A WHALE OF A TIME

ON AN ALASKAN CRUISE, MICHAEL SMALL WITNESSES ONE OF NATURE'S GREATEST SPECTACLES

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TRY somewhere cold and wet for a change, suggested a friend. "Maybe a cruise?" Shiver me timbers - now that would be a departure for me.

For nearly 40 years my wife Shan and I fled Britain for a sun-soaked holiday whenever we had the chance. Frying on a lounger with a cold drink to hand seemed like a proper break. I'd even met Shan at a boozy barbecue in Majorca in the early 80s.

The trouble was, my devotion to the sun god had consequences. Like many Brits of my generation, I acquired a tan but also solaris keratosis and squamous cell carcinoma - skin damage induced by overexposure to ultra violet light.

The NHS sorted it, bless 'em, but now in our mid-60s maybe it was time to put away the T-shirts and cossies and embrace thermal vests and waterproofs. And what better way to take the plunge than with a trip that would be on most people's bucket list (should that be icebucket?) - a cruise to Alaska, The Last Frontier.

Starting from Vancouver on the Pacific west coast of Canada, a week's journey north through the jaw-dropping Inside Passage has it all. One thousand miles of spectacular fjords, pristine glaciers, Klondike Gold Rush mining towns plus enough wildlife to keep Sir David Attenborough happy.

Humpback whales, orcas, seals, sea otters and bald eagles abound, and if you're lucky, you might even glimpse a black or brown bear.

DAYS 1 & 2:

Vancouver to Juneau

Brits have been marvelling at the sights of the Inside Passage since Captain George Vancouver and HMS Discovery pitched up in 1794 to chart the Pacific north west for the Crown. Two million tourists a year now cruise the thousands of islands and countless coves of this spectacular land which boasts the world's largest temperate rainforest, the Tongass.

And as we sail north on our first full day at sea, it's not long before we spot our first humpback whale... an unforgettable moment.