Well, I'm still going along on my reminiscing of one of the best trips of my life. Let's get into part three.....
After the amazing Thanksgiving dinner, I woke up the next morning to possible showers and the 'usual' fog.
Just so stunning. I was given the opportunity to go to a new hide today. It was just new and was open. It meant being just that bit closer to the bears than in the other hide. Although it was only a short distance further along.
We got there and saw a bear immediately.
Isn't that view amazing? Especially knowing bears are just across the river!
And then that bear just up and started to walk over, towards the river. What was it doing?
Emma got up and walked to the edge of the platform and started talking to it, just to remind it we were there.
But it kept on coming.
Closer and closer
Until it was just in front of us. Just right there in the middle of the river.
You can see the river isn't very deep here and the bears just wander along in it.
It kept going, past us and down to another part of the river where they tended to sit and fish in the water. We found out why it had up and moved on as just a few minutes later a mother and her TWO cubs came along...
Now I didn't know where to look. The Mum and cubs or the bear fishing.
Love the expression in this photo!
On the way back to the lodge, we stopped and Tom (one of the owners) and Emma showed me one of the 'bear highways'. A path that the bears have formed to get around the forest. At the edge of it is an area the bears walk back and forth to mark their scent, a tree which they rub against, for the same reason and a 'bath' waterhole where they swim to again mark their scent. This area was described to me as 'facebook for bears'. Any bear coming along from either direction will know which other bear has been there and roughly when. Amazing stuff!
We made our way back to the lodge for lunch and it looked stunning.
I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but there seems to be an unwritten law between the bears and humans here. Anything on the water, you don't go near (if you're a bear), and you don't go onto 'land' if you're human without a guide. The bears are known to get as close as this entrance, but I didn't see any that close. This is also where the bus and car are parked when not in use. I just adore that bus!
After lunch we went for a walk. There was Emma our guide, two of the cleaners, one of the volunteers and me. We wandered along the road and into the forest to view it all from a different angle.
There is always a very real chance of coming face to face with a bear when you do this, so there are rules to stick to. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we didn't see any on our walk. But we did get to see lots of evidence that they were there!
Pawprints.
Poo
Hair on another rubbing tree
And lots of other beautiful sights too...
And this cairn was a marker where the road went across a bridge. I loved it. It reminded me we were about half way long the bus trip to the hide (it was BUMPY!).
And I think I'll leave it there for now.
Only one more day to show you and some amazing photos of a mother and her cubs. I was treated to some really up close views and the cubs were almost as curious about us as we were about them.
AMAZING!!! Living it through your eyes/lens. How lucky you are to have this experience.
Posted by: Val H | June 22, 2014 at 10:14 AM
oh my goodness,....these photos are just amazing!!!
but yeah that bear looking at you in the water is the best ever,,,,,its like he is saying...oh dont you be putting this on social media!!! i didnt do my hair this morning!!! haha
Posted by: mandyb | June 22, 2014 at 11:44 AM
What an amazing holiday Trina. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Karen | June 23, 2014 at 10:16 AM