So on Tuesday (8th) April.. i woke up feeling well and truly refreshed from my sleep in the big bed!! haha! It was a queen sized - i got lost in it! hahahaha!

Anyway - I was so excited i had a shower and packed all my stuff up (again!) double checked the room to make sure i didnt leave anything in haste and went to pay and check out. I cant believe how much baggage i have! As i was leaving my room/motel unit i turned around to shut the door and got myself a bit wedged in the door frame!! i turned too early and my sleeping bag made my bacppack too fat to go through the door attached to my back!! I was laughing at myself and feeling pretty daft when a big car pulled up with a couple in it just arriving to stay in the room next door - oh my did that woman laugh at me - i felt so much like myself!!!! Anyway i unwedged myself and picked up the rest of baggage after shutting the door!!!!!

On going into the office i decided to leave my bags outside so as not to get stuck in another door frame!! The lay was sat behind the desk (Doreen was her name!!) shaking her head at me - she couldnt belive how much i was carrying! It really isnt that bad - i just have my backpack and i have bought another big duffle bag to carry - although i do now wonder how i ever left the UK with all my stuff in my backpack!!! ah well!1

After i paid i asked Doreen if there were lockers in the bus station as i had planned to walk up there and leave my bags in the locker for the day and then go off and see the polar bears! She laughed - "oh" she said, "you cant be doing all that - i dont even need your room until tomorrow so - i'll have the girls (cleaners) clean it up tomorrow morning and you go put all you bags back in your room and you can leave them there and come back here before you go for your bus this evening after your done with the bears" - "oh - thankyou so much" i said!! Doreen then replied with "if you give me 5 minutes i will give you a ride up to where you need to be aswell - so that you know where you are going!!" Oh how nice is that!!!! I did as i was told. Sure enough 10 minutes later i was sat up front in Doreen's truck!!!!!!! She just stuck a sign in the office window that said 'back in 5 minutes!'. Love it!

So Doreen dropped me off along a fairly lonely kind of a road that seemed to just run into snow hills; she dropped me just near a building. I hopped out and thanked her again. As i went into the building i was greeted by a BIG man with quite a stren looking face! "Have you come to see the Polar bears???" he said Oh yes i have!!!!!!

He was a little curt at first and i felt a bit like a naughty child - he was saying how i was NOT at a Zoo and i was not there to see a show and these were NOT trained animals. After that he seemed to relax a little - I think its nice that he is obviously passionate about what he is involved in and doesn't want people going and messing about. Anyway - at first i was the only person there - i was taken up to the education centre. Oh wow there was so much information in there. Also there was some info about Black bears and Grizzly bears; there were skulls, claws and hairs from all 3 bears to compare and see the differences - Gee grizzly bears have got massive heads and lower Jaws!! Most of the other information was about Polar bears and i spent about 2 hours just in the centre - although there was a lot to take in it was all useful and there was a lot about how Polar bears behave; so later on i was able to recognise what they were doing! Some of the time anyway!! There was also a weighing scale - it didnt have nubers on - just a strip of lights that lit up when you stood on it and then you could read off according to how many lights were lit how much you weighed compared to a Polar bear - i weigh the same as a 10 month old female Polar Bear!! haha!!!! Its amazing really considering that at birth Polar bears only weigh 1lb - yes one pound!!!!

There was also some detail about the research being done on the Polar bears at the moment and over the last 10-20 years; it so interesting - i think one guy has made it his whole life's work. There are some sad facts too though - Polar Bears are now so much smaller than they were 10 years ago because they can'yt eat enough food to remain the size they are supposed to be. Also right up North a Polar Bear diet primarily consists of Ringed Seals - they catch these as they chase across the sea ice while migrating. Ringed Seals live on the sea ice. Global warming is causing the sea ice to melt, less volume of sea ice means less ringed seals; it also means less are for the Polar bears to travel on. While Polar bears are strong swimmers and can dive underwater for 2 minutes and have strong legs - this is short term - they are not designed to swim long distance and so they are also drowning.

Ringed seals are mainly blubber - and when Polar bears eat them they almost insatntly turn this into blubber on their own bodies to keep thm warm!

Cochrane is as far South as a Polar Bear could survive - there are no seals down there so they feed on fish. This is ok as the temperature is a little higher so they can survive with less blubber!!

So after absorbing as much info as i could i was able to go outside - another 2 people had also arrive so there was 3 of us. At first there was just one bear to be seen - a male - he was just laying on his belly in the snow with his legs straight out at the back - a bit like a frog!! He was so funny - just looking round, taking it all in - his expression almost said -"im just laying here like this - because... i can!!!!' The bears all definitely had their own personality!!! I watched him for about 1 hour. Then another bear came along - a female - she seemed more playful and energetic than the male. She really wiggled her bum and shoulders as he walked!! I continued to just watch for a while longer - i think i was so mesmerised and couldnt belive i was there with them in their habitat. Then another bear - another female- came from i don't know where she just appeared and headed straight fro the water to feed!! Oh wow - i watched them feeding for over an hour!! The male didint bother - he jsut started walking up and down with his head in the air - created a track in the snow but didnt go to the water. the 2 females did though - i think they were very hungry!!! Polar Bears dont get in the water if they dont have to - it was funny to watch them adopt every different possible posture to get fish without getting wet!! haha!! they are quite flexible!!!

Althought the Bears are active at the moment because they are feeding heavily it is a myth that they hibernate in winter - they just move less so that their metabolism slows down.

All in all i spent about 5 hours at the education centre and with the bears. I felt so elated and still couldn't believe what i had the chance to see.

I headed back out and along the road Doreen had brought me in on and walked back to the Motel - it took me about 1 hour.

Called in to the office but Doreen wasn't around when i got back. I went to my room, freshened up a bit and once again got all my baggage together!!! Still feeling in a daze about what i had just done!! I just cant believe what a wonderful day i was having!! I called into the office again to drop my room key off and say bye if Doreen was around. Just as i walked in she appeared! "oh - you're all ready to go then are ya??" ...."just give me 5 minutes and i'll be right with you..." "Oh Doreen" I said "you dont have to take me up there to the station i can walk up" "yeah right" she said!!! "as if im going to let you go walking up there with all your bags!!" She opened the truck and told me to load it up and she'd be with me in a mo!!!! I did as i was told (again!!) and she stuck her lovely 'back in 5 minutes' sign in the window...again!!!! Off we went! She asked me if id had a good day - erm.. yes Doreen it was a amazing - she could tell i was still reeling! When we got to the station she handed me one of my bags while i got the other one "you take care now my girl.....and if ya ever come to Cochrane again come stay with us!"...."oh and by the way... i love your accent!!!" Hahahaha! MAybe i was a change to the truckers that come by or the couples that are heading fro a place called Timmins which isnt too far away.

I had a few hours before my coach was due and i had promised myself that on this very special day i would treat myself to 'dinner'! In the 'town' of cochrane i didnt have much choice about where i was going to eat. The whole 'town consisted of a little supermarket, a 'cinema' that boasted many different flavours of ice cream - it was however closed and i think its last latest release was ET!!!; a cafe (all day breakfast) and then in the station there was a 'restaurant' which was a truckers diner! So i thought - hey lets do it trucker style!!! I went to the diner to hang out with the truckers!! There was only 2 of them in and they left soon after i arrived (they had to hit the road as opposed to them leavng because of me!). A group of local kids came in then too for a big icecream milkshake - looked good but it was way too cold for that!! Although the temperature outside hadn't been as low as i was told at all - it was -10 up to about -6. i guess thats a bit summery - although Doreen said it does get a bit warmer.

On my journay up the highway i noticed that all the cafes and diners advertised Pickeral as a meal - the best in town etc. i had never heard of pickeral and wondered what it was and i soon realised that it was special to the area!! Also everyone advertised it as 'fresh today'. When i looked at the diner - there it was, Pickerel with fries veg and a freshe bread roll!! I also fancied the liver and bacon but when i asked the waitress (who had actually been over twice already to ask if i was ready to order!!! - i still have issues with making a quick decision!) which i should have she didnt hesitate in telling me that i should have Pickerel...."its our biggest seller" So thats what i had....with a bowl of soup to start!!!! She asked me if i wanted gravy on my fries. Now i was a little reserved about this as all over the menu all the fries came with gravy - even when the rest of the meal came with salad! i wasnt getting it. Also when i was down in toronto - few people really seemed to know what gravy was! So out of curiosity i said "yes please"!!

Soup was fantastic - freshly made beef and veg - it came it what was akin in size to a bucket!! Then cam the Pickerel....its fish, a white fish looks a bit like haddock but is definitely more tasty!! it came with tartare sauce and fresh lemon - so the gravy still didnt sit right with me!!! But my homemade fries (which thankfully were chips and not those skinny french fries things!!) had gravy sitting on them, and it didn't flow or move!!! it was very thick. It was all delicious and the gravy didn't interfere with my fish!!!!! "did you enjoy that???" asked the waitress (who was very definitely a diner style waitress - i don't mean that in the horrible way it just came out - but she really could have worked in a diner in the movies! Bottle blond, plenty of makeup, taking no sh*t from anyone who came through the door!). "yes it was all delicious!!" i said. "well you've had a good supper there tonight!" she said as i paid! She was right and i was just ready for a nice sleep....on the bus!

I only had another hour to wait before the bus arrived and i was on my way back to Toronto to pass through and catch the bus to Montreal. I felt so excited and i kind of wished i was on my way back to a place where all my family and friends would be together so i could tell them all about my day...