So today we had a bit occurred a lie in and then got up and dressed and had breakfast at Miles (our CEOs cabin). We then made our lunches and got ready for our day of hiking. We took the short drive to Homer Spit and then caught our water taxi to Kachemak Bay. On the way we saw a number of sea otters swimming and relaxing in the water.

Upon arrival at the bay we started our walk to the glacial lake. Before we left we were given a talk on bear safety and what to do if we should come face to face with a bear. We were then given bear spray and taught how to use it just in case. So I was fully armed and ready to go.

The first part of our walk was through quite dense forest and we all kept together in order to frighten off any bears. When we met a fork in the track we took the mile long detour down to the hand tram - a metal cart on a wire to carry you across the river.

For some reason I thought this seemed like a good idea so decided I would cross the river on a hand controlled cabin car. It was all ok really but it took a lot of upper body strength and after we had helped 4 or 5 people cross it was quite tiring and we still had to get across and back and we did it and actually as we were in control it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Apart from when we stood up to try and move more quickly and ended up rocking the car an awful lot!!

So after we had crossed the river twice (there and back) we started on our journey again back to the path and onto the glacial lake. The mosquitos were out in force today and I'm sure they had their fill of my blood! But despite this we continued along the path catching glimpses of the Glacier as we went and then we eventually got to the lake. And wow it was impressive. The first thing you saw were the icebergs floating in the lake and put this against the backdrop of the Glacier in the sunshine and you can only imagine the view. Unfortuantly though the photos really don't capture half of its beauty. So we admired the lake, Glacier and icebergs for a while and had our picnics lunch before making our way back down the track onto the saddle trail and eventually finding our way back on to the beach ready to be picked up by our water taxi.

When we reached the beach we were all slightly relieved that we hadn't needed to use the bear spray and had avoided a face to face with a bear. Even though we did see a lot of bear poo!

Our taxi soon arrived and we asked him if he would make a detour to gull island for us which he agreed he would. Apparently my English accent had something to do with it!

So on the way back to Homer Spit we saw some more sea otters and then stopped off by gull island where we saw murres and puffins. We even saw two eagles trying to catch some gulls which was pretty impressive.

From here we went back to the mainland and had a bit of time to further explore Homer. So we checked out the souvenir shops and Salty Dawgs Saloon. The oldest bar in Homer which is totally covered in $1 bills. People who go there write their name, country and date of visit on the note and then pin it to the wall. Apparently if a fisherman in Homer loses their life to the sea they take down all the notes and donate it to their family and then start decorating the place again.

From here we jumped back in the van and returned to our cabin where we had a little bit of time before a group BBQ in our cabin as it is the biggest! To end the BBQ we microwaved our smores as the rain had come in but they were still pretty good!