Saturday 27th

Today was the last day aboard the Coral Princess, we docked at about 12.15am where they commenced to unload our bags. They have a pretty slick operation and so far everything has gone to plan. They allocate you a boarding group and a time to meet at a designated location, we where Yellow 4 and had to be in the dining room at 6.20am. There where 35 groups in total. We walked from the ship to the waiting Finlay Express train which is located adjacent to the berth. It is 150 miles from Whittier to Talkeetna on the train where we then transferred to a coach for another 1 hour trip to the Mt McKinlay Wliderness lodge.

We had to wait for another train to arrive as there is only one tunnel in and out of Whitter which caters for both trains, cars, buses and trucks. It has a unique queuing system where there are dedicated lanes for each type of vehicle with traffic lights and this is how the flow of traffic is regulated, we where told the turnaround cycle is about every 30 minutes.

It was an interesting train trip with many interesting sites along the way, the thing which got me most was the colour of the water in the rivers, a light chocolate brown which we where told is a result of the silt that is deposited from the glaciers.

We passed through Anchorage on our way to Mt McKinlay Lodge.

We arrived at the lodge and this is the view of Mt McKinlay.

Mt McKinlay is the highest peak in North America and each year in the summer months avid climbers come to this area to try and reach the summit, 60% of those who attempted it in 2016 have been successful.

We where told that we must have been the lucky cruise because the last two cruises have not been able to go up College Fjord due to bad weather and it has been only in the last couple of days that Mt McKinlay has been visible, previously it has been covered in clouds. It is not cold here at all, at 10pm tonight it is still daylight and 17 degrees.