let sleeping whales lie

The day after our iceberg trip we went back out to find the whales in Frederick Sound, but this time in a kayak. 

Those sealions again but a bit closer this time

Environmental Abu Hamza - Ralph picks up some floating polystyrene debris

Advanced maritime manoeuvres - We spotted a humpback whale before pulling into the cove and so wanted to get out in the kayaks quickly straight from the motorboat, rocking was not advised.

Chuffed at spotting some humpbacks.  There were two whales a mother and quite large youngster.  They sleep for about 20 minutes at a time, floating at the surface so they can breathe.

The whales breathing while asleep

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Iceberg escapades

Petersburg is a busy fishing town on the Inside Passage of South East Alaska, we visited it for a sea kayaking trip and humpback whale watching in Frederick Sound.  It had been a bumper year for the fishermen catching salmon and the cannery was working flat out.

arriving in Petersberg

the big city

Our tour boat

We did a kayak trip at Le Conte glacier which is a tidewater glacier as it calves into the sea rather than a freshwater lake.  Icebergs that have calved off the glacier float miles out to sea, we kayaked around the entrance to Le Conte bay in among the icebergs which would sometimes start rumbling and roll slowly over as a piece above melted and unbalanced it.  They were amazing shapes and colours.  There was a really cool lady on the trip with us, Bettie who was from LA and was probably a contender for the funniest lady we have met. She had been on kayak trips with the same company for many years.

She told us about a trip to Europe she took in her twenties, she was in Scotland and was angling for a dinner invite with a Glaswegian man. She figured that the best way to charm him would be to look interested and laugh at his jokes, unfortunately she was unable to understand a word he said. After a while the man finished talking and looked quite offended, Betty was informed by a friend that the man had been explaining about his wife's death, needless to say she wasn't invited for dinner! Ralph nearly pee'd himself laughing after she told us this.

A beached iceberg, it looked different from every different angle

Fi was not as close to a titanic moment as she looked

Icebergs, we had to keep a bit of distance as many of these broke up and spun to reveal their undersides

Ralph has not been the same since the day at the gun shop

Fiona and Bettie

Le Conte glacier, the black dots on the ice are harbour seals who managed to make ice look very comfy.

The harbour seals can lie up on the ice safely away from the Orca which patrol the waters outside the bay.

More pretty icebergs, Ralph though that  they looked like Krypton from the superman films

Steller sea lions snooze on buoys in Petersburg.  Apparently this is quite a recent behaviour developed in the last few years, the main benefit being proximity to fishermen cleaning off their catches. It is amazing how they can look comfortable even lying on metal bolts........

Humpback Heaven

Today we went on a whale watching trip in Frederick Sound near Petersburg in SE Alaska and we were both completely blown away, it has been the best part of the trip and very possibly our lives to date. We saw tens  of humpback whales all around us out of a group of a hundred or so in the area, but this was not the amazing part, the mind blowing thing was we saw all the possible behaviours displayed. I wish I could write this in a way that doesn't sound smug but I think its impossible. We saw the bubble netting behaviour three or four times where the whales work together to catch the herring, one blows bubbles from underneath while the others come together at the surface, emerging like huge mussels to gulp down the herring. Having been treated to this display we were over the moon, but the whales had not finished..........We started to follow another group of 5-7 whales all travelling along in a line, keeping a distance of a few hundred metres, then suddenly 3 of them "breached" flying into the air and landing to produce huge splashes that sounded like explosions. A few more breaches and Tail flips followed, the tail flips were amazing 2 of the whales flung themselves out of the water in a somersault starting with the tail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The last behaviour was fin (15ft long) slapping which one of the perhaps less athletic whales carried out throughout the display.  It looked like a choreographed display that could be set to music, most probably the 1812 overture (looking on youtube I am saddened to see that this has yet to be done).

But let me rewind a minute, the first close encounter with the whales had an unreal quality to it and after they had passed by I was literally trembling (I nearly had a double rainbow moment). Scott, our guide, had dropped the hydrophone in the water, We had seen the whales dive a couple of hundred metres away on several sides of us. The cabin filled with the whale noises, so unbelievably varied, not just the whale "song" but also strange grunts and groans (think sealion, pig and formula 1 cars altogether). The noise then grew incredibly intense making the speakers vibrate with feedback and I asked Scott why it was so loud just as two whales surfaced just by Fiona's side (at which point she nearly fell out of the boat with surprise) it was crazy, there were other whales all around.

They were busy fishing for herring which we could see from the boat sonar were in a ball a couple of hundred feet below us.  A couple of them sounded like elephant trumpets when they surfaced and expelled air, obviously having held their breath a bit longer they were keen to get rid of it.  Sometimes we could hear them blowing from further away than we could see them.

Basically it was hard to describe in words but I hope you get some idea..............................

The whale watching boat

they were pretty close

Awesome whale noises - they don't kick in for 28 seconds though

That ball of stuff on the sonar is herring

damn my camera, the big splash on the horizon is a humpback landing, to the left is another whale coming up

Another huge splash after the breach - I am afraid I concentrated on watching it rather than photographing it

chuffed after seeing the whales

 a new RSPB slogan in the making?

All american gal

on the way to Petersberg

a bad case of cold feet

We spent a fantastic day in Juneau with Desi who we had met on the ferry.  She was staying with friends Bess and Patrick and invited us on a bike ride and hike up to Herbert Glacier.  Ralph was particularly excited as he got to ride a bike but no ordinary bike, one with 29ins wheels.

Check me out on a 29er - radulation!

Someone didn't think much of this trail sign

Ralph with 1990's rockhopper

Ow, Desi and I brave the glacial streams, only 3 more to go...

Ralph after his encounter with quicksand, his first instinct was to save his shoes

Herbert Glacier

Ahhhhhh freeeeezing cold painful feet, at least I didn't have to take my trousers off like the girls behind!

We scrambled up the rocks beside a raging river (which luckily we didn't have to cross) to get a good view

At the end of the day when we got back to the car park a black bear ran across the road nearby closely followed by a tiny cub just in time as a car whizzed past, we could hardly watch in case it got run over.  Ralph started cycling to see if he could get a bit nearer to see them when another tiny cub sprang out and sprinted across the road again just in front of Ralph and just out of the path of a speeding car, it was nerve racking to watch but Ralph managed to get a close look at the cub, all 3 bears ran across the road with their claws lifted, it seems as though they don't like them touching the road.  Sadly we didn't get a pic of this or to cuddle them!

On the way home we got to meet the elderly Xena, dog princess as Bess was dog sitting her for the weekend.

Guns and glaciers

Juneau Alaska is considered one of the most liberal and progressive parts of Alaska, however that does not mean that everyone is not still pretty much obsessed with killing things.

Downtown is composed almost entirely of jewellery and souvenirs shops for the cruise ship passengers - despite the fact all the cruise ships have jewellery shops on board!

Fi bought this lovely fur bikini, but only after haggling over the price for a good half hour

It's hard to argue with their logic - Harry I nearly got you this but the postage was prohibitive

The town is full of Ravens, they give the place real atmosphere with their great noises

Banksy eat your heart out

A print from Alaska state museum - This is supposed to be a sea otter 

Yes that is bacon on a doughnut - quite uncharacteristically Ralph didn't actually eat one

A nice dude called Dave, a construction worker staying at our hotel, gave us a lift to one of the nearby glaciers.

Mendenhall glacier

Icebergs in the water

nice waterfall

Signs that the bears had been about

Junea is a pretty groovy town, one of the more liberal in Alaska, and despite the title of my last post not a place where Sarah Palin is particularly popular. I had it in mind that finding some right wing bumper stickers would make a great present as they are about the only thing that can fit into our overloaded bags.

Mmm, I have to say I don't look that comfortable holding this

That's better - Bonnie and Clyde eat your heart out

 A poster in the gun shop