The day dawned bright and sunny yet again; we could see people on the bear viewing platform but they were chatting so we knew there were no bears around. Consequently we headed off to breakfast. While eating my fruit and yogurt I suddenly saw a bear walk across the grass in front of the platform. It loitered; eating grass,pooping and lying down snoozing before finally wandering off down the field towards the river. The people who were trapped on the platform could finally leave albeit they must have had an excellent birds eye view. I left breakfast with my camera in hand as I was able to go onto the grass and take some good pictures as there was a pond and some distance between me and the bear. What a great start to the day -I wanted to see a bear walking on the field and my wish was granted!
After breakfast finally finished John and I walked to the public platform again but nothing was seen except the normal array of big lenses! The walk to/from was enjoyable of itself - when we returned mid morning we had a cup of tea before I paid my, by now, daily visit to the gym.
At 3pm we met Jim, our guide for today's drift down the river. We first looked up the river and John spotted a bear going back up the river and possibly heading along a side channel - sadly we couldn't follow as we would have to go against the strong current and that was impossible! Consequently we set off with the current and at intervals we dropped the anchor ( a large weight on a rope) and sat looking into the undergrowth, listening and waiting to see what emerged. The sun was shining when we started and it was lovely and warm but as we finished it had clouded over and was quite cool nonetheless is was really absorbing just taking in the world about us.The pink salmon were numerous - these salmon return every 2 years and this year they had come in the highest numbers for many years. As a result the guides reckoned there were less bears visible this year as they could eat as much as they wanted when they wanted and therefore were not in any real competition for food. As we reached the stretch of water not far from the lodge's platform we saw a bear in the water fishing we then slowly followed it down the river as it moved and fished - it was brilliant getting a bears eye view and as we eventually drifted past it, we were really close - we had never been so close to a bear. (today's picture). Finally we saw it head off, with a salmon, up the bank and into the wood. It was a fantastic experience and made a great finale to our holiday.
Dinner included putting the world to rights and reminiscing on our very relaxing and informative days so far at the Tweedsmuir Lodge, Bella Coola.