THE LURE OF THE TONGASS
Bears! That’s what the Tongass National Forest has in abundance. Blacks and grizzlies. Along with wolves, deer, mountain goats, ermine and a plethora (I love that word!) of marine life in the fjords and seas that abut this 16.7 acre (6.7 million hectare – really, I love the Americans but they ARE backward in some things!) national forest. The largest in the United States.
Bears lured me there this June – I’m a bear tragic! – but also the chance to spend time in a temperate rainforest when much of my working life has been spent in the rainforests of the subtropics and tropics.
I love the Tongass. Others say they find it forbidding, even sinister, and I can see that. All those dark cedars and hemlocks and spruces lowering over the groundscape of root and moss and fern. Like the great forests of pre-industrial Europe there could be witches lurking here, and goblins and worse. Stories are told by the indigenous Tlingit of Goo-Teekhl the Salmon Thief who sometimes attacks humans. Or did, until humans defeated him. But then he got his revenge – by bringing upon them the mosquito.
I am not too worried by monsters and mosquitoes don’t seem too numerous in the deep forest, only by the water and in the open country. And they are only bad in the short summer. The rest of the time the forest is covered in snow. Mozzies are found in MY forests too, the magical rainforests of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales and we, too, have our legends.
What we don’t have is bears. Or otters. Or indeed predators of any mammal kind.
So I went to the Tongass and loved every bit of it. The slight danger of encountering a predator better armed than myself. The slightly unsettling spongy softness of deep moss underfoot. The furious little streams pouring off the glaciers and snowy mountain tops. The deep fjords and bays bejewelled by islands that are also part of the Tongass. The blue glaciers crumbling in dramatic bursts of spray where they abruptly meet the sea. The charming small creatures that scuttle across the paths softened and deadened by pine needles and roughened by cones. The birds – for I am a birdwatcher since girlhood.
There are many fine birds in the Tongass though they tend to be secretive. But handsomest of all is the Bald Eagle and this must be that bird’s spiritual home (though the Canadians might have a thing or two to say about that!). These white-headed heroes of the sky are everywhere – perched on pine branches or seemingly quite at home on buildings and light poles in town, flapping with unhurried majesty across the inlets, diving with deadly accuracy for salmon. They are not as perfectly formed for this activity as are osprey but they are pretty damned good at it all the same.
In the little coastal tourist towns of Sitka and Skagway and Ketchikan it rains a lot in spring and summer and autumn (fall) but temperatures are milder than the interior thanks to the ocean and the great forest. Winters can be snowy but mostly on the mountains all around, that stick up like cake frosting.
These towns, like the capital, Juneau, are surrounded by the Tongass and it hugs them tight in its green hold, buffering them against the savage mountains high above where winds scour the rock faces and glaciers freeze the flow of constant rain.
Skunk cabbage grows thick in the gullies and fruiting canes along the edges where there is more light; food for humans and bears. High on the slopes the Red and Yellow Cedar (Thuja plicata and Cupressus nootkaensis) give way to the Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and the spruce (Picea sitchensis) rules them all. The meagre Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) huddle together like poor relations, upright and defiant in their low state.
There are medicines here close to the ground, Arnica and Angelica as well as the many berries full of vitamin C. In summer the largest dandelions in the world grow here, matching the buttercups for brilliance, digestive gold for bears. Apart from these, most of the flowers of this cold, wet forest are delicate and pale.
The Tongass is not only the largest national forest in the United States but also the largest temperate rainforest in the world. It has much in common with all rainforests everywhere– constant moisture, emergent trees fighting for light, a dark understorey where fungi flourish among the moss and lichen. And yet it is distinctively different in many features, with its snow melt and dominance of trees bearing needled foliage, rather than broad-leaved species as found in warmer forests. Its humidity has a frigid bite and its waters are more lively. And it has secret places where many of its inhabitants must den for the long, dark winter.
If you love rainforests, and you have never been to the mighty Tongass, go there before you are too old to be able to hike its steep trails and thus experience the inside mystery of it. I found myself conscious of my eighty years and knew that because of them I could only access the fringe and wished I had backpacked into there when young enough to go high and long.
But I was still fit enough to go in a little way and feel the dark weight of the forest around me and glimpse a few of its creatures and be happy in my brief time there. Other rainforest lovers will understand!
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Exploring in luxury
A journey aboard the Regent Seven Seas Explorer
HONESTLY: This is not a paid advertisement! It has not been solicited by anyone. It is just a grateful tribute to a beautiful ship and a memorable voyage.
I first saw the ship from the landward end of the long jetty at Whittier, Alaska. There she was, brilliant white against the blue of sky and sea, bow curved in an elegant arc upward and outward from the waterline. Not too big as to be overpowering; not too small as to appear lacking in grandeur.
It was love at first sight! My ship, the beautiful Regent Seven Seas Explorer. I had studied this ship, on screen and in brochures, for a year. I had virtually walked her twelve decks on YouTube videos; finding my cabin and scrutinising the menus in the several restaurants; choosing my shore excursions and checking them out – again, thanks to fellow YouTubers; imagining myself perched on a stool in one of the cocktail bars, dressed to the nines, or walking the top deck after dinner with cashmere around my shoulders.
And now here I was, ready to set sail southwards to Vancouver for what turned out to be seven of the happiest days of my life.
My travel consultant, Sienna, from Travelling Places, with her boss Gina, had, with uncanny insight to my character and needs, selected Regent as the cruise line that would suit me best. This is what really good travel agencies do and Travelling Places, an honoured institution where I live, is very good indeed. And they were absolutely right.
Sure, I wanted to go new places and see new things and my preference is for wilderness rather than the built environment. But at my age, 80 but mercifully as active as I ever was, I wanted comfort, too. Pampering, even. I’ve had a lot of adventure in my life but not a lot of luxury. And as I was travelling alone I wanted everything to go as smoothly, and be as seamless, as possible. I may be as fit as any 50 year old but I have less resilience now and have small patience for sorting out the problems peculiar to travel – cancellations, delayed departures, transport connections, accommodation that doesn’t live up to advertisement.
(I shall digress here, remembering how in the early days of the internet I booked a hotel room in Brighton, England. It looked great online – a single room with bath in a newly-restored Georgian-era building, with a view of the seafront. The boutique hotel was actually rather nice but the room turned out to be hardly bigger than a cupboard; I could turn on the TV from the bed with my big toe, the view was a glimpse down a side street over an underground carpark and the “bath” was a tiny moulded fibreglass shower-and-loo cabinet. This is why I now prefer to use a travel agent!)
Boarding was well managed and non-stressful. In fact all boarding and disembarkation on this ship was fast and easy; a particular blessing for the elderly. And then I was given my card and directed to my suite. Which was – beautiful! Not just luxurious, as I had expected, but thoughtful as well. So many useful little touches; even the shoe horn was long and strong and made of steel (or a similar hard metal); none of your cheap plastic like I have at home.
As I was travelling solo I had this suite to myself but it was comfortably big enough for two. I would have been quite happy with the Deluxe Veranda suite that I’d booked originally but when the opportunity came up to pay a little more for a Concierge (now called Serenity) suite I grabbed it. Not so much for the larger bathroom and extra seating space but because in the Serenity suites the bed faces the ocean and I rather liked the idea of lying in bed and looking straight at the sea – though in truth having a sideways view is good enough. And anyway I usually got straight up in the morning and went out to my spacious balcony to lounge on the daybed where I could look down on the waves.
There was a bottle of good French champagne in the bucket awaiting me, and a bowl of fruit, and, within minutes, Putu to bring in my luggage and advise me on practical matters such as (huge!) TV operation followed by Cristy to tell me that she was always within call to attend to my every need. This is the life, I thought!
I loved that my suite featured so many handsome mirrors, which helped make it very light and bright and seemingly more spacious than it was – which was quite spacious enough anyway. I loved that it was so well equipped with glassware and chinaware, all enclosed in glass-fronted cupboards. I loved the fact that there were good quality paintings on the walls and soft, intimate lamps and a frig that could be stocked with any type of drink – alcoholic and otherwise and all included in the price. I loved the big bed with its fine linen and marvellously sleep-inducing mattress. I loved the big walk- in robe with its plentiful high-quality hangers and drawers and shoe storage. I loved the bathrobes, made from a silky white fabric with faint silvery stripes and a terry-towelling lining – sumptuous. And with matching slippers. I loved the little gifts – the handbag bearing a discreet Regent logo and the metal water bottle to take ashore, refillable either from the glass flasks changed daily in your cabin or from filling stations around the ship – Vero water, clean and fresh of taste. And of course I loved the bathroom, all in marble, two sinks, huge bath, spacious shower, big mirrors, lots of drawers and cupboards, high quality toiletries. Elegance plus.
I told you this was a love affair!
Below: My suite at night, curtains drawn, bed made ready. So quiet and restful, a true escape from the world.
The corridor outside my suite
That first night, because the weather was so surprisingly good for early June in Alaska, the Captain threw a sail-away party on Deck 11 where there are two bars and the main swimming pool and a brasserie-style grill and buffet, part of which turns into an Italian restaurant at night. Champagne flowed, cocktails were handed round along with the daintiest of canapes. Surrounding us was the calm blue ocean and the snow-peaked mountains that remained a feature of the whole voyage. A small yacht sailed by. The tiny town of Whittier, where pretty well everyone lives in one building, slowly disappeared as we made our stately way down the sound. It was a wonderful start to my seven days of bliss!
I shan’t describe the journey down through the pretty albeit touristy little fjord towns of south western Alaska with their alluring names – Sitka, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan. Their charms are well-known. It was all impressive glaciers and more mountains with water cascading down them and the mighty Tongass forest and calm, narrow waterways with many small, pine-covered islands. We saw seals and sea lions, Orcas, seabirds, sweet little sea otters and different species of whale. We went ashore to feast on salmon and crab and buy local crafts and taste indigenous culture.
And each day we returned, thankfully, to our beautiful ship and another night’s sailing.
Regent does not overwhelm you with entertainment, thank goodness. Though there is plenty there, if you want it. In the several lounges there is music of different kinds – a cocktail pianist, a pop duo, a jazz combo, light chamber performances, all discreet and catering very much to an older vibe. The on-board troupe gives about three shows a week in the gorgeous theatre, with its deep blue décor and little round lamps along the seating rows. These shows (I am told) don’t compare with the world-class affairs seen on the big cruise ships with their thousands of passengers but they are amusing enough, with singers and dancers doing all the safe nostalgic stuff that the Regent audiences obviously love. And there’s a comedian, on other nights. And a show put on by the crew on the last night.
It was lovely after my shower to put on the luxurious Regent bathrobe.
More enjoyable, to me, were the lectures given by the on-board naturalist, Dr. Dave. These are tailored to the voyage – in my case, bears, Bald Eagles, sea otters and wolves. If you miss one of these lectures they are replayed on the TV in your cabin. There was also an excellent lecture by an Alaskan historian who came on board to deliver it; making us realise the hard, cold reality that lies behind those small, coastal, summertime towns that, like bears, have to all but hibernate during the long, ice-bound winter.
Karaoke, trivia, bridge, games, other fun stuff are features of day and night activity on board though I didn’t sample any of these. Too busy. And too tired after undertaking the more strenuous on-shore expeditions. It was enough for me to enjoy a peaceful cocktail while gazing over the sea, still sunlit at 7 pm, then dine in one of the specialty restaurants or the excellent main restaurant, the Compass Rose. And after that, I’d enjoy a cognac or similar after dinner digestif followed by a meander round the top deck.
When I returned to my suite each night the bed would be turned down, lamps glowing softly, curtains drawn. At first I’d draw them back and sit on the balcony for a while, looking at the sea and hoping for a whale. But I soon learned what Cristy had tried to tell me, that when you have 16 hours of daylight and a busy daily schedule you need the curtains drawn at night so that you can get some sleep.
On my bed would be a chocolate, an attractively presented ship’s newspaper to advise you of all the next day’s doings plus another four page budget of Australian news. Whatever your nationality, you get a small summary of home country news as it unfolds each day. I threw mine in the bin! Who cares what’s happening back home when you’re in Paradise! And as the ship has excellent wi fi you’re going to find out anyway, via your phone or ipad. But it’s a thoughtful touch.
One of the things that struck me most forcibly was how spacious and uncrowded the ship felt. I was told we had 680 passengers on board, plus almost double that number of crew, but as I walked the long corridors I rarely saw a soul, apart from an occasional quiet-footed polite suite attendant. The lifts – rather splendid lifts at that – were rarely crowded. In the evening the several restaurants and bars were busy and buzzing but never overwhelmingly so, though the largest dining venue, Compass Rose, has something of that Big Ship clatter.
Around the ship – The Atrium, different lounges, library, seating nooks, boutiques…
Food aboard Regent Seven Seas Explorer is a gourmet delight. Truly! I loved every mouthful. You have to book well in advance for three of them – the Prime 7 (steak etc), Chartreuse (French) and the much-acclaimed Pacific Rim (Asian fusion). Even the Italian restaurant usually requires you to book for dinner earlier in the day. Although most people appear to prefer the Pacific Rim, and indeed the food is exquisite, my favourite was Chartreuse. Lovely food, beautifully served. And I loved the Compass Rose, too, for its elegance. Service in all restaurants, bars and cafes is excellent. Deft and friendly. The hospitality crew just can’t seem to do enough to make you happy.
Above: Dishes from four of the restaurants: Prime 7, Compass Rose, Sette Mare and lovely Chartreuse.
I noticed that one cruise reviewer criticised the quality of fish on board Regent and I have to say I agree. Salmon was excellent, as you’d expect on an Alaska/Canada cruise. But the lobster tail WAS a bit dry and the Dover sole likewise disappointing. The result of prolonged deep freezing. Prawns, by contrast, were always very fresh-tasting and the seared black cod in Pacific Rim was divine.
Specialties from the very popular Pacific Rim
Eating fresh-made ice cream from a silver dish seemed an appropriate way to view the Hubbard Glacier.
There are several breakfast options but my own choice was the La Veranda buffet on Deck 11 because you can sit in the big glassed-in dining areas at either side, at spotlessly laid tables, or in the lovely open area at the stern, when the weather is good. Just about anything you want is on the menu and you can enjoy table service or help yourself. They keep bringing round that awful bottomless American coffee in jugs but I ordered mine from the barista bar and got perfect espresso. There is, of course, an omelette station and a waffle station and a pancake station and…oh…hot food and cold food and caviar on Sundays.
And one day, just because I could, I ordered breakfast in my room, or, rather, on my balcony, enjoying my several beautifully served courses while we sailed into Sitka.
Two other foodie things worth mentioning – the fresh-made ice cream (there is something rather wonderful about eating ice cream in a silvery dish while gazing at a glacier) and the afternoon tea. This is served in one of the several elegant salons and every day offers something special beyond the canapes and little sandwiches – one afternoon it was a whole, long table full of different types of cheesecake. Another day, cupcakes. Disappointingly the tea is made from tea bags but never mind, there is live music in the background and the furnishings are, though modern enough, reminiscent of a more glamorous bygone time.
Seven Seas Explorer is small enough to get around easily and large enough to always find a quiet space – the library with its nooks and books, for example, or the many sheltered corners on the deck, or little niches near the central atrium where fine paintings hang – even a Picasso. The Observation Lounge over the bow, with its great raked glass windows and 270 degree view, comfy furnishings and large bar is a popular spot for an evening cocktail but during the morning it’s barely occupied and one can sit there gazing for’ard and cosily reading in perfect peace on a rainy day. Same goes for the Connoisseur Club where you can smoke cigars and sip fine brandy. I never once saw anyone in there but it has all the understated opulence of an old-fashioned gentleman’s club and children are not allowed.
I haven’t mentioned the casino. I never do mention casinos because I hate them but there is a small one on board, with pokies and a roulette wheel or two. A tiny touch of Vegas for those who like that sort of thing. My other pet hate is other people’s children though I must say those few on board were very well behaved, as Regent expects them to be. There is a modest Kids’ Club of some sort but no big waterslides or special play areas and too much splashing and noise in the pool is frowned upon. Those under eighteen are welcomed but not especially catered to.
I’m not a big gym fan either but, as with the casino, I must at least mention that there IS a gym and a very good one. As far as a non-gym person can judge. It was certainly full of scary-looking digitally operated equipment and staffed by some buff-looking attendants. The spa, however, IS worth a mention. I have never seen anything like it! So many interesting therapies (an aroma shower, a cold room as well as a huge sauna) and treatments, so beautifully laid out, so exquisitely designed. An absolute fairyland of soft colours and luminescence. You just wanted to go in there and yield your body to massaging and moisturising and come out the other end beautified and refreshed. I didn’t have time to get even my nails done but next time I’m on a Regent ship I’ll make the spa a priority! Use of the spa facilities is included in the cruise cost but treatments are extra.
I didn’t get around to taking photos of the many wonders of the spa – but here is the glamorous staircase to the upper level
I shall let my photographs tell the rest of the story. But one last happy comment – laundry is included in the price and it comes back perfectly done, folded in tissue in a Regent box, or on hangers covered with plastic. A gorgeous touch.
Do I think Regent Seven Seas is expensive? That is, of course, a subjective question. Other cruise lines offer luxury, though not many of them to Regent standard. But what Regent offers beyond that is space. You never feel overcrowded or pushed about; it’s like being in a really well-run top class hotel from stem to stern. I like the all-inclusive price; not having to worry about tipping or paying for extras because everything you eat, drink and do is covered in the cruise price, and most of the shore excursions too. My opinion is that you get a lot of bang for your buck.
For me, the outstanding thrill was a feeling of glamour. It’s not easy to feel glamorous, at my age, but for seven nights on the Explorer, I did. Getting ready for the evening in my elegant suite, dressing up for dinner and putting on my pearls, meeting equally well-dressed shipboard acquaintances in one of the cocktail lounges, dining later than usual in such splendid surroundings, enjoying the after-dinner entertainment – these were a lovely reminder of long-gone times. The Regent Seven Seas Explorer, for a short and sweet while, gave me back my youth.
I can’t wait to go again!
We disembarked in Vancouver early in the morning and I felt so sad to leave my lovely ship and so envious of those who were sailing back up the Inside Passage. In the evening I went down to the dock to wave goodbye.
Lyrebird Mountain 