It was a classic National Geographic Day! For many of us, the name National Geographic harkens back to a time when there was just one channel offering nature programs. If you wanted to see wildlife, filmed by the world’s best videographers, you’d turn on the TV and that familiar tune would welcome you to the world’s most remote destinations.
For others, National Geographic meant the thrill of opening that familiar yellow magazine every month to learn about “the world and everything in it.” Those two avenues gave arm-chair travelers the chance to explore in the comfort of their own homes.
Fast forward to the present day, thanks to Lindblad Expeditions' alliance with the National Geographic Society, it’s possible to experience these wild places “up close and personal” with an expedition staff still "inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888." And that’s what we did today. We went exploring using hiking boots and kayaks, paddle boards and Zodiacs with National Geographic Quest as our platform. And on this day, it was the SE corner of Alaska that captured our adventurous spirits.
At George Island we learned about Alaska’s participation in WWII by hiking to the site of a 6-inch pedestal gun, strategically stationed at the northern entrance of the Inside Passage. Though this gun was never fired in battle, we learned there was hand-to-hand combat out on Alaska’s Aleutian Island Chain. The calm waters surrounding the island gave us a chance to exercise our bodies as well as our minds. So we grabbed kayaks and paddle boards to round out our morning activities.
In the afternoon, we repositioned National Geographic Quest, and via Zodiacs we ventured out to a world of sea otters and bald eagles, but most of all, this excursion was about Steller sea lions so close you could smell them and see their one-ton bodies swimming just inches beneath our inflatable boats. To say that it was an exhilarating afternoon, would be an understatement!
In a recent brochure produced by National Geographic, it suggests that as explorers we need to have a sense of curiosity, use our skills of observation, consider our human story, endeavor to understand our living planet and celebrate and protect the amazing and diverse creatures that share our world. Yep, we had a National Geographic Day!
