There’s a bear! Where? Over there!

16/05/15

The view from bed is so amazing that I slept with all the curtains open and despite the light streaming in and the amazing sights before me, I did not want to get out of bed. The only thing that could entice me was the promise of Grizzly bears. Rory and I booked an all day Grizzly Bear Adventure tour and it was leaving at 6.45am!

We threw on some clothes and drove to Telegraph Cove, a small community about 20 minutes from where we’re staying. We met the tour company on the boardwalk and after some quick introductions we were off. The drive to Knight Inlet, where the grizzly bears are spotted, took about two hours and even though it was cloudy we still saw a few eagles and energetic porpoises.

When we arrived at the viewing area we parked up our “big boat” which really wasn’t that big as it only holds 12 people, and switched to a flat bottomed viewing boat, or skiff. The idea of the skiff is that it can get you up close to the bears. We had seen one while in the big boat but were limited by how close we could get to shore so when we saw a bear munching on some roots and grass, we made a bee line. The first bear we saw was a female and she’s around two years old. She wasn’t bothered by us in the slightest. In fact, there were several water planes landing to delivery supplies to a nearby lodge and she didn’t even look up when they came thundering along. Apparently they’re so used to the noise that they expect the daily supply arrivals and can get out of sorts when they don’t hear anyone arriving!

After a good 30 minutes we set off in search of our next bear. We went up river, at times scrapping along the shallow river bed, and we came across some deer. We were lucky enough to see a genuine baby dear – the guides thought it might have been a day or two old, I have no idea how old it was but I can confirm it was ridiculously cute. The baby was relatively curious but still skittish and any noises sent her running to the long grass!

We had to wait but we eventually came across a second bear – the brother of the first little girl we’d seen. He was quite content sitting by the shore, chewing on some grass and posing for pictures. Not really. He couldn’t care less that I’d spent a fortune to come out and see him and his family doing National Geographic worthy things, he was just happy hanging out and doing his thing.

Lunch was our next stop and while eating is normally my favourite part of the day, it was quickly overshadowed by an eagle. I was sitting in the big boat, finishing my lunch and warming up, when I saw what looked like two birds fighting. I jumped up, got outside and arrived just in time to see a huge eagle holding a seagull under water, drowning it! The bird was thrashing but the eagle was too powerful and fully submerged it. The other seagulls were circling, calling out and risking the occasional close swoop but the eagle wouldn’t let go and then it started swimming to shore! That’s right, a bird swimming. It was doing the breast stroke, quite happily using its wings to get back to shore while we all looked on in amazement. When it got back to land it took a few minutes to compose itself and when another eagle decided to show up it had clearly had enough and flew off, holding firmly on to its dinner. Definitely one of the stranger things I’ve seen!

The tide had risen quite considerably and when we made our way back to the shore we came across the first bear but we were much closer this time. I’d say we were no more than 20 metres away and you could get a really good look at her. She’s quite skinny which I imagine is because the salmon run hasn’t started yet and she’s just come out of hibernation and is surviving on roots and berries. Hearing her tearing the grass and pawing the water was amazing. When we’d had a good look we headed back to the big boat and made our way back to Telegraph Cove, we even caught a glimpse of a humpback whale!

 Overall we had a really good day. We saw porpoises, eagles, deer, a humpback whale and two grizzly bears. In an ideal world we would have seen more – you usually see around 5 with the record being 27 – and it would have been nice to see some adult bears as opposed to the relatively young and small ones we did see. I don’t know if the tour was worth the full $300 but I suppose they are wild animals and you can’t guarantee that they’ll show up when and where you want. I’m just glad that after coming all this way I’ve managed to see a bear that isn’t behind bars/in a glass cage of emotion.

In an attempt to get back to our B&B quickly we had fish and chips at the Killer Whale Cafe which was a great setting with fairly average food. When we’d got a few snaps of the amazing buildings we headed back to the car and spotted what was either a mink or a really fat ferret! We kept with tradition and had a hot chocolate while watching the sun set and then we came back in, got cosy and started watching The Following because there’s nothing smarter than watching a scary TV show when you’re in a secluded, small town.