We were up early and checked out of the hotel just before 7am. Fortuitously a bus was going to the South Terminal, where the small internal flights leave from, so we jumped aboard, along with a group from Naturetrek who were going to cruise the islands looking for wildlife - particularly bears!
We couldn't check in for our flight as we were too early so we had breakfast at the small cafe in the terminal. After check in we sat and waited for the flight- there were two big pluses - free wifi and no need to go through security - we walked straight to the plane when it was time for boarding. The plane took approx 30 in single seats along the side of the fuselage. It was amazingly comfortable and the trip took just over the hour; the descent was through the mountains and then along the valley to the airport. I am sure it could be hairy in bad weather !. The lodge were waiting to collect us along with an Australian couple, who had won $30,000 on a morning tv phone in and were fulfilling a dream, and a Canadian couple from Alberta - Hugh and Dale - he was a geophysicist working in the oil industry and she was a teacher turned wild life photographer. All turned out to be great company and we enjoyed really interesting dinner conversations with them all.
We then journeyed the 40 minutes to the lodge which majors on bears in the autumn and the exclusive sport of heli - skiing in the winter.
After lunch and settling into our cabin we explored the bear viewing platform - sadly nothing about so I decided to try out the gym. As I was relaxing after my much needed shower one of the employees shouted that there was a bear coming down the river. We grabbed binoculars, camera and jackets and ran to the observation platform - sure enough there was a large bear in the river - we watched it for the next 45minutes or so fishing and eating until it decided to take a large chinook salmon ( today's picture) and retire into the bushes, out of sight, to consume it. A great start to our 5 days - next stop dinner and more of their excellent food - they could however do with the same pazazz in their vegetarian options as in their omnivore creations; I felt a bit left out when they didn't replicate their vegetable creations for me - it would have made life so easy for them!