Pacific Northwest

Friday, 21st June 2013

Not part of the ride back home from New Zealand of course, it was nevertheless a nice side excursion to briefly visit the coasts of British Columbia, Canada and Alaska.

A round trip of over 10,000 miles [16,000 km] to Sooke, Vancouver Island, reunited us with some treasured friends not seen, nor hugged, since our motorcycle adventures around America during the summers of 2007 and 2008.

Greenland, looking south from 36,000 feet

A second flight from Vancouver to Victoria (Vancouver Island) airports aboard a 19-seater, twin-engined Beechcraft 1900.

The pilot, sat just a few feet away in the open cockpit, reminded me very much of my son. An uncanny resemblance.

The shortest scheduled flight I've taken; just 11 minutes in the air!

Five nights on the Island attending a sports touring motorcycle rally came with mostly overcast and unsettled weather conditions, with a few dry spells thrown-in now and again.

The "natural jewel" of Botanical Beach (in the rain) on the west coast of Vancouver Island, mirrors almost anywhere around the coastline of my home county of Cornwall.

And THE best pork chop I have ever eaten at Markus' Wharfside Restaurant .. in a perfect ambience with great company. This was the late evening view (above) right outside the restaurant before ambling back to the hotel.

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Friday, 28th June

Second week:

Day 1 -  Vancouver, British Columbia
Day 2 -  Inside Passage (Cruising)
Day 3 -  Ketchikan, Alaska (Docked)
Day 4 - Icy Strait Point, Alaska (Tendered)
Day 5 - Juneau, Alaska (Docked)
Day 6 - Skagway, Alaska (Docked)
Day 7 - Hubbard Glacier (Cruising)
Day 8 - Seward Harbour - Anchorage, Alaska

Embarked upon Royal Carribean's 'The Radiance of the Seas'  - slipping north from Vancouver Harbour at 6:00 pm.

Home
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Some of the world's best timber athletes go head-to-head speed climbing, log chopping, axe throwing, chainsaw carving ..

.. and log rolling.

The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, Ketchikan.

Good rowdy family fun .. with just a few too many cheezy jokes.

Probably overpriced. All part of the Alaskan experience.

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Wild Alaska:

From Skagway we took a 20-mile vintage rail car train ride along the original Klondike Trail around mountain panoramas, gorges, waterfalls, tunnels and trestles. Everything is BIG in Alaska.

[Panorama - click to enlarge]

The above picture represents the best moment of the whole cruise for me. About an hour before sunset, up on the foredeck of The Radiance of the Seas, quite alone; everyone else must have been either eating, in their cabins or attending one of the on-board entertainment shows. This is the Inside Passage (Alaska) at its surreal best.

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SUMMARY:

Cruising? Well, it’s a ‘formula’ type holiday - has to be that way of course. Whereas I’m more used to travelling independently - organising everything. I make all the decisions regarding where I go, when I go, and what I do along the way. Hell, most days setting out on the road I don’t even know where I’ll be sleeping that night!

And with this in mind, I can’t wait to get back to Indo-China. I have just set the date to return to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Friday 25th October it is. Two more months of self-made adventure towards the end of the year. Can’t beat it. Can't wait to get going again.

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