Alaska's Capital

Juneau- the only capital city I know that has no road links with its land. With just 32,000 inhabitants, the only way here is by air, or sea, and the nearest road is a five hour ferry link from Skagway, even further north. Set half way up Alaska’s southern extension, and closer to Canada than most of its state, it enjoys bad weather most of the year! I say enjoy, they call the rain here ‘Liquid Sunshine’, and it certainly did not fail us on our visit.

Most of the towns here are turn of the 20^th century, and prefer to keep themselves that way. People come here to see the way of life, and the wildlife. And it doesn’t disappoint, this bar has the old barstools, and the old scantily dressed ladies to serve.

Nor does the wildlife, Juneau is also famous for whales, and they put on a great show for us.

We are told we were some of the very few who have witnessed ‘Bubble Netting’ by the Humpback whales, a method of corralling their prey before pouncing on them. They collectively swim in circles below a shoal of herring, while releasing bubbles from their blowholes, which causes the herring to panic in the centre and rise to the surface, then the whales come up and take a mouthful each.

We saw this at least six times, at a distance of around two hundred yards, but it was not easy to predict where they would rise. After feasting each time they would go down again for the next trapping, showing us their flukes. Most of the whales who spend their summers here are identifiable by the underside of their flukes, and most have been named by the locals.

There were at least eight whales in this pod, and we followed them for a couple of miles, before we had to break off due to Parks Department regulations. We found yet another pod about five miles further on, but not feeding, just basking and diving.

On our way home we found a group of Harbour Seals relaxing on a buoy, there were five of them young ones we believe, there was a little one in the water trying to get on too but they were not about to let him!

In the harbour we came across this Bald Eagle, feeding on a fish he had caught. There were several circling the area, we were lucky to catch one flying just above us. They have an eight foot wing span, and rarely flap their wings in flight. Their talons are as big as my hand, and we are told they have a grip twenty times that of a man.

We have also seen Dall’s Porpoises and otters on our journey up here, unfortunately too far away to photograph them.