JUNEAU – photos by land – none by sea 

Waking this morning we find the seas a lot calmer than yesterday and the two invalids are ready to go.  Everyone is hungry so we decide on an earlyish breakfast to beat the Fakers but the plan goes astray.

They must have also recovered during the night as they are lined up and chomping at the bit!Seeing that nearly all the tables inside are taken we decide to sit out near the pool in the fresh air.  This is really not a good idea because even though the sun is shining it does not have much warmth and the air is still really cold.

Back to our room and some nautical nonsense – Ship’s position 57”02.39’N / 134”17.26’W.  The barometer is rising and humidity is 78%.  The pool temperature (Let’s all go get our swimmers – NOT) 26.7 degrees celsius and the wind is from the South East – Force 7 – near gale. Seas will be rough 7.5 – 12 feet.

Today we are supposed to visit Tracey Arm and Sawyer Glacier but an announcement by Oh Captain tells us we are not stopping at the advertised glaciers but we will arrive in Juneau early.  Yeah well and that is supposed to make up for it?  Hardly likely!  Here is some information about where were supposed to be going – courtesy Holland America.  Because we didn’t get to visit this magical place there are no photos.

This narrow, 26-mile-long fjord is another of Alaska’s most dramatic glacier settings. The lush rain forest recedes to reveal a stunning canyon of bare rock. The panorama of 7,000-foot mountain peaks and nearly vertical rock cliffs is astounding. Waterfalls appear at every turn. Icebergs make their way to the sea in all sorts of wondrous shapes.

Tucked away at the end of this remarkable waterway are two very active reminders of the Ice Age – the twin Sawyer Glaciers, calving icebergs into the jade-coloured inland sea. Kittiwakes, mountain goats and seals are a common sight. Whales and bears may even make an appearance in this magical place.

Pouting in our cabin in disgust, I try to finalise one of the discs for my DVD camera and the power is not working.  Holy Cow what else is going to happen?  I try all the power points with my digital still camera and they are OK – it is the DVD camera.  It is going to be one of those holidays I know it and to top it off the weather is now predicting force 8 gale.

This afternoon we have our Juneau Photo by Land and by Sea excursion which we booked through Holland America.  Spoiler alert – don’t book any excursions through Holland America. You will see why if you continue reading.

We have a bit of time before we dock so I go for another walk around the ship.   This time past the Rotterdam Restaurant and also one of the bars and of course I have my trusty working camera with me.  No one around so they must all be getting ready for the corridor cha-cha when we get to Juneau.

Even though it has turned cloudy and overcast with an occasional patch of vivid blue sky the scenery coming up the Chatham Strait is spectacular.  These photos below were taken from our cabin – and that is another excellent reason why you should have a cabin with a verandah.  You can just stand and take photos without some pushy tourist practically standing on top of you talking in your ear .

 Kylie is in a hurry to arrive at Juneau so that she can shop.  Missing out on getting a nice warm jacket in Vancouver she is on the prowl again so that she doesn’t spend another frozen morning looking for imaginary whales.

We have now entered Stephen’s Passage which means we are nearly at Juneau.  As you can see in the photo below we have picked up an escort during the night.  Some dirty big Carnival Cruise vessel and this ship will stay with us until we dock back in Vancouver.  Let’s just hope that she stays out of the photos.

 Finally we are in the Gastineau Channel and in sight of Juneau.  Following is an excerpt from the Holland America booklet – –

Located at the foot of grand mountain peaks on the Gastineau Channel, the town of Juneau has the massive Mendenhall Glacier and the immense Juneau Icefields at its back door. Juneau is the place to let your imagination run wild. Explore the lush Tongass National Forest.

Visit the rustic shops in town. Or get out and kayak, dogsled, raft, hike, whale watch, flightsee or fish. There’s no end to the adventure because of the long daylight hours. Climb aboard the Mt. Roberts Tramway for a great spot to hike and shoot a souvenir photo.

We are giving the tram a miss because we have a 3 hour Photo Safari as previously mentioned. How exciting does that sound?  We are really looking forward to seeing the whales as promised on the sea bit of the journey and also the glaciers and forest.  But first things first and we still have to get to the wharf and disembark.   Apparently navigating the Chanel is not an easy task and finally we arrive at the dock.

It takes about half an hour to tie up all the ropes and whatever and then an announcement by Oh Captain tells us that it is now time to disembark. Can we believe him?

He may as well have said ‘Thunderbirds are go’ as all the Fakers have been blessed with another miracle – ‘hallelujah’.  They rush and push and shove, obviously manners are not adhered to at the homes for the infirmed and feeble minded and they nearly knock us over.

We stand aside to let them pass because let’s face it they don’t have much time left – and then we, who have lots of time,  mosey on out to set foot in Juneau. What a quaint town and of course there are the typical touristy spots but they have some great names. 

It is about 11am and too early for our Photo excursion so the first port of call is to try and find a camera shop to see what is happening with my DVD camera. We find a nice little shop with a nice man who tells me that the power is not getting to the camera however I can get a separate charger for the battery and that should do the trick.

Bad news is that it doesn’t plug into the camera – good news is that it can charge the battery so that I can still use the camera.  Bad news is that I will not be able to finalise any dvd’s – good news is that Canon back home should be able to solve the problem.  OK – trusty Visa is out of the wallet to say Hi to Juneau and then we are on our way to discover this quaint town.

After walking around and getting some scrapbooking materials (for my photos when I get home) we go to find our Photo Tour.

The Holland America representative on the dock tells us that because of the bad weather (looks fine to me) all the boats are not allowed out today and the boat part of our tour has been cancelled and if we still want to do the land part we will get a discount. Other option is to not do the tour and get a full refund, and make our own plans.

After being promised some extra incentives to take the tour we board the bus and head off.  There are about 20 of us from the 2 ships in port and apparently our guides are photographic experts by the name of Stacey and Liz.

We are given a tour around Juneau and are shown photos taken by our guides.  They look fabulous I must say and we are all excited that we may get the opportunity to take equally as good photos – except for the whales of course!

We get to see where Sarah Palin previously lived – yep, the gun toting ex Governor who then ran for the Vice Presidency of the USA and had to give up this luxury.  The guides are telling us about seeing bears – which makes us feel a bit better about not seeing whales – and one of them especially is getting to be a bit over the top.

When we arrive at the beginning of our forest trail walk the group is split up.  Half will walk from here to the glacier and the other half will bus it to the glacier and we will cross over in the middle. We will then drive the bus back to the other group.

It is a toss up to see who goes with who and we three decide to go with Miss Over the Top (MOT) as we can easily ignore her and do our own thing.  Now, before you all start tut-tutting – this does not mean that we plan on leaving the trail in search of four footed friends. We are not THAT silly, and anyway we do not have any bear spray with us!

The trek starts off fine with MOT explaining we are now on the Moraine Ecology Trail and that we should keep a sharp lookout for anything – flora or fauna.

She also explains how to work out the best camera angle and how to photograph wildlife and plants and of course we are snapping away all over the place –  all the while with MOT explaining that there are 8 kinds of moss in the forest and she throws down a challenge for us to find them and take great photos.

Hmmm – not exactly what I had in mind. What about the challenge to find how many types of bears?

In our little group there is a guy (with wife) that puts us to shame when it comes to taking photos.  We are all given ample time to take plenty of happy snaps but he has to have more time.  He also has more gear than anyone and doesn’t have a clue on how to use it.

MOT has had enough and puts a stop to it and tells him she will leave him behind!  Personally I would not have told him I would have just left!

During our trek through the forest we do not spot one bit of wildlife – not even an insect!   However we do spy some clusters of happy mushrooms that look as if they have just stepped out of Disney’s Fantasia and some bear droppings so the buggers must be around here somewhere unless

it’s another NatGeo trick where they come out with a bucket and just drop things hither and yon.  My money is on NatGeo.

There are also some little babbling brooks and mini waterfalls – but still no bears.  We put our recently gained knowledge of shutters, ISO etc to the test and it is not long before we are ready to challenge for the ‘Who has the best photos competition’. After about an hour of happy snapping sans wildlife, we finally arrive at the end of the trail and spy the Mendenhall Glacier.

What a treasure.  This is our first up close and personal glacier and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

MOT takes the usual touristy photos of everyone and we are left to wander around by ourselves for a bit and even though we are not really, really close we can still get the overpowering experience of how big this thing is.

We walk down to the lake to get some more photos and see how cold the water is. How stupid is that I hear you ask? Well about as stupid and touristy as us. MOT has told us to be back at the Visitor’s Centre at a certain time and yep, you’ve guessed it, Mr K (for Klutz not Kodak) is still bumbling around as he is using the wrong camera settings!

This is great for us as it also gives everyone a few more minutes to get those last minute photos, especially using the stitch option on the camera.

How good is that?  Well about as good as it it going to get.  Mr K returns and it is back on the bus to pick up the other half of the group.  We wonder when is the Safari going to start?

Next stop is a ‘wonderful’ spot to get some ‘wonderful’ photos of the Glacier.  I thought we had already done that – but apparently there is another Kodak moment spot.

We get the ‘when the sun hits in just the right spot it is amazing’ speech.  Something along the lines of ‘you should have been here yesterday’ and we wait and wait. This photo shows the only bit of sun we saw. 

Mr K has ventured down into the wilds of the Fireweed and promptly disappears.  Fireweed grows to about 8 feet tall so what on earth is he going to take photos of?  Is he trekking to the glacier?  At least he is providing some comic relief. 

After looking at this ‘wonderful’ view it’s back on the bus after Mr K emerges and I am tempted to say ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’ but I behave myself.  We just roll our eyes and giggle.

One of our guides tells us that we are now going to see some wildlife!  Finally we can put our camera knowledge to the test once again and get some action shots.

Unfortunately the wildlife turns out to be a salmon farm, even more so unfortunate for K&T who can see this at home in Oregon every day of the week.  Aha – finally , the water breaks but it is only a seal.

This ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cats and dogs is the only animated wildlife we see on our long anticipated Photo Safari by Land and Sea.  What a disappointment.

When we arrive back at the dock we are given a DVD of photos taken by photographers from their company – Gastineau Guiding.

I have included three of the photos that are on this disc – a bald eagle, a bear and a whale – just so that we know what we missed; we dutifully thank our guides – and head into the shops for the obligatory souvenirs and then it’s back to the boat for dinner.

It is during this time waiting to get back onto the boat that we hear how other people had a fabulous time and saw so many whales that they just couldn’t photograph them all.

Our jaws have hit the floor – and we ask how come they were out on the water when we were told it was too rough.

She answers it was a Whale Watching Tour that we booked on the dock and that dear friends is the final straw.  We had been told that there would be NO boats on the water today – so we took the option of seeing moss and mushrooms.

Before we can say ‘Orca’ Kylie is off to the front desk.  She informs the staff that we had booked our Safari through Holland America and when we got to the dock for the tour we were not informed correctly.  We were told that no boats would be going out as the water was too rough so how come the Whale Watching boats went out?

The poor attendant has no answer except to say that the Whale Watching tours had a great day.  Yep – this girl is definitely stupid.

Kylie asks to speak to the Manager and is told that the Manager will contact her.  This Manager is definitely not stupid as she has been through Cyclone Kylie before.

This attendant’s interest goes as far as ‘you got a partial refund’!  Kylie explains it is not the money – even though paying $95 dollars for a bus ride through Juneau; a walk along a trail to see mushrooms and moss; one glacier and some jumping salmon just does not cut it.

The point is we were supposed to be looked after by HA and it just did not happen.  We were given the wrong information on the dock by the HA representative.  Attendant interest is dead.  We realise that seeing wildlife is definitely not a forgone conclusion on any tour but our word of advice – DO NOT BOOK ANY TOURS THROUGH HOLLAND AMERICA.  Wait till you get to the dock to size up the situation for yourself.  It is also less expensive.

Apparently Sunday Sandy has heard of our lousy ‘Safari’ trip and has done his best to brighten our evening.  On the left is the only photo of a bear we got!  Thanks Sandy.

We order some tea and sit out on our verandah after looking at our photos which are really pretty good even through the only excitement was the Glacier.

We depart Juneau at 10.30pm and as we wave goodbye sipping our tea we think of our next excursion booked through HA – White Pass Summit Scenic Railway at Skagway.  Sounds promising – let’s just hope it lives up to it’s name.

Highlight of the day: has to be the Majestic Mendenhall – no contest. Although a close second by a nose is Kylie ‘discussing our situation with the HA attendant on our return to the ship!