Voyage to the Arctic; Day 4, Wildlife.

So what has spurred me to come on a cruise? It's true that I'm here for a marriage, but could there be something else here to drag me screaming and kicking onto a giant boat in the distant frozen north?

Maybe that long favourite of mine, wildlife photography?

Photography is a funny old thing. We all have our preferred subjects that we like to capture with our cameras/phones/tablets/shotguns, but if you want to make money, photographers tend to end up doing wedding pix. I have managed to escape such a fate by having had a proper job (ie sticking aforementioned arms into animals private parts), but heck, guess what I'm going to do on this cruise!

And no, it does not involve internal massage...

Well, apart from that, I have been reliably informed that there would be lots of wildlife to snap. 

Hmmm...

Scenery? Yes. Lot's of it. Sadly even that is often shrouded in mist, rain or darkness.

We were to arrive in port at around midday, so the morning was taken as an opportunity to try out some shots for the wedding, using a nearby model:

We moored, on time, at Juneau, the Capital of Alaska. The arrival over our boat increased the local population by almost a quarter, so it must be a pretty big town.

We then set off on another boat, medication in hand, this time a very much smaller one. (Boat, not medication.)

The scenery was once more stunning. No shortage of stunning scenery around here to be found.

Initially there was little wildlife to see apart from local birds doing a turn.

But then, well, call me Ishmael! Contrary to all expectations, two humpback whales were spotted in the far distance!

They dived!

That's a bucket-list shot.    

Three times we saw this mother and daughter pair dive, but this was not the time of year that we were likely to see them breach, so we sadly said our farewells.

On mooring the boat and gathering up our various bits of anatomy, we then went by foot through some tropical rain forest...

...where our way was blocked by a retreating glacier.

It's deep blue colour is apparently due to it not wanting to reflect other colours.

On our return walk, we spied a long discarded hairbrush sitting on a rock next to us. 

A porcupine, but clearly of a lesser race than those that I have hardly ever seen in Africa (due to their nocturnal habits).

These scruff-bags prefer to eat during the day, although rarely seen on rocks as their favourite feeding spot is in a tree!

Not a prize winning face...

Bad Hair Day

So, finally back to the ship to cast off and head north. 

To catch a train...

I've thrown together a few photos of Days 3 & 4 here. As the previous video featured the Beach Boys, I had no choice but to use another of theirs. I do apologise, it's nothing personal, but I wanna go home...

Next episode here...