouver on the Roald Amundsen Read more
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  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia

    Devon to Heathrow

    July 21, 2022 in England ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Left 15:45, a journey along M5 and M4 got us to Heathrow around 19:00, Heathrow have rearranged the long term parking for T2 since I last used it, but eventually found it and the display showed my name at the entry barrier so must have been the right one. After driving around for a while managed to find a space. Slight delay in leaving, an empty coach in front of us couldn’t, activate the barrier to get out, eventually our driver got out and opened the barrier. We had no problem, opened immediately when our coach approached. Very odd route around Heathrow, drove straight by T2 and on to T3, where nobody on coach wanted to get off! After picking up a load of returning passengers at T3, he did a circuit of that airport roads to get back to T2. Fighting through a horde of people so desperate to get on they blocked us from getting off, we eventually made our way to the hotel for the night!Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 1

    Vancouver

    July 22, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    07:00 walked across to T2, found check in, nobody waiting, onto security would have been through quicker if Karen’s boarding card had worked at the entry gate. After what seemed like 15 minutes down several escalators then up in a lift we found the lounge and helped ourselves to the breakfast buffet. Boarding went smoothly and push back was on schedule, then the usual 30 minute crawl till you get to the end of the runway to actually take off, then 9 hours Iater we landed in Vancouver. Long walk to arrivals then fortunately (required 2 attempts) the machine recognised my passport and associated it with all the pre entry information I had registered, took my picture and printed out a mostly empty piece of paper - date, picture and a number, I was number 6. That was the easy bit, long queue to see a real person looked at the picture on the paper, looked at me (mask off) and let me through to collect the cases. Then to the exit gate where another human took the piece of paper and after checking let us in. Probably about 20 of us from the flight were gathered together for the ride to the hotel in downtown Vancouver. Very slow journey due to traffic and the drivers apparent desire that we should experience every red traffic light en-route. Sheraton Wall in downtime Vancouver is where people were being collected together, lots more people from all across Europe, Karen estimates Germany to have provided the largest contingent. Finally found our documents, the group is divided into 3 groups for the flight to Nome. We are in there’d group. Which means be downstairs in hotel lobby at 03:30 for the first flight leaving at 07:00, I guess the benefit of the early start is the roads will be clear and we get settled on the ship first. (Apparently not at a dock in Nome, expect to get wet when being transferred in small boats to where the ship is Anchored. Today not been that well organised, our documents took a while to be found, at the covid test (15 minute queue) after the test you wait for result, another 15 minutes, so we went out to where some snacks and drinks were available and came back with drinks and a few minutes later some organiser complained that by doing this had broken some rule and potentially infected everyone (who incidentally we had been stood in a queue with) with covid, both our test were negative. Long wait for the room to be available, helped ourselves to more snacks and drinks, during which time Karen realised her nose had been bleeding all this time from the swabbing. Eventually a room, but no cases at 16:00 we went for a wander. Walked down to the coal harbour waterfront, walking around the convention centre and cruise ship quay looking across Stanley Park to the mountains north of Vancouver and watching the sea-planes landing and taking off in the harbour. Back to the hotel and yes our cases had finally turned up. Last job for today is set an alarm so we don’t oversleep our early start.Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 2

    Nome

    July 23, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    Awake at 02:00, showered, repacked and in hotel lobby with cases at 03:15. Quick dash down 2 escalators (then back up) to pick up breakfast boxes and get on coach for our 3:30 departure for the airport. So 04:00 at the back of a long queue to check in for our charter Alaska Airlines flight to Nome. Spent a lot of the next hour redirect people to the Flair check in desk as they mistakenly thought this was a queue for that check in. A lone young man then joined the queue, when advised it was a charter for Hurtigruten he said that was correct, transpired he is one of the Hurtigruiten cruise designers coming for a test voyage on this ship as he is organising next years voyages for her sister ship the Fridtjof Nansen, which by coincidence is the one we booked on to go to Iceland next year. We had quite a long chat as the queue slowly moved along (had to check all the covid stuff as well as check in), hopefully will see some of my website improvement suggestions next year! Bit nervous that you have to find the single conveyor to put hold luggage on that everyone in the terminal uses, but as we have our luggage the system must work. Another long queue through security and than into an equally long queue for US immigration. As we neared our turn to be seen at one of the visa entry desks, I used the hand sanitiser placed just before you go to a desk. In hindsight this was a mistake, as it then took several attempts and hand drying for my fingerprints to properly register. Anyway 06:00 we are through and accepted into the US only to see the plane was delayed 40 minutes to 7:40 and oddly showing as Anchorage rather than Nome. It transpired the plan was in Seattle and would need to come up to Vancouver, but then the crew had only enough hours left to fly as far as Anchorage and they would mind a new crew for us there. We finally left Vancouver about 8:30. Interesting flight, above the clouds seeing the white tops of various mountains poking through. Adjusting our watches for another hour difference ( now 9 hours behind UK), we finally arrived at 13:00, so we had been on the go for 12 hours! As we boarded one of the yellow school buses sent to pick us up, we were given a sheet of paper with options for the afternoon as apparently we weren’t being taken to the ship for another 4 Hours! Nome doesn’t, look to be a very exciting place, I presume the roads were cement or tarmac, but one couldn’t tell as they basically looked like mud tracks, which also hid the numerous potholes. Karen told the supervisor ( appeared to be some local community group taking care of us) she couldn’t manage that and shortly after a girl from Hurtigruten appeared an said our cabin was ready so we could go straight to the ship. So Karen had the privilege to be the first person registered for the voyage. Actually we were quite useful for them as the reception supervisor used us to help train 6 new crew members on how to process passengers when they arrived, giving each one an iPad and guiding them through the process. Arriving at our cabin the cases were outside waiting for us, shortly after some sandwiches, fruit and juice arrived. We downloaded the app which you have to use to book things ( I.e. restaurant reservations), managed to change the television settings back to English after Karen somehow changed to German. Picked up our expedition jackets (collect boots tomorrow) and found our way to the correct muster point for the lifeboat drill test. Sailed at 07:00, day at sea tomorrow, which might still be today or “tomorrow tomorrow” as we cross and recross the international date lineRead more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 3

    A day at sea

    July 24, 2022, Bering Sea ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    A day at sea as we sail to our first stop at St Matthew’s Island, roughly 300 miles south west of Nome. During lunch we thought we could see St Lawrence Island on the horizon, otherwise has just been sea. Very smooth voyage so far, the sea has been totally flat although the forecast is for the wind to get up this evening and create a few waves. Otherwise some admin things to do, have collected our boots to wear when we use the small zodiac boots the use and spent time booking excursions for the days ahead. Everything is done using the Hurtigruten app, booking the excursions was reasonably straightforward, the limited spaces one initially we wanted didn’t confirm immediately, but a visit to the expedition desk quickly confirmed it. Meals is a bit variable the restaurant booking confirms, but some have disappeared from our bookings list! We now always make a manual note of our reservation time. The last 2 photos were taken from the cabin balcony, the first was taken at midnight the second at 06:00 in the morningRead more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    1
    Day 4

    St Matthew Island

    July 25, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Arrived early this morning at our first stop, the St Matthew Island, inhabitants : artic foxes, red foxes, voles, puffins, The Snow bunting and Mckays bunting which is unique to this island. Less people have set foot on this island than climbed Everest and we will not be increasing this number today as it is considered to rough to attempt a landing, so we will have to be content with a trip along the coast in one of the small Zodiac boats that are used for these type of trips. Whilst I was on deck taking some photos of the zodiacs, Karen was presented with a bottle of Prosecco and some petit-fours to recognise today’s event, how best to celebrate a birthday when you are at the most remote US island. The weather is changing very quickly today, one moment clear then the cloud descends and the island is just a shadow. The tannoy in the room seems to have stopped working this morning (odd things happen in this cabin, yesterday the television reconfigured itself to German, eventually managed to change back) so we made sure we were ready well in advance and made our way down to the exit deck for our trip to arrive at our allotted time. We probably didn’t need to have been on time as apparently H comes before G in the American alphabet as a group of Americans were already there wanting to travel together, then getting separated and mixing up the assembled groups and such making a fuss that an English couple eventually disembarked to allow them on. Helped onto the zodiac and settled on the sides, advised not to try standing up to take pictures when going at speed, our guide ( who could easily be mistaken from Sideshow Bob in the Sampson’s) started the outboard and off we went. A few waves did break over the bow, but fortunately I was in the stern and the people in front of me saved me getting wet. After an hour back to the ship, we are now doing a circum-navigation of this and the other smaller (Halls island, don’t know if the smallest has a name) islands before we turn South-East and head for the Aleutian Islands for our next stop the day after tomorrow.Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 5

    At sea - Alaska is somwhere over there!

    July 26, 2022, Bering Sea ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Travelling at around 12 knots, roughly south east to the Aleutian Islands where we well spend most of the voyage stopping off at various towns, we have signed up for more zodiac trips and the trip upriver to the Tonga’s National Forest where we have managed to get ourselves one of the few spaces available in the Anan Wildlife Observatory, so think only 1 day when we don,t have an activity before the final dash down the inside passage to return to Vancouver. Today I’m sat in the Explorer lounge on deck 10 ( deck 11 is open air with the jogging track and jacuzzis) watching an unchanging landscape, (first picture if I get the load order right). Did see some lights of another ship passing in the distance from our cabin in the early hours of this morning, ( only time it gets dark, sunset here is between midnight and 1am in morning, then sunrise is between 5 and 6 am in the morning, so we have between 20 and 18 hours of daylight.
    Otherwise a few more pictures from St. Matthew.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 6

    Chuginadak Island and some volcanoes

    July 27, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Arrived overnight at Chuginadak Island looking at the Carlisle and Cleveland volcanoes. Although a light drizzle, it has just been announced that conditions are currently good enough for a landing, we are second group off this morning so sounds good for us as weather is set to worsen during the day. Going back to yesterday, during dinner we came across a pod of whales, close enough to the ship to see their backs on the surface before they submerged and water spouts. Unfortunately too far away to get good photos by the time we had finished dinner and got to the observation deck, believe Karen has a picture of a water spout as evidence of their appearance. ( FYI - Cleveland is an active volcano having erupted over 22 times in last 230 years. Most recently has erupted 5 times between 2012 and 2017, so hopefully not due to erupt again in the next couple of hours. At breakfast the cloud was around the middle of the mountain so you could see the summit, but by the time I took the picture the top half was totally covered.) Boarding the zodiacs again, my card didn’t work so had to be manually booked off ship. Hitting the beach there was a team to pull the zodiac as far up as follows, As I was at the bow end was first off, swing legs over and drop into sea, and wade the last few step’s ashore, fortunately shallow enough not to go over the boots. It is just before low tide so lots of beach available to walk across, while I say beach it is not sand but is black as covered in fine particles from the 2017 eruption. After walking along the beach we moved inland into a small valley, here there were larger grey and orange stones also the result of the eruption. Didn’t see any wildlife but there were trails of fox footprints all along the beach, the red fox is the only mammal on the island. The walking circuit the guides had mapped out was along the beach up a small grass valley, then around more eruption deposits back to the beach and a walk back to the embarkation point. Coming back the cloud started to clear so better opportunity for volcano photos. Back at embarkation Karen pushed herself forward to get the last place on the zodiac that was there ( did she intend to leave me behind?). But another zodiac was already en-route with another group keen to set foot on the island. So 10 minutes later myself and 3 others were heading back. Appears we were very fortunate, on the previous visit to the island (the south to north version of this cruise) it was too rough to attempt a landing and as we eat lunch we can see the cloud descending and the drizzle starting. The time here is confusing the ship is running 9 hours behind UK, but the island is actually another time zone away (Hawaiian time zone) and my phone has adjusted too that, whilst the iPad is still on Vancouver time - 8 hours behind. ( For those who might have been worried I have been to reception, who confirmed I am registered as being back on board and gave me a new card, hopefully will work the barcode didn’t print very well!)
    ??????? Just announced 4 cases of covid on board, must have been caught at Vancouver airport, which would be where most outside contact occurred as we were all tested in Vancouver hotel and only other human contact was in Nome. ????????    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 7

    Dutch Harbour - Unalaska - whales

    July 28, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Short cruise along the Aleutian Islands has brought us to Unalaska Island arriving early morning and where for the first time on the trip are actually tied up in port, although very much commercial with containers on the dockside and trawlers tied up beside us.
    Dutch Harbour (think I probably should have used the American spelling for “Harbor” - in case you are trying to find it on another map). Apparently we are about a mile and a half from the small town of Unalaska which we have the most of the day ( ship leaves at 16:00) to explore. Karen thought we might walk but at briefing advised to use the shuttle buses that have been arranged as the road is “rough” and in constant use by lorries. Another good reason seems to be that throughout the night, in our normally very quiet cabin, a howling gale can be heard. This will no doubt test how water resistant the jackets we have been given are. More to follow after we have visited the tourist attractions in town, we will be going early as are in group 1 with our shuttle bus leaving at 08:20.
    Very industrialised town, largest fishing port in the US, historically crab fishing but this is no longer allowed due to over-fishing. Now pollock and pacific cod are the main catch. 4 “places of interest “ or bus stopping points on the hop on / hop off circuit that has been set up for us today. Our first stop was downtown, the “must see” here is the Russian orthodox cathedral, built in the times when Alaska and these islands was the home of Russian fur trappers and traders. Next stop was the local museum which told the story of the local tribe established here several thousand years ago until a Dutch boat ( hence location name) visited and then was followed by the Russians, the local population decreased to just a few hundred. Some interesting art here, ink prints of the various fish that are caught in the area. We didn’t wait for the bus as the next stop was onlY a few hundred yards away. The town’s hotel seems out of place here, a local market had been set up in the foyer (presumably arranged for our visit) we quickly looked over the 6 stalls and then walked across the road to the Safeway. Back to the hotel to pick up the bus for our 4th and final stop, the WW2 museum. I hadn’t realised that Japan actually managed to capture these islands, it seems the island defences were designed for a sea invasion and the heavy artillery on the hills around the harbour were not manoeuvrable enough to defend against the fast moving aircraft that bombed the town for 2 days before the troops walked in. A larger joint US/ Canadian eventually retook the islands. After the museum we hopped into another bus and returned to the ship.
    At several of the stops we were able to see eagles perched on top of lamp posts around the town, a man outside Safeway advised us to buy a bag of chicken wings, which he said would attract the bird to us so we would get better photographs. Whilst in Safeway a woman asked Karen who she was and where she was from, “ Not often we see strangers here” she said.
    We are moored by “Bunker Hill”, last picture, the other optional expedition today is a hike to the top, I’m sure anyone doing this hike will end up rather wet, we decided not to go.
    We left at 17:00 and just outside the harbour there was a pod of whales so we spent the next hour on deck trying to spot and photograph whales and sea lions. Whilst at dinner one surfaced and dived beside the ship where we were sitting, but unfortunately we were too slow to get the photo.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 8

    Unga abandoned village

    July 29, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Next stop is Unga Island where we will visit Unga Village. The village originally founded to take advantage of the hunting and fishing on and around the island, after the hunting was exhausted during the Russian gold was found. For years was one of the most productive gold mines in Alaska and attracted numbers of new residents, mostly from Scandinavia, seeking their fortunes. The mine closed in 1905 after which the village declined and the last residents moved to another established Sand Bay village on the close by Arch Rock island. We should be watching some of the other islands in the chain, but the weather closed in shortly after our whales event yesterday evening and has been damp and misty ( visibility almost zero) ever since. Forecast for the visit, which will be another boot on, wet landing over the side of the zodiac, is mild with drizzle. We have a late visit time, we go about 16:00 this afternoon, so hopefully will have started improving by then. We have arrived, just manoeuvring in the bay to position the ship to launch the Zodiacs, mist clearing and drizzle seems to have stopped. Karen has spotted a cow grazing on the hillside, this is where the residents of Sand Bay keep their communal herd, as part of the pre briefing we have been warned to watch where we tread. The mist had virtually cleared when we went ashore ( and when we were back in the cabin it was a pleasant sunny evening! How quickly the weather changes here). A basic route around what was left of the village had been set out by the expedition team. We started on the heights near the landing point ( the guide positioned there kindly taking pictures of everyone who made their way up. Further on looking over the bay there was a seal swimming, managed to photograph its head. The buildings vary from being just a pile of wood to an intact ( but fragile) shell, the later ones being occupied up until the 1960s as apparently there was an earthquake here in 1964 which marked the end of the settlement. The pinkish flower is willow herb or also called fireweed, the theory is that the proportion of flowers open relates to the progress of summer, when fully flowering it is autumn. Not sure what the small blue ones were, but all over the island. Didn’t see any more cows, but this is the first island with trees that have visited. Waiting for the zodiac we spotted a small stoat playing in some abandoned logs at the top of the beach. The return trip to the ship included a detour to the cliffs with the island,s bird colony, mostly black legged kittiwakes and a few puffins swimming in the water. Now I have finished writing this the mist is starting to descend, we seem to have been lucky and seen the island during this short window.Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 9

    Kukak Bay - Katmai National Park

    July 30, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Heading for Kukak Bay in the Katmai National Park, we don’t arrive till late afternoon and the slot time for our excursion is not until 18:30 this evening. No landing today just a zodiac trip around the bay to look out for wildlife on the shore, the salmon are running which attracts animals for the food!
    17 active volcanos in this park, the 1912 eruption of the Nova Erupta volcano was the largest in the last century, 30 times more powerful than Mount St Helen’s.
    14:30, we have slowed and feels as if we are just drifting along the coast - presumably this is Kukak Bay (first picture). Everything looks grey with cloud touching the hills, but the shoreline is clear, the sea looks calm and no rain so I expect the conditions are ok for a trip.
    Finally 18:30 and our time to go, the mist and drizzle are back, 2 minutes out and can no longer see the ship. Had to remove my glasses as they were too wet to see through. 5 minutes later the drizzle had stopped, we could see the ship again. I dried my glasses and put them back on. Two bears on the shoreline, the pilot drifted us in as close as possible to the first bear, then slowly moved back and further down the bay to the second bear, again drifted in as close as possible. Think you will probably just be able to see the bears in the pictures, clearer on the iPad. The plan was then to move carrots the bay to an island on the other side to view the birds, but part way across our pilot/guide spotted what he believed was an Ancient murrelet, ( was on maximum, but picture still very small). Back to ship, a small group of sea otters floated by on their backs whilst we ate a late dinner, we then slowly sailed out of the bay towards our next stop. Apparently not far estimated arrival time is our midnight.    Read more

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