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Showing posts with label Orcas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orcas. Show all posts

Friday, 24 November 2017

You Can't Have Your Kayak and Heat It Too

Columbia Glacier Ice Field

So Mrs. Phred wants to Kayak around a glacial ice field. It's a two hour boat ride to the ice field from Valdez, Alaska. After an hour, we pass Bligh Island, where young Bligh and Captain Cook looked for a Northwest passage.


Bligh Island is where the Exxon Valdez hit the reef. They spent $20 billion on cleanup and recovered 11 percent of the spill. Exxon lost the lawsuit over the cleanup costs 20 years ago, but the case is still on appeal.

We see more Orcas hunting seals and salmon and finally I get an acceptable picture. Usually the delay between pusing the button and opening the lens puts them back underwater for the picture.

The bergs from the bottom of the glacier are brilliant blue. The ones from the top are so dirty gray that we mistake them for rocks. The only bad thing that happened is that one of the kayaks caught fire and sank. I guess the old saying, "you can't have your kayak and heat it too." is still true. Here's a funny video of the kayak in the bergs.

As we kayak though the icebergs, several seals pop up to take a look at us. Today my arms are sore, but Mrs. Phred is happy.



Thursday, 30 July 2015

Goodbye Alaska, Hello Seattle

Blog Number 1,001

Ok...so I didn't retire after the 1,000th blog after all.....There was such an outcry from my loyal readers that I feel obligated to continue....I call this picture "seals on the rocks"....


 This is a tidewater glacier...the other types are alpine glaciers and I forget the 3rd type.


 We kayaked in this mess a few years ago...


 We saw a lot of Orcas in Prince William Sound.


 Nothing special here..just more scenery...


 They say that sea otters have about 1,000,000 hair per square inch...they used to make good hats until they became endangered...now they're all over...


 Caribou are called reindeer when they are domesticated...you can't buy caribou meat, but reindeer sausage is ubiquitous in Alaska....I beat Mrs. Phred playing scrabble last night by two points...it's not all skill...the luck of the draw plays a factor...


 Brown bear in Denali...we saw 12 bears...our bus driver kept up a constant patter although the website promised that the 14 hour trip would not be narrated...it was obvious from the way that she yelled at the passengers that she spent the winters as a school bus driver.


Sue and Les look at bear photos on the bus.


 These two moose (mooses?) locked horns and left their skulls behind.


Sheep in Denali.


Sue and Les say goodbye in the Anchorage airport. I had two pomegranate mojitos...the tab for those was $30...my dad always told me to get a price first...


 The whole crew preparing for a raft trip on the Kenai River.