On our return from our Ketchikan adventures we sat on our balcony as the fog came in always on the alert for a passing whale or dolphin which unfortunately for me didn’t eventuate. But hey that’s okay because our alarms were set for the early morning wake up call as we went further into the Inside Passage and our first glimpses of the Dawes Glacier.

Our photos don’t do this part of the world justice. There is nothing quite like standing on your balcony breathing in beautiful crisp air (which I understand is the cleanest on the planet) and watching pieces of ice float by. I did try not to think about that moment in Titanic where Jack slowly sinks into that freezing water but it is there with me as I firmly hold onto my phone as I know if I drop it my photos and contact numbers will be gone forever as my phone sinks and freezes much like Jack.

Before coming here I had wondered about the impact that all of these cruise ships would have on this part of the world (noting that it didn’t stop me from coming) so was pleased to hear that our captain along with other cruise ship captains make changes to the engines so that the carbon footprints that are left here are as small as possible.

Our afternoon is in the town/city of Juneau. Juneau is the capital of Alaska and was founded during the gold rush – is there a theme here (there most certainly is). Some things I didn’t know about Juneau – there are no roads into or out of Juneau as it is surrounded by seven ice fields and therefore can only be reached by boat or plane. Juneau has an international airport you can fly to Canada from here. This sounded really familiar to me and then I remembered when Canberra airport was only going to have flights to New Zealand. There’s something about these capital cities.

Juneau is a big city by Alaskan standards and has more than 30,000 permanent residents. It is 17 metres above sea level and yes as you can imagine this can cause significant problems.

We had decided not to book anything through the ship for this port and so hopped on a bus that would take us to the Mendenhall Glacier. The bus driver took the one highway in Juneau to get us there. The Mendenhall Glacier is the worlds largest glacier that is accessible by road noting of course that the town itself can’t be accessed by road. Yep I’m loving the quirkiness of this place. The Glacier sits alongside (well kinda) a beautiful waterfall within a government protected recreational area.

As well as going to see the Glacier and the waterfall there was also the opportunity to see one of the 37 black bears that live within the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area but sadly none were coming out to play with the hundreds of tourists walking through their home – go figure.

On a final depressing note 100 feet of this glacier is being lost per year.