Day 6 : Skagway

We docked rather early, half past six in Skagway. I was one of the first out, we had to go for the second excursion at 08.00am.

When leaving Amsterdam the weather forecast was bas, seven days rain. Until now, no rain at all, well yesterday afternoon a bit, but that was during cruising.

Today again it seems to be a very bad day, but the guides were telling, the worse the weather, the more animals you will see, and guess what … No rain though just very cloudy, the perfect day to spot Bald Eagles. And what it day it was, we saw I think close to a hundred younger and older Bold Eagles. They have very distinguished white heads, but until they become thee years of age they are rather brown.

We started with going out by a catamaran ferry from Skagway to Haines, about half an hour by boat. After that we met the extremely engaging guide Tom Lang, who was not only able to talk about our upcoming trip but also about the local customs and specialties.

Actually I did not even know what we were actually planning to do, I only knew we were going to the Eagle Preserve and do a floating boat tour. So we took the bus to go upstream for 20 miles or so and got a lesson in how to board and stay in a raft. Normally that needs some technique, especially when going ion a white water river, this one was rather easy as sometime the water was only a few centimeters high, a great float though.

Going we stopped once and already experienced a lot of birds, several Bald Eagles. It was just a teaser ….

At the rafting platform we got instructions and went down the river with eight persons per boat, we had all together four rafts.

Almost every corner gave some opportunities to see Eagles, most too far away to make good pictures. But I made many new friends as lot’s of Americans came up to me after the trip to give me their e-mails as I was the only one, making some “perfect” pictures. To my opinion by far not perfect, but I have to say, I am getting better and better.

I now met many people and they all want to see my pictures, great feeling that is. At the same time I am collecting many new addresses to stay for in the future. Added Texas, California and Oregon to the list, next to Australia and Malta. Not bad for a first cruise :-).