Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau
Corinne Sally, Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau
Franklin Street, Juneau
A heavy fog early in the morning soon cleared and sunshine made a welcome change for the past day’s of cloudy and sometimes rainy weather.
Juneau is a town of 30,000 and although originally a mining town it is now, as the capital of Alaska, the administrative headquarters for Alaska having the parliament and the main government offices here.
Juneau also serves as a major tourist destination and gauging from the harbour scene, tourism is thriving. There were three huge luxury liners in port this morning and others due later in the day.
We wandered along the waterfront section of Juneau city and were surprised how small the town centre was with only a few streets where shops were present. These shops were principally directed towards tourism being cafes, lounge bars, souvenir shops and a multitude of jewellery shops.
After coffee and a light breakfast we headed back to our hotel and packed up and prepared for the next phase of our Alaskan adventure which is to be our boat cruise for ten days.
We were collected from the hotel by bus and taken to the Juneau Icefield area. This icefield feeds about 40 large glaciers and 100 smaller ones. Of these glaciers, only one namely Taku Glacier is continuing to advance with all the others receding quite rapidly.
We visited the large Mendenhall Glacier which spills from the valley above into Mendenhall Lake. The 50m high toe of the glacier was particularly deep blue and adjacent to the glacier is a big waterfall making for an impressive scene.
The glacier was named in honour of Thomas Mendenhall who surveyed the international border between Canada and Southeast Alaska.
There was a visitors’ centre nearby offering information on glaciers and icefield geology. There was a 15 minute video showing some stunning footage of the icefields and their associated ecology.
At 5.30 p.m. we boarded the Sea Bird and were immediately impressed by the hospitality and organisational skills of the crew and staff.
There are 62 passengers on board and we are in a lower deck cabin which two single beds, a double wardrobe and a small but well appointed bathroom.
Our very first activity on board was a well co-ordinated life-boat drill where we went through safety procedures including the donning of the large life jackets which are to be used only for abandoning ship. We are each provided with a more comfortable, smaller life jacket for use when we head out in the zodiacs.
A cocktail party with champagne and nibbles provided an introduction time when we heard important information and briefings from the crew and tour leaders.
The Expedition Leader is Cindy Manning who now resides in Galapagos, Ecuador. The staff on board include five wildlife specialists, an undersea specialist, a video chronicler, a photography instructor and a fitness specialist.
The ship’s captain is Captain Andrew Cook, a very likeable man and his self-introduction; “I’m Captain Cook” induced some wry grins and merriment!
A fabulous smorgasbord style dinner was served and we then sat around and chatted with other guests most of whom are from the USA. There are two couples from England, one couple from Germany and another couple from Melbourne.
One of the couples from London has been on five previous Lindblad Expeditions including Antarctica and The Galapagos Islands. This is a pretty strong recommendation for Lindblad and everything so far suggests this is to be a period of utter luxury; quite a contrast from our previous three weeks of camping and cooking for ourselves!
The National Geographic Sea Bird left the docks of Juneau just on mid-night and headed off overnight for Tracy Arm.