Resurrection Bay and its inhabitants
Today is the last day of our Alaska and Yukon Highlights round trip, before heading back to Anchorage. (Hier geht es zum deutschen Beitrag.) But to this day I have been looking forward for months, because today we will go out on Resurrection Bay with a boat of Kenai Fjords Tours.
Will the weather today be better than yesterday? Before I do anything else, I open up the curtains of our room in the “Seward Windsong Lodge“. It is dry outside, I hope it stays that way.
After a hardly to manage breakfast at the hotel, we pack our things and go by car to the free parking of Kenai Fjords Tours, where we and other passengers expect a shuttle bus that will take us to the port.
Our boat is the “Aialik”, named after the glacier that we go to today. We have barely cleared the anchor, as we can already see a Bald Eagle.
It looks like all the port operations doesn´t interest him , as he sits almost motionless on a pier in the harbor. But perhaps he is also waiting for a fisherman, which he can wangle his catch, who knows?
Soon the boat increases its speed, 6 hours we will be on the way; there’s even a lunch bag for each. We enjoy the fresh, but also really cold sea air. I am very happy to wear my thick winter jacket. Especially when I see a young Asian woman standing in front of me, wearing a short skirt and no stockings, visibly shivering with cold. She will probably spend the day indoors.
Our female captain tells us a lot about the flora and fauna of this area. Then the boat stops and we see a large flock of gulls and puffins.
On it goes; with her trained eyes she discovers some Harbour Seals dozing on the rocks. We must work hard in order to identify them at all against the gray stone of the rock.
While we go on, we see from distance a glacier of the Harding Icefields end in the sea.
Then some Steller Sea Lions come into view. They are really huge! Some of the animals have been marked as juveniles in order to pursue their life. Some of the males perform an exhibition fight. Especially for us one could think.
Our captain wants to continue, we still have a decent way to go before we reach the Aialik Glacier.
Again she stops the boat, she thinks she saw whales. We are all very excited, suddenly it is very quiet on the boat. No one says anything more, we all stare spellbound onto the point that she has shown us. Yes! There they are! Orcas, these beautiful whales! Not only one, a whole family shows up. (Click here for the video.) Mothers with their offspring and adolescent animals. They plow through the sea, not far away from us. We are all very excited! Photos are shot and videos filmed . A woman is in despair, just now her battery is empty.
Then they are gone, dived into the open sea and we continue our journey. Many of us this exciting adventure is written the face, not only I have to grin with delight all the time!
Then she stops again, a humpback whale has surfaced. And another one. We see them blow and we see their tail when diving. Will they jump? We are all waiting very excited where they resurface. It´s in the far distance. We’re going closer, but more than the tail fins we do not get to see.
A few times they appear briefly, then they too are gone and we drive to Aialik glacier. From afar it looks not so big, but when we stop at a safe distance in front of it, we see its whole size. Many sea lions lay on the floating ice sheet in front of it, little more than tiny black dots on the ice.
Again and again under a tremendous roar a large piece of ice breaks from the glacier, the waves close over it. The sea lions are not bothered, we are very impressed. To our right we see another tour boat, tiny in contrast to the glacier. That’s an incredible sight!
Unfortunately, time is over only too soon. Back we go without a stop. We are overwhelmed by this excursion!
But now we still have quite a long way to Anchorage. We make the tour in two hours. Arriving at theRamada , we meet with one of my customers for an “Alaska Gold”. He and his wife are at the same time here at the hotel and want to make the trip tomorrow. We rave about the day in glowing terms and they are very much looking forward to it. That their tour is also great, we can see of the many WhatsApp images that they send to us during their tour.
Unfortunately, our Alaska and Yukon Highlights tour made by TUI is finished now. I could have stayed on…
Would you like more information or to view more images? Write to me in the comments section or on Facebook or Instagram. I’m looking forward to it!
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