I’m sure once I tell you that Sarah was naked washing in a stream when a bear wandered up the river 50 yards away from her that you won’t really want to know about our nasty headwind that picked up 2 hours into a 10 mile crossing, or that that crossing took over 10 hours. Maybe the floating rafts of pumice from Katmai volcano would be of passing interest? Or the stunning mountains and golden beaches, or the lovely bivvy we had last night in our waterproof sleeping bags under the stars but ok I’ll get to the point.

We landed on a rocky beach in an onshore wind. Not ideal but our speed of less than 2 knots didn’t encourage us to continue. Once ashore we discovered a stream flowing behind a grassy bank. We checked there were no Salmon in it as we didn’t want to meet a bear protecting his food source. No Salmon but it had a lovely deep pool in it and the sun was out so we decided to wash. I washed my hair viewing to return and wash the rest of me once my hair was dry. Sarah striped off, stood in the pool and washed. Pulling her head up from the water she saw a young bear walking towards her 50 yards away. I heard a shout of “bear” shortly followed by a naked Sarah streaking through the grass back to the beach at rapid speed. I clambered up the bank to see the bear sniffing Sarahs thermals then walking towards me quickly, probably 20 yards away. We both stated shouting which didn’t seen to deter it much but Sarah then threw rocks towards it which made him run off.

Later this evening as we were sat by the fire eating dinner Sarah spotted a bear, probably the same one, foraging in the seaweed 200 metres down the beach. We hollared and banged pans but I don’t think he heard us with the noise of the waves crashing onto the rocks. After a while he came closer and finally heard us. He ambled away into the grass, not in a particular hurry. Hopefully he won’t come back.