Africa Wild

Hi folks . My humble apologies for the "time- gap " in my postings. I've had a hectic week , been to Cape Town and back three times this week for meetings etc .
But , today , is a relatively free day for me , and I can spend a lot of time writing , downloading , etc .

At Seward , we took a 9 hour cruise-trip to visit glaciers ...........

no problem, the time is for us... and the glacier

nan ... those glaciers are timeless


From Seward , one can do various cruises , and we decided on a glacier visit . The cruise takes about 9 hours so we departed fairly early .





It was quite cold and overcast as can be seen . Not quite ideal weather for such a tour , but in Alaska , if it is not blizzard conditions , then you use the opportunity







It was quite misty and foggy , not much to be seen , but after a while , sailed into a more sheltered bay , the shoreline became visible .




Its cold outside ;









And then , the glacier itself where it spills into the sea .

it looks cold

The cold and misty conditions have a beauty of their own.

if you don't have to be outside

Lisbeth , indeed , brrrrrr.


The Harding icefield , covers a huge area of the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska , and has 38 or 40 glaciers in it . Including those glaciers it covers an area of around 1100 square miles . Our cruise takes us into the Kenai Fjords National Park , and the big Northwestern Fjord Glacier spills into the sea , and this is where we are now .

Small chunks of drift-ice , coming from the glacier , all around us .




About 800 meters from the head of the glacier , the captain switched off the engines , and we just drifted in awesome and dumbstruck silence . W-o—w-w-w ......






And then ....... it happened . Just look at this closely .





Those darks “ streaks” right at the bottom , are crevasses ( cracks/tunnels ) , each about 10 – 15 meters high , and go deep into the heart of the glacier .





Suddenly , a piece of ice starts breaking up , and falling away from the head of the glacier .Its the size of a 20 story office block .

A “calving” Glacier and an iceberg is born. You were very lucky to see it and I hope that you were far enough away and did not get invested by a tsunami

Had those glaciers retired a lot during the last years?

glaciers... timeless or not, stay glaciers... we have a lot

nice to see the blue inside the sea... and a "calving" becoming an iceberg

brrrrrrrr

nice pictures... without sun is no easy

Lisbeth – Yes very lucky to see it , be there at the right time .We were about 800 meters away , and we could see a wave running away from it , but as the water becomes deeper , the wave becomes smaller . It is when it runs to shallower water that it would grow bigger .
Nan , cold yes , very cold .....

Continuing :

And then , about 30 seconds later , you start hearing a deep deep rumble , like thunder , echoing across the water . The glacier is calving , giving birth to an iceberg ! But this one is small , and breaks up into millions of pieces , that land in the sea below , and start drifting away . Behind me , right at the shore below the face of the glacier , you can see the white foam caused by the broken up ice .





And then , another piece breaks off , this time towards the left of it , and the rumble continues




Another view of it where a huge cliff-face shows .




Its really awesome . I wish I had a better camera .