After a very pleasant afternoon / evening in the shade of Guildford Meadows it’s time to head for the Thames, so downstream now….

Sadly the old Debenhams building is still vacant, it used to have a lovely café overlooking the river. Then onto our usual mooring spot before the bridge, just a short walk to the high street. You wouldn’t know your in a city centre, I resisted the siren call of watch and camera shops….

There used to be a lot of business traffic on the water, all gone now, only the converted warehouses show what used to be, and a statue to the old waterman on the town wharf.

It’s doesn’t take long before your back in the countryside, with stands of white cow parsley along the banks and baby ducklings everywhere.

The marsh marigolds are in flower as well, round globes of bright yellow, competing with stands of yellow Iris, often floating in giant rafts ready to foul your prop if you try to go thru them !

After 4 hours of cruising it was time for lunch, a cool drink in front of the New Inn at Send with some of our cheese and bickies….perfect.

We pushed onto “our” mooring at Walsham Gates for the obligatory ice cream…..I’m too lazy to go on ! Time to blog, the Thames can wait till tomorrow…..at least the breeze is keeping us cooler today.

The weather hasn’t gotten any cooler, over 30 degrees every day so far ! After leaving the Marina we headed down to our first stop at Walsham Gates then onto High Bridge at Send, where there was a shady spot and a local shop with ice-creams and tonic for the gin….

The Rhodendrons are flowering and numerous waterfowl have babies..

Prime Thyme is behaving herself well, so we pushed onto Guildford to do some shopping, after stopping at Dapdune Wharf to pick up my new license, top up the water, empty the elsan and get a few more paperbacks from their excellent waterside shop. We are both still feeling terribly tired, I was left gasping for breath after climbing out of a lock to close a gate Hazel couldn’t budge, so headed for a tree at the Guildford meadows. As usual there were lots of gongoozlers at Milford Lock, all the little kids want to help open the gates, but we got thru safely and have found a nice shady spot with a welcome breeze. Tomorrow we will head back down the Wey, to get on the Thames and join Iris at Pangbourne.

It was 31 degrees flying into Heathrow, just too hot to do anything ! We managed to offload the suitcase, grab a shower and meet up with Margaret and Tony from nB Huffler. Both in their mid 80’s and cruising for 6 months at a time, what a great effort ! Their modernish boat is fitted with a 1930’s engine in its own room, plus dishwasher, tumble drier and washing machine, all mod cons.

When we came back from dinner we both crashed, and managed to get a few hours but aren’t ready to cruise much yet. So we’ve resorted to our standby shady mooring at Walsham Gates, Guildford tomorrow for shopping, then onto the Thames to catch up with nB Iris. Cheers 😀

We are shortly to board our flight to Heathrow from Vancouver. I think we’ve arrived and departed from this city by all options…ship, plane and train ! Seattle was chaotic this morning, a 20 minute flight taking many hours with waiting and delays. We had to pay for a lounge, which frankly wasn’t worth it, the sheer volume of noise set us both on edge. We were both glad to leave the USA and arrived in complete contrast, and total calm, back into Canada. Next stop UK and Prime Thyme. We hope to have dinner this Saturday night with the crew of nB Huffler, a blogger we’ve been following for years, who are staying near the Anchor Pub.

Our last full day of the cruise, and end of the Canadian / Alaskan part of our trip…..and an extra special one at that. We finally caught up with my third cousin Anabelle and her husband William. We last met 40 + years ago in England, we both vividly remember going for a drive in my Citroen 2CV to a pub, and I’ve always felt a bond with my Canadian cousin. It was so great that they flew across Canada to spend one day with us, and what’s more we recognised each other immediately!

The docking procedure seemed to take ages, but eventually the shuttle bus dropped us off at the Empress Hotel where Annabelle and William met us. After a stroll thru the city we picked up a vintage Leica lens and hood in a local camera shop, whilst William found a Pentax lens, being a keen photographer as well. Coffee and cake were followed by a bookshop, then it was Hazels turn in a Yarn shop called the beehive. A few skeins were purchased along with a pattern that both girls admired….so who’s going to finish theirs first ?

After a pit stop in their condo/hotel it was back to the Empress for a celebratory drink, the dinner at the Blue Crab over looking the harbour and watching the seaplanes land. A great ending to a great day, let’s hope we don’t wait as long before our next meeting ❤️❤️

We had a midday arrival today, and the town was overrun with 3 other cruise ships. Luckily our shore excursion was elsewhere….the misty fjords no less.

Our boat took us along conifer clad shores, with bays and islands similarly clad. Despite valiant attempts to find wildlife, nothing….after an hour of this I was beginning to think we’d picked the wrong tour.

New Eddystone Island marked the entrance to a change in scenery, as the shores closed in and mountains loomed ahead.

Then around a corner this majestic granite wall towered over us ! Just spectacular, with conifers clinging on and ribbon waterfalls.

We cruised around for 2 hours, trying to take it all in !

Then it was time to turn around and head back, a different way but just as spectacular. The tour included a local native artist, who gave a rambling, but informative view of his tribe, nation and society. So all in all a worthwhile trip after all. I just wish I’d bought all the camera gear, but the Leica V Lux doesn’t do to bad a job 👍 A day at sea tomorrow.

A late start this morning, as we had an afternoon shore excursion, and the ships crew had an exercise drill where all services were suspended.

So out of the ships mooring area to the main activities area via the free sky lift. There were numerous gift shops, but not a lot of original and/or local products available.

Onto our self drive ATV tour, with numerous waivers and discussion’s about safety, but then we were expected to fasten 4 point safety harness and GO….er the steering wheel is on the wrong side…..😁

We had 3 stops with a very informative guide explaining the local fauna, (bears and more bears), and flora. He also related two of the local tribes stories, which bought the excursion alive.

All too soon our 2.5 hours were up….but we did spot some Eagles, and a Whale on or return. Thankfully I’m feeling a lot better, and managed the excellent afternoon tea on our return.

Not much to write about today 😁 We sailed to the Hubbard Glacier in the perfect day……..blue skies with the wind gently blowing the ice to one side. This is extremely rare, so we got so close that there were small icebergs around us !

There was a small ship ahead of us, oh no it’s quite large…..it’s Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth. We’re smaller and shallower draft, so ‘scuse us as we muscle in front…..

We then proceeded to spin around right in front of the ice for an hour or so, photobombing all those shots taken from the QE

An early start saw us back on a train, this time the White Horse and Yukon Railroad. Our trip today was to follow the route the 49ers took getting to the Yukon goldfields from Skagway

Starting thru the conifer forests we climbed upwards towards the snow line, seeing the rail tracks in the distance, high up on the mountain.

The further we got the colder it was, with snow on the peaks flowing down gully’s towards us.

By now we were reaching Dead Horse Gulch. The 49ers had to drag a ton of supplies up to the USA / Canada border before being allowed to proceed further. It saved a lot of miners later on, but thousands of horses died doing it, as a horse was cheaper than the hay it needed.

Once over the pass we were into a very bleak landscape. The 49ers had to build rafts and float down rivers and lakes, before making their way to Dawson City. Some did strike it rich, but many turned back, died or had to go elsewhere to seek their fortune.

After visiting a suspension bridge we made our way back to the ship, via a coach. The high markers are to guide the snow ploughs, (white and your ok, red and your dead), they can get 14 foot of snow in a single fall, and up to 40 foot over winter.

We cruised into our mooring this morning, passing whale sign and misty mountain tops.

Mickey, the Disney Ship was moored alongside with Seabourne Odyssey, so we anchored and tendered into port. Our mission today was whales, we’ve been on a number of whale watching ships and never spotted one….

Straight away we sighted a mother and calf humpback whale….success, we trailed a few others but apart from the back there’s not a lot to see. Onto the Sealions, roaring and splashing it was a good sized colony, and being upwind the smell wasn’t bad.

There were some spectacular views of 3 glaciers, including the Mendenhall Glacier we visited yesterday.

We finally got a fluke dive on the way home, but I missed it wth the camera due to feeling a bit rough…..yes I’ve got the cruise cold again, thankfully not Covid 19, but it’s a bit annoying getting one every cruise !

Juneau this afternoon had changed a bit….3 more Cruise ships had docked, including this block of flats with 5000 passengers. Not only was it too crowded, but hustlers were out totally spoiling any atmosphere. We still managed to find a wool store for H and some fisherman friends for me, so all good.