My cruise around Alaska’s Inside Passage has come to an end. The Spirit Of Endeavour docked in Juneau and we disembarked this morning.
Yesterday was a full day; Skagway in the morning and Haines in the afternoon.
My helicopter trip in Skagway went very smoothly. There was no resurgence of the quesiness I felt in the floatplane in Petersburg. Then again, the floatplane had the soundtrack from Titanic pumped through the headphones. That would explain why I felt slightly ill.
The helicopter deposited a bunch of us on top of Denver Glacier, the location of a camp of sled dogs. Riding around on a sled is a much more primitive mode of transport than a helicopter but it was equally fun. Also, you don’t get to scratch behind the ears of your helicopter pilot.
After the excitement of the morning, Haines offered a nice relaxing counterpoint. It’s a very small town. I enjoyed just wandering around in the sunshine.
Today I’m adjusting to being back on dry land after ten days on a moving vessel. Right now, Juneau is bustling. Three gigantic cruise ships have docked in the harbour. The Endeavour looks like a lifeboat next to them. I’m extremely glad that I was on such a small and sparsely populated ship. I’m pretty sure that those big ships don’t alter their course just to follow whale spouts.
I’ll be heading back to Seattle tomorrow with a head full of memories. I’ve taken a lot of photographs. I even managed to shoot a short movie of bow-riding porpoise.
Being unfamiliar with the poetry of Robert Service, I’ve had some lines from Yeats going through my head:
"Come away, O human child!"
"To the waters and the wild"
"With a faery, hand in hand,"
"For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand."