Category: Enjoying life right now. (Page 6 of 24)

I’ve mentioned before that I have a chronic cough and it’s been pretty good during the trip, thanks to lots of peppermint oil in my water, cough lozenges, chewing gum and medication from the throat specialist. However, when I woke up at 5:30 with a cough, I knew that it wasn’t going to stop happening. There’s a lot of dust involved with sleeping in a cave.

Luckily, I’d gathered my things together the night before, so I grabbed everything – including a book and my reading glasses, naturally – and headed quietly outside.

It was pitch black, but after I’d enjoyed using the amenities block, the sunrise had started. I was too late for spectacular photos, but I got these. In the top shot, I was rapt to see a ‘planetary’ friend.

My alarm was supposed to go off at 7, so for the rest of the time, I sat in the kitchen area and read my book. I have to say, for anyone paying attention to the ‘Camping’ word in this property’s title, Riba’s Underground Camping is a pretty good site. Everything is clean, the kitchen has everything you’d want and the amenities block also has washing machines as well as the usual, and it’s only a short drive from town.

At 7, I went and woke them up. Because there was no ensuite, there’d be no coffee – or so I assumed. But Liga had planned ahead. I don’t remember if I told you that she’d asked me to buy a mini gas bottle for her camping oven? We had our coffee after all.

My morning coffee next to my Antarctica Pee Bottle.

Liga and I sat and chatted and she told me some stories about her army life in Latvia. She was selected to be part of really tough training for what we’d call Army Reserves. She was the only woman out of 20 participants. She’s keeping up with them too, though they’ve learned that it’s wise to wake her with a cup of coffee in the mornings!

Water is such a precious commodity here. The water for the town is brought in from a bore 28 KMs away.

After that, we were on the road again on our last full day together.

Just as we turned onto the Stuart Highway, you wouldn’t credit it. A herd of brumbies was munching grass right up near the road. They couldn’t have gotten any closer unless they were sitting in the car with us! I couldn’t believe it. When I was here in September, all the brumbies we saw were way off the road and hidden amongst trees.

I don’t know what special magic Latvians bring with them, but I’ve never seen so much wildlife in all my days. Fortunate Frogdancer has nothing on these two!

We stopped for a break at an isolated stop and Liga decided she was going to do a bush wee. As soon as she started to disappear among the trees, of course an RV drove in. I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t have bothered Liga though.

But then she REALLY got her wish, when we stopped for lunch at a very greasy roadhouse.

Like, seriously? Who thinks this is great decor?

“There are many spiders’ webs up there,” said Liga. Some of the bras and hats had dates written on them that went back YEARS.

While I was eating my small bowl of chips – I figured that was a safe thing to buy here – the girls went into the back snooker room to look at the pinball machine. Suddenly, I heard shrieks of fear and they came rushing back in.

“There was a big bug… a cockeroach!” said Liga2, her eyes as big as dinner plates.

“I felt something on my foot and it was on it, trying to eat me,” said Liga, who was unfortunately wearing sandals.

When I finished my chips, I went to investigate. When Liga flipped it off her foot, it landed on its back so it was stuck. Now, I have a small foot, but even so, this thing was LARGE.

We left it there for the staff to find and went back to the car.

I don’t know why this roadhouse has a thing for discarded garments, but here we are.

On we went towards Uluru. Liga took over the driving again and I sat back and relaxed.

As we were coming up to the turnoff towards Yulara (which is the resort beside Uluru) I saw the sign for the roadhouse. Erlunga.

Hang on, wasn’t that the roadhouse we stopped at that had the exact centre of Australia on it? It turns out that yes, yes it does.

I was so pleased that I’d done the trip in September, because otherwise I would never have known about it.

We also looked at the emus and heard their strange low, hollow calls to each other.

“They are very ugly birds,” said Liga. She wasn’t wrong. These ones looked desiccated and strange.

The turn-off to reach Uluru is still nearly 300kms long. On the way is the lookout for Mt Conner, the ‘Fake” Uluru.

“It is such a shame,” said Liga. “This is beautiful rock in its own right – very spectacular – yet no one cares about it.”

And here we are.

Liga2 and I drove out to the Rock on our own after Liga wanted to stay in the room and wash her hair. She was cross because in her booking, she’d asked for 3 beds and the email arrived confirming that… and then once we were here, we were given 2 Queen beds.

Liga2 and I took the 16 km drive to see Uluru and she was delighted.

So was I, though I wasn’t nearly as Instagram-worthy about it!

We drove around for a while, so Liga2 could get her bearings for the next day when they’d be driving on their own, then we went back, found Liga, and the girls swept me off for a delicious dinner as a thank-you for the trip.

Even though I’d cuddled that gorgeous little joey the day before, I still ordered Wallaby Ragu. I regret nothing.

The weather forecast for the next few days was for cloudy skies, with tomorrow morning being the clearest. The plan is to wake up at 4:30 AM to go and see sunrise at the Rock.

Dad Joke of the day:

We woke up to rain the next morning. How lucky – imagine if we were trying to bushwalk in the rain? It would have been miserable. As it was, we packed our bags, Liga and I had some Latvian hazelnut chocolate as a snack – Liga2 had had the forethought to save a slice or two from her pizza last night – and we set off.

When I was in England last year, Deana gave me a pair of her pink socks that she was going to donate to the op shop. Since then, these socks have been to Ireland, Kangaroo Island, Canada, Alaska, the Red Centre, Kakadu and they’ve even jumped out of a plane. Now, they’re on the road again!

Today we were heading to Adelaide. This day was the first day with sustained driving, where we’d be sitting in the car for hours on end. Europeans aren’t often used to this type of travel, so I tried my best to limit long driving days as much as possible in the itinerary. However, given the time and the distances I had to work with, some boring days in the car were inevitable.

We drove until nearly midday, when we hit Dimboola and stopped for lunch. We found a retro café and I had a BLT that somehow disappeared without a trace in a very short time.

Dimboola looks to be a pretty little town.

Our next stop was just 7 minutes away – The Pink Lake.

I’ve already been here, of course, when I was coming back from Kangaroo Island in February. My friend Helen had told me about how you can harvest pink salt here, but all I had back then was a coffee mug. This time, I came prepared.

The Pink Lake looks its pinkest when it’s cloudy. The day was a little cloudy and the Ligas got to see the full effext of the colour. Once the car stopped,we raced down to the lake, where I instantly started scooping up salt. Liga was kind enough to sneak a photo of my sumptuous arse in all its glory…

We stayed here for a little while, then we jumped in the car again and headed off. Liga wanted to listen to the news, so we learned that there were bushfires to the north and south of us. My trusty little Golf kept heading in between them along our way.

We stopped each time we saw some silo art.

The Ligas were very quiet by the time we reached our hotel just before 6 that evening. They were desperate to escape ‘Mum’s Boppin’ Bangers’ and the confines of the car, so they headed off along the foreshore to stretch their legs and get dinner, while I set off to see Evan28 for dinner.

Yes, how lucky was this? Evan28 and Jenna were in Adelaide for Jenna’s sister’s 21st.

We had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then we met the Ligas for drinks. Unfortunately wthe wind was fierce on the foreshore, so we retreated to an inside bar for an hour or so and talked.

After the Ligas left to capture the last of the sunset on the pier – they got some amazing photos – Evan28 and I stayed until the bar decided to close. I love when I have one-on-one with my kids.

I asked Jenna and her Mum about what we could do in Adelaide in the morning before we head up to Port Augusta. There doesn’t seem to be a lot to do in the city, but we did get the helpful warning to keep our car doors locked in Port Augusta!

Our Port Augusta day is also Latvian Independence Day. This is a Big Deal to Latvians. In 1918 they kicked the Russians out and enjoyed the golden age of independence before the Russians came back and took over the place during WWII. In 1991 they kicked them out again after 50 years of being occupied by Russia. Understandably, Latvians are keen to celebrate their independence.

After we got to Adelaide, I said to Liga that she should create a playlist of Latvian songs on Spotify that we could play as we drove to Port Augusta. We spent all day listening to what sounded to me like mostly jolly songs. I couldn’t understand a word, so I just listened to the melodies as I drove along.

Liga was determined to try kangaroo and googled a place that had excellent reviews for their char-grilled kangaroo steaks. It was a pub in Port Adelaide. We had the morning to kill before lunch, so Liga2 decided that she wanted to go to Rundle Mall to do some shopping. Liga wanted to stay at Henley Beach a while longer and enjoy the sand. I drove Liga2 to the mall and then found a shady bench under a tree and read a book for a couple of hours. We met at the British Hotel in Port Adelaide for lunch.

It was lovely. The girls had brought little Latvian flags to celebrate the day.

Happy and free Latvians!

Now that was a good effort! I must have been hungry.

We drove straight to Port Augusta after this and I’m sitting on my bed typing this as we’re getting ready for bed. Tomorrow will be an early start, because I want to spend as much time in Coober Pedy as we can, because I’ve never been there.

It’ll be a slightly larger driving day tomorrow, before the big one to get to Uluru on Wednesday.

Dad Joke of the Day:

We were up bright and early to catch the 9 AM ferry from Sorento to Queenscliff. Today was the Great Ocean Road! I took myself along here a couple of years ago on a Little Adventure.

Well, the Liga’s are here!

Quick code for telling them apart when I’m writing. Liga is my Liga from Antarctica. The other Liga will be ‘Liga2’ because she’s called Liga too.

I picked them up from the airport, and we went home to a lovely dinner cooked by Georgia: pizza straight from our pizza oven. Too easy! (At least for me.)

The agenda for the first day of the trip was to take them to Healesville Sanctuary to see all of the Australian animals, birds and reptiles. Liga was feeling almost personally attacked by the weather. She was freezing cold in Sydney and it was showering today in Healesville.

“Who ever heard of it being cold in Australia?” she protested. But apart from the weather, I don’t think we could have had a better day at Healesville. The animals and birds really turned it on, and I think that it was probably a good thing that the skies were grey. We practically had the whole place to ourselves.

We saw everything they wanted to see. It was funny to see the animals through others’ eyes. We were in the kangaroo enclosure and Liga said, “It’s incredible to think of how a kangaroo is put together. Front legs like a bunny, ass like a deer…” I’d never thought of kangaroos like that. To me, they’re just everyday, normal animals.

We were walking towards the platypus building and Liga said, “We have similar animal in Latvia called Beaver.” I thought to myself, ‘She has no idea how small a platypus is!’ I kept quiet and yes – she was surprised. She also thought the Tasmanian Devils would be “small, like rat.” Wrong again!

Spoonbills. I wonder how they got their name???

The animals really came to the party. Here is a male koala calling the girls.

Liga has a thing for koalas and we saw plenty, including a mother cuddling her joey. The only thing that would have made it perfect for them is if they were allowed to hold, or even pat the koalas, but the Sanctuary doesn’t allow that as it stresses the koalas out.

The Tasmanian Devils were something I was looking forward to seeing. I saw them here when I was a child and I’ve never forgotten it. When I came here on my Little Adventure a couple of years ago, they were sug in their burrows and refused to show themselves. This time though – we were there at feeding time!

Cranky little buggers. They were fed a mix of wallaby, possum and fish. All the bones, fur and scales were left on, as Tassie Devils are scavengers.

The Ligas were very excited to see them. Liga2 said, “The Tasmanian Devils aren’t in any zoos in Europe as far as I know. We don’t get to see them.” She bought a Tassie Devil soft toy for her kids as a souvenir.

We went to the open-air bird show and it was lovely to see the look of delight they shared with each other as an eagle flew over their heads. So many little things were just perfect – except for the showers and my internal freak out when my phone died and I had enormous trouble finding a charger. Fortunate Frogdancer finally found a girl in the café who had one, so the day was saved. (I needed Google Maps to get back to the Maroondah Highway… Phew!)

If I was unlucky enough to be reincarnated as a bird, I bet this would be me…

The next morning we loaded up the car and set off for a day on the Mornington Peninsula – the first leg of our Crazy Road Trip.

Dad Joke of the Day:

Here is the last view from our balcony. What a beautiful sight to wake up to.

I don’t think that any awakening will top our first morning in Banff though, when Megan pulled back the blinds and said, “It’s SNOWING!” That was a great moment.

We went down to breakfast and while we were there, the first announcements came over the speakers for groups of people to depart. The way we board and leave the ship is to tap our room keys on a reader, so that the ship always has an accurate tally of who’s on board or not.

The cruise director’s voice rang out, “Orange and green groups please assemble at the Venetian Lounge for disembarkation. Please remember to bring your room key for that last emotional tap.”

That made us all giggle.

Finally, it was our turn and we boarded the bus for the 2-hour drive from Seward to Anchorage.

It’s funny how people get used to things. These mountains sweeping down to nothing, with crystal-clear water below are utterly spectacular, yet most people near me on the bus were giving cursory looks as we went along. That is, unless the bus driver announced a photo opportunity. Then everyone’s phones were aimed at the windows.

I was uneasily aware that I was coming down with something. I felt like I should nap, but how could I? This was the last chance I was going to have to see these views.

Like – see the reflection in the water? This place is spectacular.

You could paint a picture of this, though maybe without the guardrail!

The sheer acuteness of the angles is something I never tired of seeing. Australia is such an ancient land. Most of our angles have been worn away.

Goodbye, rivers!

We were stopped a few times by roadworks. We heard people say this a few times while we were in Alaska – “There are only two seasons in Alaska – winter and construction!”

It reminded me of when we were wandering around Ushuaia in 2022, waiting to board our ship to Antarctica. Everywhere, people were out patching holes, fixing potholes and working on their houses. They have to make the most of the good weather.

Goodbye, steep mountains!

Captain Cook actually sailed up this inlet. He thought it was a passage to somewhere or other but it wasn’t.

I found the story interesting but I was also starting to feel not great. I wasn’t taking notes.

Mudflats. They’re like quicksand.

Apparently, Anchorage is surrounded by them.

And here we are.

The population of Anchorage is 303,000.

Alaska overall has 750,00 people. This is a very empty state. It’s 1 million square kilometres smaller than Western Australia, but we have more people in WA compared to Alaska.

Imagine Australia having more people than somewhere else!

I have a moose antler in my luggage, so I had to pose.

Naturally, I had Michelle Shocked’s song, “Anchored Down in Anchorage” playing in my head. I challenge anyone who knows the song to go there and not have the same thing happen to them.

These lyrics are a beautiful piece of poetry. I can’t post a link to the song because Michelle Shocked doesn’t have her music on Youtube or Spotify because she doesn’t like the way the artists are paid. She appears to have gone a bit fundy, which is a shame, but these lyrics perfectly capture this woman’s yearnings and isolation.

I took time out to write to my old friend
I walked across that burning bridge
Mailed my letter off to Dallas
But her reply came from Anchorage, Alaska

She said
“Hey girl, it’s about time you wrote
It’s been over two years you know, my old friend
Take me back to the days of the foreign telegrams
And the all-night rock and rollin’… hey Shell
We was wild then

Hey Shell, you know it’s kind of funny
Texas always seemed so big
But you know you’re in the largest state in the union
When you’re anchored down in Anchorage

Hey Girl, I think the last time I saw you
Was on me and Leroy’s wedding day
What was the name of that love song they played?
I forgot how it goes
I don’t recall how it goes

Anchorage
Anchored down in Anchorage

Leroy got a better job so we moved
Kevin lost a tooth now he’s started school
I got a brand new eight month old baby girl
I sound like a housewife
Hey Shell, I think I’m a housewife

Hey Girl, what’s it like to be in New York?
New York City – imagine that!
Tell me, what’s it like to be a skateboard punk rocker?

Leroy says “Send a picture”
Leroy says “Hello”
Leroy says “Oh, keep on rocking, girl”
“yeah, keep on rocking”

Hey Shell, you know it’s kind of funny
Texas always seemed so big
But you know you’re in the largest state in the union
When you’re anchored down in Anchorage
Oh, Anchorage
Anchored down in Anchorage
Oh, Anchorage…

We were actually lucky to be departing today. Yesterday, without explanation, the whole airport and airspace got shut down by the military. (Megan overheard that explanation given to a pilot.) People were left hanging, having to find accommodation for the night.

Megan said that it wouldn’t have been a big deal – we’d find a room then go out and explore Anchorage. She’s right, but once I have my nose turned towards home, I want to get there ASAP. Plus, I was retreating within myself. I was getting sick.

After the worst trip home on a plane I’ve ever had, I returned to these little woofs.

Poor Georgia! After looking after them and dealing with poor Poppy’s death, I’m sure she was expecting me to come in and take over the reins. Instead, I staggered in, took a 4-hour nap, then stayed pretty much on the couch and slept for the next week.

We had the opportunity to adopt a 5-year-old dachshund from the shelter Blogless Sandy worked in. We tried, but after 4 days we had to take him back after he wasn’t listening to the older dogs in our pack. That was sad.

I’m still missing my Poppy, though I can say hello to the group of irises that are planted atop. The other two are growing closer. Scout even lets Jeff sleep beside her now. A few days after I got back, I turned to Georgia and said, “We haven’t talked about Poppy yet.” We both had a good cry and felt so much better.

So it’s been a week since I came home. I’m just about feeling human again and that’s a relief!

Would I recommend going to Canada and Alaska?

Absolutely! They’re easy places to travel to, given all the similarities between us and them. The wildlife and scenery are spectacular. The feelings of awe and absolute delight when I saw them are things I will never forget.

What about the luxury ship?

It was expensive, but EVERYTHING was included. After having to self-cater for the two-week Canada trip, it was a relief to relax and just eat and drink whatever I wanted. The dining was exquisite, and even though I’m not a ‘foodie’ I still thoroughly enjoyed the tastes and, frankly, the feeling of being pampered. That hasn’t happened much in my life up till now.

I was also glad we weren’t on one of those ENORMOUS ships with 5,000 passengers. For me, that’s far too big. Our ship had around 500 passengers, which seems large enough for me. In September next year, I’ll be back on the Hondius on my way to Greenland. She only carries around 120 passengers.

On the way home, on the train, Megan and I agreed that we’d travel together again. Honestly, if our worst fight was about what a pavilion/rotunda/gazebo is called, that’s pretty damned good. We respected each other’s space and little habits – at least I did. I’m sure Megan found no problems at all with me. I have no irritating little ways.

Haha! I know she’ll read this and her eyebrow will rise almost to the top of her head.

I think the best thing we did was to sometimes spend our days apart doing different things. We each had our little adventures and had some space. I’d definitely recommend doing this if you and a friend are thinking about travelling together.

All in all – it was a very successful holiday and it was my 7TH CONTINENT. It feels unreasonably satisfying to tick this off the list. Now, I’m going to double- back and spend the next couple of decades zeroing in on where I feel like going.

The list is (so far) as follows:

1. September 2024 – My trip on the Ghan, with a week in the Red Centre and a week at the Top End. To be honest, this is another ‘Tick off the list’ trip. It’s Unaustralian not to have seen these places.
2. November 2024 – My crazy road trip with Liga from Latvia, who is coming over to complete HER last continent. This will be a 2-week drive to see as much as possible.
3. December 2024 – a week by myself in the Snowy Mountains. I’ll probably need this to recover from #2!
4. February 2025 – Vietnam for 2 weeks.
5. March 2024 – Japan for 2 weeks.
6. April 2025 – Tanzania, Kenya and Zanzibar. Yes, I’ll be back in Africa!
7. September 2025 – Iceland/Greenland/Scandinavia. I’ll be gone for the whole month.

Thanks for following along with me. I enjoy writing these travel blogs so much. I initially started writing them in 2015 for the kids, but absolutely no one from my family reads them. I’m glad to have had your company along the way.

So it’s back to regular blogging for a while.

xx

This is what we woke up to this morning. The Silver Muse was still making her way towards the docks at Valdez. The air was fairly cold but it was all utterly serene.

This was the view from our balcony once we docked. It looked almost like someone could drive right on up to the ship!

At breakfast, I was talking to a lovely American couple that we met on the first day. She was saying that they have a helicopter flight to the glacier booked for 10 AM, but the clouds look to be too low.

“My husband Hank’s a pilot. He said that even if they say it’s ok to fly, we’re absolutely not going. It’s a shame because it was so expensive.”

I was so glad I chose to do mine earlier in Juneau! Those clouds look beautiful and mysterious, but not so wonderful when you want to fly.

We were loaded onto a full-sized coach and off we went. We drove out of downtown Valdez pretty quickly, though Faith, our guide, informed us that there used to be an old town and a new one.

“The old town was set a little ways out of New Valsez,” she said. “It was destroyed by a 9.1 Richter earthquake on Good Friday in 1964. The epicentre was only 40 miles from here.”

That must have been awful. The people were given 3 years by the government to move their homes onto the new site. Two wealthy families in the town gave people land in the new town so that they could afford to move.

The water in this place is everywhere.

We turned down the road that would have led to the old town of Valdez. Our tour guide kept telling us where things used to be, which struck me as a bit odd. She said she’d been here for 13 years, so it wasn’t as if she had a personal memory of the old bank… the hotel… etc.

Everything was just reclaimed forest land.

Then she said something which blew my mind. She talked about the Exxon-Valdez accident – you know… that oil spill that killed hundreds of thousands of birds and animals and shocked the entire world?

I hadn’t put the two together in my mind, since until last night I’d not been pronouncing it as “Valdeez”.

See those two ships? They’re always there, ready to start a clean-up in case it ever happens again. They have ships like this positioned all around where the oil tankers sail.

 If you look at the mountainside you’ll see a little series almost like a long dotted line with white on the top. That’s part of the tank farm that is Alyeska, which is the terminus for the Trans-Alaska pipeline.

And that is where the Exxon Valdez left, from the terminus, on Good Friday February 28 1989. She left the port and ran aground on the reef just outside. 

“So we are known for the pipeline, we are known for being settled by prospectors, we’re known for the Exxon-Valdez and we’re also known for the 1964 earthquake.”

Weirdly, the earthquake also happened on Good Friday.

This was so exciting. A guy sitting at the front of the bus saw a bear racing across a field. It was running full pelt. He yelled out and the front part of the bus was able to see it running across the road.

I taught half the bus how to air drop (thanks, Antarctica pals!) when I sent everyone the crappy photos I was able to take. Then, half an hour later, I was air dropped this video.

A thing I like about travelling in Canada and Alaska is that so many highways run beside rivers.

I couldn’t believe the height of the snow beside the road. This was at my eye-level in the coach!

As we got further into the pass, we started driving into cloud. I was reminded of the day in Ireland when we were driving around trying to see the Ring of Kerry through all of the rain.

I felt for my American friend and her lost helicopter ride.

Here is the glacier.

It’s tucked back a bit behind the foothills. After yesterday’s viewing, it was a bit of an anticlimax. I dutifully took a few photos, then turned around and saw this:

Look at how much snow is lying on this pass.

IT’S SUMMER. This place gets ridiculous amounts of snow every year. It’s the snowiest town in Alaska. The record for snowfall in a single day is 5’8″/176cms – which is taller than I am! In 1989/90, they had an incredible 46 feet/1,402 cms of snow.

I cannot ever conceive of living here. It takes a special breed of person.

Remember yesterday when I showed you the poles that were set up on either side of the road in Haines, to guide the snow ploughs?

These things tower over the bus. They have a reflective strip at the top so that people driving in the Pass during winter can still find the road.

“Everyone living in these parts has a white-knuckle story of driving through here in winter,” said Faith.

We drove for a little while longer, then got off at the Pass. It was stunning.

The first thing I noticed was this cute little caravan parked at the edge.

The views went on and on.

“If any of you want to come here in the summer,” Faith said, “I’ll happily hike with you all the way down to the bottom of the pass. with the third-graders”

That’s a hard no from me.

I air-dropped this one to the woman I caught taking a photo. I really like this one.

After a little while, we hit the road again.

Greenery started to appear as we went lower.

We were heading to a place on the highway that has lots of waterfalls. We passed them on the way up, but it’s easier to park when you’re driving on this side of the road.

This video is worth listening to, just to hear Faith talking about what the locals do here at Bridal Falls when the waterfalls freeze in the winter.

And here is Horsetail Falls, just 2 minutes down the road.

This shot was taken by a guy who was showing me hw much better his phone was at taking pictures than mine was.

I think I’ll be getting a new phone soon and giving my current one to Mum. Her phone is so ancient that it’s still on 3G, which is getting cancelled in September.

I walked towards the road to take this shot. Scared myself silly when a car shot by me out of nowhere.

Honestly – the North Americans, the Chinese and the Europeans should get their acts together and drive on the proper side of the road!

It’s so pretty.

Here’s the Silver Muse through the windscreen of the bus.

I passed Megan on the gangway, as she was headed into town. She had an hour or so to kill before her bus trip started. I went to the room and yes – our cases were out, and Megan’s was already zipped up, ready to go.

This was really our last day.

So I had my last lunchtime bubby in the café on deck 8.

Meanwhile, Megan was sending me photos of her discoveries down in the town:

Yes, really.

O always thought that Americans didn’t like to swear, but here we are.

I found this one very interesting. What an awful life these women must have endured!

And finally, in the museum, Megan found this. A fur fish.

She helpfully enlarged the blurb about this rare creature:

One last fun fact about Valdez – Commander Will Ryker, from Star Trek Next Generation, will be born here in 2335.

For our last dinner we went back to the restaurant that had my favourite staff member, Amit. We saw him at every breakfast too. He was so funny.

I slipped him the last of my Canadian money. The ship was heading back to Vancouver so I knew he’d be able to use it. I kept my remaining 25 USD to give to Evan27 – as he’s leaving for the US a few days after I get back.

This restaurant also had the best garlic naan I’ve ever tasted.

omg. Worth the price of the cruise.

When we went back to the room we settled into a movie – ‘Gentleman Prefer Blondes’ with Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.’

I had that song in my head until we hit Anchorage the next morning.

(One more post for this trip!)

Dad joke of the day:

This turned out to be a very special morning. I saw a glacier calving!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

See that line of ice level with my eyes? That’s the glacier, and you can see its reflection directly underneath. This glacier is falling into the sea.

The voice of the glacier expert came ringing out of the loudspeakers as I walked down the corridor to get to what I thought would be the least crowded place to see this beautiful thing.

“If you have a camera, now is the place to use it! Now is the time! It doesn’t get better than this! I’ve been here hundreds of times but I’ve never seen this place bathed in sunlight like it is today!”

This was a sea day, but in the morning we spent a few hours in Glacier Bay.

The Hubbard Glacier is 600 feet high, 70 miles long and 70 miles wide. It was stunning. I walked to a place on the deck of the 9th floor and I was with only 4 other people.

I took out my phone and began snapping away, happy as a clam.

The glacier wasn’t the only beautiful scene here. The sun’s coming through the clouds! Fortunate Frogdancer is here…

You can see the glacier – the glassy blue-green strip just above the water to the right. I took so many photos trying to capture the different shades of blue in the ice, but it’s something that’s best seen by the naked eye.

The water in front of the glacier was filled with chunks of ice that had broken away. Some of them had decorative seagulls.

This video was taken when the captain began his final turn in front of the glacier. Most people had had their fill of the sight and had gone inside again, where it was warm.

Then, as soon as I put my phone in my pocket after taking this video – I saw movement on the face of the glacier!

I saw a piece of it fall into the water and then, when I had my phone recording again, I heard the noise.

I know… I was excited. This only shows the aftermath.

But I was so happy. I couldn’t believe that so many people had gone inside and had missed it. But then I felt it – the cold.

It was bloody freezing.

I went inside to the bar. The warmth that hit me when the doors opened was exquisite. I really should have taken the extra 5 seconds to grab a coat before I left the room, but it didn’t feel that cold when I was all excited.

I was inside in the warm room looking out of the window at the view, thinking,’ Oh, I’ll just stay in here from now on.’

Two seconds later, I gave myself a good talking-to. When am I ever going to be at eye-level with a glacier again? Get out there, girl! Who cares if it’s freezing? Besides – they have heaters out there!

I walked outside and stood strategically under this heater. The rest of me was still chilly but by god – my forehead was warm. I could still see the glacier.

This was where Megan found me.

“I’ve been looking for you for ages!” she said.

“Oh yeah, why?” I asked.

She used no words, just held up my door key. Yes, along with my coat, I’d left my door key in the room. Poor Megan had walked from vantage point to vantage point trying to find me. It’s not all bad though – she walked another 3,000 steps, so her watch says.

We swapped notes on what we’d seen, then she headed off. I hunkered down as the ship began to leave the bay. It was going along a different side to what I expected and soon I saw why – sea lions!

Can’t see? Let me zoom in for you.

How exciting!

This was just to the right of the glacier.

You can see the glacier popping up for a last goodbye as we left.

I felt like I felt in Antarctica – these birds and animals live in such beautiful places. It’s unrealistic to expect them to gaze upon these views with a human’s appreciation of their beauty, but a small part of me hopes they feel at least something.

Just as I was about to call it a day, I smelled… paint. This is how these cruise ships always look so white and clean. They’re constantly being touched up.

After all this excitement, I needed a lunchtime glass of bubbly to calm me down.

Early on in this cruise, we were invited to a gathering on the last sea day. Tonight was the night!

Megan wasn’t all that fussed about going. She wasn’t very taken with Jude, but I was interested in going for two reasons.

1. This woman had a suite on the same floor as us. It was a step up. I was curious to see what it was like.
2. Jude was doing what I’d like to do – TRAVEL whenever and however she wanted. She obviously has a lot more disposable income than I do, but the basic premise is the same.

She’d mentioned that this was her EIGHTEENTH Silverseas cruise. omg. Cruising is obviously her preferred method of travel as she does 3 or 4 a year, but “I like to take a land cruise at least once a year, as you can’t see everything from the deck of a ship.”

So we went to her suite at 7 PM, where her butler had set up a table with nibbles. Her bar was well-stocked. When I saw this, it dawned on me that maybe we’d been under-utilising our Ruby!

Another woman called Taffy from New York was there as well, so the four of us sat, ate and chatted. I would’ve added ‘drank’ to that, but Megan told me later that when she asked Jude for water rather than alcohol, Jude served her nothing.

Apparently, fish pee in water and ducks swim in it. Or something.

After a while, we went up to deck 10 where the outdoor restaurant is. It’s a bit of fun – you order your protein and they bring a hot stone that you can cook your meal on. If you don’t want to cook, their chef is there to do the hard work for you.

Taffy and Jude decided to split the fish of the day between them, as well as get some steak each. Megan went with the lamb chops, while I decided to go with ‘surf and turf’ – 3 king prawns and a filet mignon.

I’ve never had filet mignon before, and now was the time to try it – when it was free.

I wasn’t expecting such a massive chunk of meat. You could choke a rottweiler with this!

I decided my best bet was to cook it on every last surface I could find, then work my way in.

It was glorious! So tender! The prawns were amazing too, but this steak was divine.

I asked Jude if I could take her photo.

“Oh no, I hate having my photo taken.” I asked her approval for this one though. She gave it.

This was after the meal was done and Jude and Taffy decided to go down to one of the lounges. Oof.

They are nice women… but the level of entitlement was uncomfortable to be around. They thought nothing of asking the staff to do ridiculous things.

Taffy wanted a particular type of ice cream that wasn’t among the 10 flavours already on deck 10 – someone had to go down to deck 4 to get her the flavour she wanted.

Jude wanted a small puddle at her feet taken care of because “I don’t have socks on.” I offered to swap places with her because I was wearing my boots, but “no, I like to sit by the window to look at the sea.” The staff brought towels for her and she made a guy go on his hands and knees to put the towels around her feet over the puddle.

They were complaining a lot about the level of service. I don’t know… some of it might have been warranted but most of it seemed pretty petty to me. The fact that we’re able to travel to these parts of the world is so privileged, yet they’re nit-picking.

It reminded me of when I asked the man at the dog training camp what the town thought of the cruise ships. He laughed and said, “We think they’re full of retirees who complain about everything.”

Only one more full day left!

Dad joke of the day”

At 5:30 that afternoon, we all gathered together for a minibus ride deep into the hills to see the dog camp.

During the day we bumped into other people who had been there before us. They all raved about how good it was. Both Megan and I wore our old clothes so we could get covered in dog hair and it wouldn’t matter, and we were set to go.

The trail to the camp was narrow and very exacting for the driver. The forest was deep all around us as we went higher and higher. The campus is about 1,000 feet up, which is a steep climb, considering that the city of Juneau is only 36 feet up from sea level.

It was an old goldmine back in the day but this is about the only flat space around, so these people have leased the land from the old gold mining company as a dog training camp. It’s been here for about 20 years. 

The dogs are bred for performance not for looks, so unlike the traditional Siberian husky who are pretty useless at racing, these ones are built for performance and strength. 

175 dogs live here during the summer. The dogs are built to enjoy extreme cold, so bringing them here is a kindness. The summers are far too hot for them where they come from. Each doghouse is a different colour – depending on who owns the dogs. The red houses , for example, belong to the 47 dogs that one woman here owns.

Sledding dogs is a whole lifestyle for the owners. This is a real training camp. The dogs come here and haul fat tourists like us around all day on carts that they have to drag along the ground. This builds them up beautifully. When the’re suddenly in the snow in winter, dragging only one person in a proper racing sleigh, they go FAST.

You’d expect a working dog to be a serious being, but they’re not. We were warned not to get too close, because the dogs will hurl themselves at you, demanding cuddles and pats, and these dogs are strong.

“Even now, when I’ve been working with them for years, if one catches me unawares, they can send me flying,” said Jake, who was our driver.

As soon as we arrived, eeryone noticed this enticing sign.

“Now, no one sneak off and have a look at the puppies,” said the woman with the 47 dogs. “We have them right at the end of thetour, because we know that if we let you go there first, none of you will want to see anything else!”

It’s Alaskan law that every dog has to have its own house, and it has to be chained to that house when its not working.

“In Oregon, where I live,” said Jake, “we have a huge open farm and the dogs can run where they like. But here, they have to live on a chain. It happened because some dogs in very remote communities got too protective and they went after children. It doeasn’t bother them too much and here, they’re out training two or three times a day.”

Sophie was taking it easy.

I was subconsciously expecting huskies before I arrived, but of course for racing dogs, the only thing these people care about in their breeding programs is speed and health. These animals have to perform in extreme conditions. They’ve used Greyhounds, Salukis and other racing dogs over the years, but basically what they’re looking for is speed, endurance, (especially if they do the really long races like the Iditarod), and intelligence. They have to be able to work in a team.

Jeffrey would have no hope!

Someone asked why this dog was up on a platform.

“Oh, that’s because when he got here, he started eating rocks,” said Jake. “He ate so many that he got backed up and he had to have an operation to get them out. It cost thousands of dollars. But he deserves his little throne. He’s a good dog.”

I know I love my dogs, but these people here live tfor them. They live beside them here in tents in the summer, they take all 47 of them travelling and they speak of them individually with so much affection.

It was a lovely thing to see.

The first group was called out and we were part of it. Here are the dogs who were waiting to take us out.

The noise was incredible! These ones were excited because they knew they were going to have a run, while the others were all barking in protest because they wanted to get out too.

These dogs LOVE their work. Watch this next video – it’s the first part of our run. When we were asked who wanted to sit in the front seat, of course I was leaping up before the guy had finished his sentence. I wanted to see it all! Megan, who is tall, isn’t (yet) used to frontside viewing. She sat beside me in the front seat but scrunched down a bit for the sake of the people behind.

It was so much fun!

The front dogs were called Georgia (on the left) and Ranger. He was there for the muscle and she was there for her intelligence.

Both of them are great at ignoring things that a normal dog would find impossible to resist. A bird flew across the path and into the trees, but these two just kept going forward.

“The wrong dog would have pulled us into the trees!” said Jake.

Every now and then Jake wuld pull over the team for a rest. He said that even in the summer in Alaska, they have to guard against the dogs getting too warm.

“Too cold isn’t usually a problem, ” he said. “It’s when they get too warm that they start having issues. Occasionally we give them an opportunity to cool down and collect their sanity but they don’t really know the concept of stop. That’s why they get anxious. The other dogs run this path earlier so never mind about stopping to cool down! They’re thinking it’s a race and they’re trying to chase down this other teams. That’s how we do it. Follow the scent of the ones before and then once we get confirmation, we catch up and go past them. That’s where the hound comes in, it’s pure instinct.”

He got down off the cart, as a couple of the dogs had jumped around so much in excitement that they’d got a bit tangled. As he was doing that, the back two dogs swapped sides without him seeing. Earlier he’d said that the big black dog was trying to intimidate other dogs – he is two years old and feeling his oats – so he’d put him next to a very stable-natured girl. When he jumped over, she simply looked at him, raised and eyebrow and swapped to the other side without any fuss.

He pointed to the waterfall behind him.

“See that puddle they’re lying in? We built that specially for them. They’re standing in this water and lying down and it helps cool them down rapidly. Drinking helps cool them internally, The snow is now melting in the spring, and that waterfall is melting glacier water and that’s what we’re pumping to this puddle so it’s just a few degrees above freezing. It’s very cold. Brings down their body temperature is really quickly. You can see Georgia up front just lying down in it.”

In a surprisingly short space of time the team were all jumping up and down and barking to be let go again.

They absolutely love it!

These dogs are fed once a day, after the last tour has gone. The handlers are very conscious of gastric torsion, which can kill a dog in a matter of hours, so they take very good care to feed them only after all exercise is done for the day. That includes when they’re racing.

They eat a huge amount of calories every day, but they burn it all off, especially when they’re racing in the winter.

They’re all muscle.

They’re bred to thrive in harsh climates for winter.

“These guys can go 100 miles a day. They take breaks, which just means to walk at a really moderate slow pace every 5 to 50 miles, depending on how long the race is. We’re here for the summer but our actual kennel is in central Oregon.”

You can see the husky eyes on Ranger. I don’t know if I like the blue eyes on a dog – I’m not used to it.

But he and Georgia were good dogs. Even though they’d just pulled us around two miles of track, the team was ready to go out again.

“This 2 mile track is nothing to them,” said Jake.

Here are some boots for the dogs, which they need when the temperature goes down to NEGATIVE 30 and beyond.

omg.

“It’s a delicate balance,” said Jake. “If you put the boots on too early, you’ll harm your dogs because one of the most efficient ways they cool down is through their feet. If you put the boots on too early, you’ll heat them up and they’ll suffer. If you leave them too long without them, their feet will get ice between the pads and they’ll get cut on the ice.”

Finally we got to see the puppies. Megan was in her element.

There were 3 litters here – one that had 12 week old pups and two litters that were one week old.

Interestingly, none of these litters are owned by the people here. Owners bring theor puppies here to be socialised by all the tourists. What a great idea! Almost from birth, these dogs are getting used to being handled by a multitude of people. Their temperaments will be bomb-proof!

The 12 week old litter had 4 girls and a boy, so the staff here have given them nicknmes from ‘The Office.’ This one is Dwight.

It was strange. I thought I’d be all over the dogs but once I was here, I wasn’t at all. I patted the team who took us around the track, but I didn’t want to cuddle the puppies.

I think I wanted MY dogs, all three of them.

However, it was a different thing when they brought out the babies.

Their eyes weren’t open yet and they were still making that squeaking sound very young puppies make. I remember it from when I used to breed puppies, in the years before I started breeding humans.

On the way back to town, we saw a porcupine walking along the road.

No bears. I’m starting to believe that bears are very rare here and that it’s all a big lie to entice tourists over here.

We ate at an Italian-themed restaurant on the ship this evening and joined up with a lively group of people out on the deck afterwards.

Goodbye Juneau! I’m sorry I didn’t get to catch up with Rae, but the rest of it was fun.

Dad joke of the day: