Alaska - Departing Skagway

The boat arrived in Skagway this morning, and we had an early start to the day as we were going on an onshore excursion that began at 8am. Tommy and Inca went on a cycling excursion, Luke, Meriel, Adam and Pip went zip lining through the forest, and after my photography day for today was cancelled, I booked Gavin and I onto an excursion which was a railway journey up the White Pass to the Yukon border. The train was a 3ft narrow gauge train that winds up the valley on the route that the gold prospectors followed in the Klondite Gold Rush. Gold was discovered in 1896 and the railway was built in 1898 but by then the gold rush was over, so the train line has mainly been used for tourism. This train route has been declared a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, an honour shared by other engineering marvels such as Eiffel tower, Statue of Liberty and Machu Pichu. It was extremely scenic, and thankfully the clouds cleared and we even got some blue sky to enjoy the views down the valleys.

We were back at the boat for lunch, and then we spent the afternoon relaxing. We did the daily quiz again which is great fun. In the late afternoon we set sail for our next port which is Sitka, and the clouds lifted, so we actually got some sunshine and blue skies. The scenery is breathtaking, we are surrounded by so many glaciers and mountains it is so beautiful. 

The weather is rainy for the rest of the week - apparently it rains every day in Alaska! We have excursions booked which are very weather dependent so we are not sure what we will be doing over the next few days. 

I have been struggling with wifi for the past few days, last night it took me ages to upload my blip. Apparently this is due to the mountains which surround us, as it affects the wifi signal. I cannot look at journals or any social media, its a bit frustrating. I have no roaming as US rates are too expensive for UK mobile phones. 

I have added an extra of the train.