Day 25 May 14th Anchorage

 
 

Anchorage docks from our room

Wow! What an amazing day

our first wild moose viewing

for us but you will see as it unfolds. The weather was mixed as we wokeup with showers and periods of sunshine. The cruise port was part of the commercial port and as we opened the curtains it didn’t look too inviting. We had been disappointed because the tour we had booked was

the woodcarving centre

cancelled because the boat which was to take us to Portage Glacier

had mechanical problems. With the help of the internet we had booked a local tour to cover the same tour highlights except the boat trip. We breakfasted and took the shuttle bus to the city centre (Anchorage is the biggest city in Alaska). Our tour started at 1330 and with time in hand we walked to a large new shopping mall which had a few familiar shops plus many new to us. We bought a few necessities and a baguette at Subway with a coffee from Starbucks to tide us over.

We walked to the Sheraton

black tailed Sitka deer

hotel to connect with the bus for the 5 hour tour. A minibus arrived on time and we set off. The start of

grizzly bear at conservation centre

the tour was

a black bear at the conservation center

inauspicious as we stopped at a chocolate fountain shop and again at a salmon selling shop on the way out of Anchorage. Then we got underway and the real highlights began. It was a local indiginous driver who obviously knew his surroundings and he soon found us our first sighting of a wild moose grazing on some twigs near the side of the road – much excitement. We then carried on to a woodcarving centre in the middle of nowhere which sold a lot of locally produced products. This was a good, interesting stop.

bison

Our main objective of the tour

porcupine

was to see the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center which looked after orphaned or injured wildlife which would not have survived in the wild. This was real treat, the animals were kept in pens with very large areas to move in and were obviously very content and not perturbed

small bear with wolves playing

by the presence of humans. Each animal had its story and it was good to see the work of this organisation in action. We were really taken by the bears – both black and grizzly – and they were fed while we were there. I have put pictures up of other animals and particularly interesting was the playful interaction of a young black bear who was brought to the center the size of a cat but who is now three and he seemed to play with the wolves in the next enclosure. They would probably hunt him as a pack in the wild! This visit was one of the highlights of our holiday so far.

It was soon time to leave and we carried on to the Portage

Byron glacier with lake

Glacier valley where we saw glaciers and mountains on either side but could not get to see the Portage Glacier because the aforementioned boat had broken down. By this time however we had certainly seen some spectacular mountains and glaciers. We then returned to Anchorage in the minibus, it was raining for most of this journey and our driver conveniently dropped us back to the place where the ship shuttle bus would appear. We were soon picked up

sunset

and arrived at the ship at 1920. We quickly got ready for dinner and afterwards had a little time before the Phillipino members of the crew gave a concert based on their culture and traditions. They did exceptionally well and it made the perfect conclusion to a very good day.