Canadian Capers: Skagway, Haines and Aussie Assist.

With the ship sailing on during the night we awoke to a view of a granite rock with numerous painted signs which we were told later on in the day were names of all the ships that come and go from the port of Skagway. Population of 800 which certainly explodes when the cruise ships come to town. As our tour was at 1:00pm we had plenty of time to take a leisurely stroll into the town. The town itself is like a Hollywood movie set where at times you collide with the history of the gold rush up in the Yukon. Wide streets, wooden sidewalks, bars and saloons and of course the many tourist shops. Most of the touristy shops close up and head down south around this time of year and we were one of the last cruise ships to be here.

Paul and I opted for an "Eagle Preserve" tour (where the eagles are protected in the National park ....preserve to me means something that might be pickled in a jar!) The tour took our fancy as we would be sailing on a catamaran over to Haines, floating downstream on a river raft and then returning once again via the catamaran. Catamaran conjours up visions of sailing on a twin hulled vessel with a champagne glass in one hand.....not a twin hulled ferry (probably made in Western Australia) full of 200 passengers. Ferry ride over, we jumped aboard an old school bus (like you see in the movies) that transported us to where we would take the raft once we had our wellies and lifejackets on. This is the part where you hoped at the end of the rafting trip you ended up with your own shoes as they were all placed inside a crate.....Yikes my new merrills might find other feet inside them!

Raft chosen we quietly slipped into the middle of the river and our tour guide Zac expertly steered the raft with two oars from the centre of the craft. We spotted lots of unpreserved bald eagles along the river bank, some salmon moving upstream and only the paw prints of bears. No guarantees to see any wildlife printed on your ticket plus the mention of bringing a spare pair of socks.

The leisurely 2 hour float nearly ended in disaster when 4 of the people from the last raft alighted in knee deep water and were firmly trapped in the sticky mud the consistency of wet cement. I was so looking forward to my hot drink and sanga when all of sudden it was mayhem. With the majority of the tour staff jumping into the water to rescue the trapped tourists who were slowly sinking past the top of their wellie boots into the muddy river bank. .... Paul couldn't stand by and watch with out lending a hand and he was soon knee deep in the mud with the rest of them. After much grunting and groaning and careful placement of available oars all were pulled to safety in a frantic scenario that lasted about 30 minutes. With the mud wrestling incident over this is where the spare pair of socks made a debut and a change of dacks kindly donated by the main leader of the tour. People were feeling a little distraught about the delay, however, a hasty bus ride back to Haines with the ferry waiting for us we were able to arrive back in Skagway in time to board our departing ship.

The day was full of unexpected delights and surprises ....we saw a moose and her calf. .....Paul without glasses thought it was a grizzly bear. Paul with a new dry pair of trackie dacks with the letters AMG printed on the backside donated to him by the tour leader. We are still trying to work out what AMG stands for....
Aussie Massive Glutes.....A Muddy Goat.....Average Man Gear.....
Adrenalin Mighty Gogetter....Alaskan Mountain God......happy for your take on AMG.