The ship didn't dock at Sitka due to the piers not being able to handle such large ships. Instead it moored up a little way out and we were ferried across to the mainland on the little lifeboats from the ship. I must admit it was pretty exciting and oddly calming to know that our lifeboats worked well!
Our first port of call for the day in Sitka was the other reason that I was so incredibly excited about going to Sitka. Just outside the town of Sitka there is a place called the Fortress of the Bear. Its a rescue centre for orphaned bears. In Alaska if they find an orphaned bear currently they shoot it because they don't have the facilities to look after it. Thankfully this volunteer organisation created this little sanctuary for orphaned bears. Their aim is to take in the orphaned cubs and prepare them for re-release into the wild. As this isn't yet allowed the current bears they have living in the sanctuary will be there until they die, or perhaps transferred to a zoo. But they hope that one day the laws will change and they can prepare the newer bears for re-entry into the wild.
As they have these current bears for life they have had a high level of human interaction and so are the most AMAZING bears ever! We took a bus up to the sanctuary and got to spend some time just watching the bears before the founder came across and explained about how the place got started, the plans they have for it and most importantly he told us all about the wonderful bears.
They have 5 brown bears there. Two are brothers and the other three are all family too, two brothers and a sister. They were rescued in their families and were slowly introduced. The two brothers in the photo above loved to play with each other, especially in the water. They were super fun to watch. There are also 3 black bears. These aren't native to Alaska but were found near a prison facility at different times. They are smaller than the brown bears and were Andrew's favourite.
My favourite were the brown bears, in particular the guy below. His name is Balloo. He is awesome! He was totally food obsessed. They had taught the bears to do a few tricks, simple ones like standing on their back legs on command and waving, but they also taught them to ask for more food by putting their hands together. When Balloo saw the founder come out he literally sat down and just kept asking for more. It had me in hysterics because he just reminded me of Macintosh who is literally that food obsessed!
I mean look at him, your heart literally melts at the sight of him doesn't it! Mine does! If I could have smuggled him out of there without being caught or killed I would have done. I would have a pet bear in a heartbeat if I had a chance of survival! And maybe even if I didn't...
Anyway, whilst feeding the bears some of the local bald eagles appeared out of the trees circling and watching the meat. Whilst in Juneau our glacier tour guide had pointed out just how many bald eagles there were. They were like pigeons, you could see them just sitting in the trees or circling overhead. All you had to look for was a white golf ball in the trees and you knew it was the head of a bald eagle. They were everywhere. The sanctuary founder played with the eagles too. He threw the meat up and they would swoop in a snatch it with their talons. They were rather scary but incredibly fast and graceful. It was hard to photograph them in flight. I got one but its not the greatest of qualities.
After an insanely good coffee and cake (that we didn't photograph because we ate it so fast!) we went for a wander around the town of Sitka and onto their National Historical Park. This was once home to a Tlingit people and was then taken over as part of the Russian territory. It was interesting to wander around and learn about the history but we didn't get as much walking done as we wanted as the rain and fog set in pretty hard.
After we were pretty much as wet as could be we went back to the ship to dry off and have a late afternoon tea. The ship left Sitka before dinner so we took up residence in the crow's nest and watched us sail out of the bay and further down through the Inside Passage towards the next port. I may have spent a lot of that time going over and over all that we had seen and the bears and how awesome Sitka was. I'm surprised Andrew didn't throw me overboard! Guess at 30 you really are old and wise enough to know better...
H
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