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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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  • 3countries
  • 19days
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  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 10

    Geographic/Kinak Bays - Katmai Nat Park

    July 31, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Breakfast at 07:00, we had table 61, right at the back of the restaurant with a window looking out from the stern of the ship. All we could see was mist the cliffs behind you can see in the photo were totally hidden. We were scheduled to be in the first group out at 08:30, but when we went to the boat deck at that time we were told they were delaying by 30 minutes to allow some of the mist to clear. We boarded the zodiac at 09:00, the mist had mostly cleared as we headed further into the harbour. Most amazing backdrop of mountains still with some snow, as we headed further into the bay small beaches began to appear. A bald eagle flew over the zodiac, sorry was too slow to get a photo, we carried on right to the end of the bay where there larger beaches and a grassy plain were to be found. Here were the bears, we probably saw about 10 in all, a mother and 2 largish cubs,a other and 3 cubs and several individuals on the shoreline. The bears were digging in the waters edge to find clams. Our pilot guide told us this was concerning as at this time of year there should have been salmon for the to feast on and he thought they were all much thinner than they should be at this time of year. On the way back a sea otter posed for some pictures. Back on the ship the mist has gone and is a bright sunny morning. Yesterday’s guide had warned us that Geographic Bay would be the highlight of the trip with its dramatic scenery and animal life, l don’t think he was wrong. We are fortunate, only a small ship like the Roald Amundsen and the small zodiacs can get you into this location as it is totally undisturbed wilderness. Onto Kinak Bay this afternoon where we have another zodiac outing.
    The other bay we visited is the other side of the mountains you see in picture 1, so it only took about an hour after lunch to slowly cruise around the headland into Kinak Bay. But what a marked difference between the two, a strong wind and bigger swell ! But once across the bay and into the channel that took us deeper into the park it was all calm again. Down a narrow channel it eventually opened out into a small lake at the far end amongst the reeds and grasses a bear played hide and seek with us eventually showing enough of him or herself to get a photo. On the way in we noticed a seal swimming back towards the sea, we saw him/ her again on the way back enjoying a fish supper. Karen has photos but have already exhausted my quota of 10 today, so if interested Karen can send separately.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 11

    Kodiak

    August 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Breakfast time and just pulling in to Kodak harbour. Today’s outing is to Fort Abercrombie, not a fort anymore just the remains of a few buildings and artillery items. The headland was the protection for the harbour although it was never needed as the island was never attacked, but became the military base for the recapture of Unalaska and Dutch Harbour.
    The headland is now a park with trails through the woods along the coastline or around the lake which lies at the centre of the headland. We took the route down by the lake and followed that to the coast, then had to double back a short way to the path which climbed to the headland summit and derelict buildings. We then walked back along the coast path towards the pick up point for the shuttle bus, (here in Alaska where we have stopped it has been yellow school buses, the towns we have stopped at are too small for a bus service or a separate coach company). Apart from the views the main observation was a pair of eagles sitting on the cliffs as we walked back. Didn’t see any bears today, but at one of the campsites in the park that we crossed there was a sign saying to be careful with food an food waste as a bear had been there last Friday. Although lucky again with the weather as bright and sunny, the headland was quite damp in places despite there being no recent rain which learnt when we stopped to talk to a couple of sets of local walkers who were intrigued about all the strangers in red jackets wandering around. A visiting cruise ship is rather a novelty here and all the locals had all seemed to be aware that a strange ship was in port. Also in port ( according to our bus driver) are the fishing boats used in the “Deadliest Catch” reality fishing tv series. There was an option to drop off in “downtown” on the way back, but the tour notes had been updated to say that rage town museum ($5 entry fee cash only) was closed and as the only other downtown attraction was the local McDonalds ( pointed out to us by our bus driver on the way there) we just returned to the ship for a lazy afternoon of reading. Going back to the park being damp, the fir trees had various mosses growing all over the branches, have included a couple of pictures.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 12

    Seward Alaska

    August 2, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    After leaving Kodak we had another encounter with a pod of whales, not close enough to see them breaching, but we watched a constant session of waterspouts for the half hour before dinner. Arriving in Seward this morning, we were told that the stop was just for restocking the ship with supplies, but as we are here for 6 hours a trip ashore was allowed and free entry to the Seward sea life centre was been arranged, providing you were happy to do the 2mile walk. On the way we saw 2 eagles soaring by the mountains, unfortunately my photos only managed to catch one of them. Made the sea life centre an had a quick look around, didn’t stay too long as was busy and the majority were not wearing masks, but did manage a few photos. Coming back, we crossed over a stream heading to the harbour and we able to spot a couple of salmon just above the small weir. Close by was an eagle perched on a lamppost. Then on back to the ship. To give you a comparison our neighbour in the dock is the Viking Orion think this is the ship we saw in Vancouver when we were thereRead more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 13

    Icy Bay - Ice bergs dead ahead

    August 3, 2022 ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Zodiac trip in Icy Bay today! Weather is again variable and fast changing, when we awoke around 05:30 dawn was breaking and we could see the coast line an hour later and we were in fog and could see nothing. It had mostly cleared by breakfast only the tops of the mountain cliffs were shrouded. Since breakfast we have been slowly cruising further into the bay and we can see the ice floating towards us. We are anchored below Mount Wrangell - 15000 or so feet. We are further in than I have marked on the map, we are about where the bay splits into 2 forks.
    At 9:30, our scheduled time for the zodiac, any remains mist had cleared and it was a bright day particularly with the sun reflecting off the snow and ice.
    Apparently what we see today, a large bay with 3 glaciers draining into it, has existed for less than 100 years. Originally it was a single glacier but over this time the glacier has retreated. The pilot/guide did say that this was normal activity for this type of glacier and not totally down to global warming. In the pictures the distances are deceptive, it took 10 minutes or so at high speed to get get to the edge of the ice field. After that it was much slower meandering through the various chunks of ice to get closer to the glaciers, keeping clear of the largest icebergs as apparently they can break up or flip without warning. Even so we were not able to get very close as the increasing volume and size of the ice blocks did not leave any navigable paths even for boats as small as the zodiacs we are using. We had more than our allotted hour before heading back to the ship, with one last stop to fish out a chunk of glacial ice from the sea.
    Update - the ship has just been struck by an iceberg.
    14:00 and leaving Icy Bay, within 15 minutes we are in thick fog again and the ship is sounding it’s fog horn.
    (Will I ever be forgiven ? Today at breakfast the 4 Germans at the next table ordered a bottle of Prosecco. Then all the Philippino waiting staff, some dozen or so, appeared one with his guitar and they proceeded to sing Happy Birthday (in English) to the birthday celebrating man in the corner. Must have been the Philippine version of Happy Birthday as the rendering included a couple of high tempo verses. Then one of the waitresses presented him with a birthday cake. The stare I got for not having organised the same for last week. Karen did point out the Prosecco was a cheaper brand to the one the ship gave her.)    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 14

    Sitka

    August 4, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Sitka today, expect to arrive mid morning, 3 or 4 seals swam by during breakfast but was too slow with the camera. Today is when we have one of the extra trips, we will pick up a local tour boat at Sitka pier and go in search of sea otters and other wildlife. Sitka relies on fishing ( hook & line salmon fishing) and tourism. There is a cruise ship dock which can deal with 2 ships at a time, but this is 6 miles out of town and requires any passengers to be bussed to the town. Being smaller we have sailed into the bay by the centre of town and anchored and 2 of the lifeboats are being used as tenders to transfer people to and from sure. Which catch a tender about 15:00 takes 5 minutes to get us to shore. The pier where we are landed and pick up our local tour boat is opposite probably the most interesting/important landmark which is the fort. Originally built by the Russians, burnt down by the local tribe, then rebuilt by the Russians it is where the formal handover of Alaska from Russia to the US took place with a ceremony of lowering the Russian flag and raising the American one.
    On the pier the tour boat arrives, we are close to the front of the queue and went straight into the downstairs cabin towards the front. We had plenty of room as most people dashed to go upstairs into the open air.
    Our fist stop was at one of the navigation buoys in the harbour, this is where a group of young Stellar seals were taking an afternoon nap. Sitka itself is on an island and is the only town/port facing out to the pacific, but is protected from the bad weather by numerous small islands. It was around these islands we next went searching, we found a raft of sea otters lying on their backs in kelp by one island. On another isle there were cormorant watching from the rocks and further on we spotted a bald eagle watching us from a tree, before taking off and crossing to another tree on a nearby island, ( my picture of the eagle in flight is blurry so probably won’t use here). From the second tree he was able to watch the family nest containing 2 eaglets on a tree on third island. We now had navigated our way through these islands into pacific. After a short while we spotted whales spouting. The boat closed in on the whales as near as it could get and here we spent 30 minutes, watching the whales diving then scouring the sea to find where they would surface again. Eventually we were taken back to Sitka pier where we disembarked the tour ship and caught the tender back to the ship. The discussion point in the restaurant was Karen saying that she believes the 2 waitresses are twins, I obviously bow to her superior knowledge on the subject of twins. Have never seen the 2 without their masks on, but their stature and the part of their face you can see are very similar so it is probably a correct deduction.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 15

    Wrangell and Tongass National Forest

    August 5, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Our second paid for excursion, we are in Wrangell and have a local excursion to the hide in the Tongass National Forest. Access to this park is very limited, only 60 permits are available daily in August and you have to be accompanied by a local guide.
    An amazing experience, starting with a jet boat ride at just under 30 knots. Wrangell island is roughly bird shaped with Wrangell at the north most point (the beak), we had to go around the headland to travel south, the island on our right the main land our left. After just over an hour and 30 miles south, we saw the ranger station cabin for the area on the shore, 50 yds further on was a small beach which our boat ran up and we disembarked and walked up the beach to the trail head.
    We organised into a line with a guide at the front and rear of the column, both guides had guns as a precaution as the bears also use this trail to go up to the hide and for the final 100yds you need one of the park rangers at the hide to confirm it is safe to cross this section. Progress along the trail was slow, as several companions in the party with paparazzi length lenses on their cameras continual stopped to take photos (was even worse on the way back, the guide at the rear had to keep telling them to move on and close up!). The hide has been built over the lower falls, we are here at the time of the main salmon run as they swim back upstream, for the salmon jumping up these falls against the fast moving river is a major effort, for the bears it is a wonderful opportunity to feast.
    It seems to take the bears so little effort they come to the edge of the river, wade in and only a second or two later leave with a large salmon in their mouths. They appeared to eat very little of the fish they caught, we asked one of the rangers about it and he said this was like phase 2 of their feeding. Phase 1 they eat everything to gain weight, phase 2 they are eating for the oil, so they focus on eating brains, roes and some skin of the salmon, still the bald eagles and other birds are always ready to help finish the plentiful leftovers. Not sure how many black bear pictures/videos we have just a few here, visit if you want to see the full set. Otherwise the eagles were everywhere watching and soaring between the various tree perches around. A brown bear and her cub appeared a short distance downstream where there is a small lake, but the distance does make them difficult to spot against the fallen trees at the point where the stream enters the lake.
    Like all these Alaskan photos, the picture never full captures the view or the experience. On the return trip in the jet boat we passed an island of harbour seals sunning themselves. Again we have been lucky with the weather, although misty and dull early on when we were at the observation centre apart from a few sprinkles of rain on one occasion visibility was good, but once we had passed the seals the rain came back more intense this time and a cloudy mist descended into the trees along the shoreline and is continuing like this as we slowly leave Wrangell.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 16

    Misty Fjord - middle of Tongass Forest

    August 6, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    This is about as accurately as I can pinpoint us on a map. The name Misty Fjord doesn’t appear on the map so have marked the position by comparing against the one the ship displays on the television.
    We actually appear to be in the middle of the forest having travelled up this river/fjord some 10 miles. The boat is to show how narrow it is this far up the waterway although still more than 50metres deep, the shoreline picture was taken from where we are stopped, is an example of the coastline we have been seeing for the past 3 days since we entered the forest area at Sitka and how it looked on the jet boat ride to the bears.
    The stop here is for our last excursion, a zodiac trip further into the fiord. Unfortunately the worst weather of the trip a continuous drizzle we were quite wet when we arrived back, glad we had the waterproofs and boots on. Where we are is apparently the result of the glaciers retreating at the end of the last ice age, the glaciers are now gone, but there are small streams that drain here with numerous waterfalls cascading down the rock faces.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 17

    Steaming South !

    August 7, 2022 ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Final day is a nonstop cruise to Vancouver where we are scheduled to arrive around 06:00 this morning. So today’s highlights are returning the muck boots, repacking the suitcases (leave outside cabin before 23:59 tonight) and checking final disembarkation instructions. We have completed the enter Canada registration, not really designed for our type of in transit visit, but did accept Vancouver airport as our Canadian address for the next 14 days.
    We were supposed to be passing a photo opportunity at 07:00, believe it was called Seymour Narrows although I can’t find it anywhere on the map, but at the appointed time there was no land in sight. (Suspect the entry was a program error, as another item talked about being the first day aboard ship so I’m guessing a couple day1 south to north voyage details were copied in without thinking). So have to make do with a picture of a reddish dawn photo taken from the balcony and will use the the picture allowance to include some more Anan photos from a couple of days ago.
    To cover Ian’s query, the video was some of the action on the bank opposite the platform where the bears would catch a salmon then move away to eat. That side seemed to have multiple tunnel/cave routes down the hillside an by the stream. It was different on the other side, there were some sheltered spots where the salmon would congregate out of the fierce flow of the mid stream. We spent a long time watching a bear by one these spots sitting on the bank, grabbing one of the waiting salmon, eating the few oily rich parts it wanted, then discarding the leftovers before reaching in for another salmon. Very adaptive to the different topography.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 18

    Disembarkation, city tour and airport

    August 8, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    (Almost) Last day, we arrived Vancouver Cruise port around dawn, 2nd photo is dawn breaking as we make the final few miles into the bay. We arrive to see the Norwegian and Disney line ships, that were following us when we did a last deck walk at 21:00 yesterday evening, already berthed at the terminal, presumably they needed to come in first as they needed the 2 larger berths as they are both significantly larger than the Roald Amundsen. We are colour code blue with disembarkation time of 09:00, but preparations started the night before as cases had to be outside cabins at 22:00, requires careful planning on what needs to be in or out of final pack. So at 09:00 we went to the departure point, collected the customs form we had completed and hand in to the ship for checking earlier. Then on into the customs hall where different colour coded (or Disney character) signs stood above lines of cases. Collecting ours we were then lined up with other blues to be lead to another area, where a Hurtigruiten guide ticked us off on his list. At some point I handed over the customs form and was welcomed to Canada. There was then a call for the English speakers. In the Hurtigruiten line to come forward (fortunately Karen chose this time to return from the rest rooms) and we were taken outside to our coach, the cases were whisked away from us and loaded whilst we boarded the coach. At 09:30 we were. Pulling out of Canada Place into the Vancouver traffic for a short city tour. We toured Stanley Park with a stop to see the totems, ( would have been a shorter stop but 2 of the “English” group got back on the “German” bus, eventually the expected numbers on both buses agreed and we set off again, finishing the circuit of Stanley Park, visiting The China and Gas town areas, two of the oldest parts of the city, then onto Granville Island where we had an hour wandering (in circles) around the market stalls before re boarding for the ride out to the airport. Check in was quite painless and priority security was virtually empty so we were through quickly. Some duty free shopping and now in Air Canada lounge with just over 3 hours to go before we are scheduled to take off.
    Will be some more pictures later and a video (courtesy of Karen) of small porpoises swimming alongside the ship when we went for dinner.    Read more

  • TravelerAlaska and British Columbia
    Day 19

    Found the car

    August 9, 2022 in England ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Back at Heathrow, frustrating time trying to get lift to go to floor 0 to catch bus to car park, eventually went to 5 then back down. Found car and with cases loaded it is time to return to Devon.

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