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| This
is Bartlett Cove which is a small inlet in the spectacular Glacier
Bay. |
It had been
a remarkable experience in Icy Strait. Time after time a huge humpback
whale played to its audience as it smacked the water with its five-metre-wide
flukes, causing the sea`s surface to shudder. All the boat`s passengers
took the same pictures. And all at the same time.
Once the boat had tied up at the dock at Gustavus we climbed into an aged
yellow school bus that was now used to transfer tourists from place to
place. We were treated to a hilarious Cook`s Tour of the village; the
corner shop, the gas station and all the other important tourist sights
were pointed out. The locals waved, we waved back and laughed at the guide`s
jokes. It had been a good day.Once
settled in the hotel at Bartlett Cove we decided to walk along the beach,
first of all passing the pier where next day`s boat trip to Glacier Bay
was to depart from. After an hour we ran out of beach to explore and found
the path through the woods that would take us back to the hotel. The ground
beside the path was rather swampy in places so we were glad to have liberally
doused ourselves with strong-smelling citronella oil to ward off the biting
mosquitoes we presumed would be found here.
The woods were quiet, with no other walkers and only a few birds. Just
lots of trees and the hardy vegetation which had colonised the land since
the glaciers had started to recede. To the landward side of us the woodland
stretched towards Gustavus but between the path and the beach were some
large ponds ringed by many trees, some dead or decaying. We hesitated
to linger there for fear of being bitten alive by mosquitoes.
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