“Splosh”, the bear belly flopped on top of the salmon with a giant splash. As the spray cleared a wet golden head emerged with a fat salmon dangling out of the corner of his mouth. The large male bear carried the fish to the bank, held it under his curved claws and ripped off chunks of rich red flesh. Within seconds the fatty skin and eggs were devoured and the entrails and head were left to the waiting gulls who wasted no time in clearing up. The bear moved back to the river, his ears pricked up and his gaze fixed on telltale ripples moving upstream. He bounded back into the flow, his strong legs carrying him at a good running pace through the water. The salmon scattered, their fins waggling furiously on the surface, their bodies rattling against the stony bottom. The bear changed direction mid-run matching his prey’s course. This time he smashed the fish against the river bed with a powerful swipe. I sat on the bank 50 metres away feeling like I was in the front seat of th e best
nature documentary ever on TV. The bear didn’t care that I, and 7 other people were clicking away as he chased down his meal.

My whole day was spent sitting by the river watching brown bears chasing fish, gorging themselves until they could barely move then digging themselves a hole in the gravel and flopping into it for an afternoon snooze. Some were more successful than others. “Busy bear” spent a lot of time zigzagging around and splashing to no avail whereas one older bear spent an hour flopped on his back on the bank with a paw in the air before nonchalantly taking 10 measured steps into the river and pinning a fish to the bottom within 15 seconds. Another bear was snorkling, where he walked in the river with his head under the water, presumably looking for the fish.

The highlight of the day was probably watching two bears play fighting in the water 30 metres away from us for about half an hour. Such power, but gentle fun as well.

I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Hallo Bay bear camp to anyone who wants to see bears natural behaviours up close. The camp has been here 27 years and the bears are used to people in small groups on the bank keeping a low profile. They’ve never been hunted and because the camp is really careful to keep all of their food away from the bears, they don’t associate us with food. And the food here is yummy. Roast beef last night, fleshy ribs tonight and ask manner of fresh cakes and fruit. The whole experience feels like a real treat after slogging into headwinds for a week.

Www.hallobay.com

This morning was tough psychologically. We were up at 7am after only 6 hours sleep. I somehow expected that we’d done the hard work by paddling 14 hours yesterday and our 15 miles today would be easier. In fact the headwind combined with a messy 3-4 foot sea state and some unhelpful current meant it took us 3 and a half hours to cross a 6 mile Bay. We were both feeling tired and a bit sore around the edges. Only the knowledge that the weather is due to be stormy tomorrow and the thought of hot showers, “real food”, company and the chance to see bears up close with a guide spurred us on to keep paddling. We finally pulled up at the beach in front of the camp at 5.30 and were excited to see camp manager Brad appear through the undergrowth. Our kayaks and kit were carried up to camp and we had a wonderful hot shower followed by roast beef, salad, blueberry pie and cookies! It was great to chat to the guides and some of the other people here including a BBC film crew who said thi s is
the best place to come and film grizzly bears as they have never been hunted by man and they don’t associate man with food so they don’t mind people watching them. So we are really excited to get the chance to go out tomorrow and hopefully see some bears at close range catching Salmon or going about their other daily business. People can fly here from Homer for the day or several days. We’re staying in one of several weather ports, a cosy PVC pod on a metal frame which gets striped down in the winter. It’s time for bed as breakfast is at 7am! How exciting.

This morning was tough psychologically. We were up at 7am after only 6 hours sleep. I somehow expected that we’d done the hard work by paddling 14 hours yesterday and our 15 miles today would be easier. In fact the headwind combined with a messy 3-4 foot sea state and some unhelpful current meant it took us 3 and a half hours to cross a 6 mile Bay. We were both feeling tired and a bit sore around the edges. Only the knowledge that the weather is due to be stormy tomorrow and the thought of hot showers, “real food”, company and the chance to see bears up close with a guide spurred us on to keep paddling. We finally pulled up at the beach in front of the camp at 5.30 and were excited to see camp manager Brad appear through the undergrowth. Our kayaks and kit were carried up to camp and we had a wonderful hot shower followed by roast beef, salad, blueberry pie and cookies! It was great to chat to the guides and some of the other people here including a BBC film crew who said thi s is
the best place to come and film grizzly bears as they have never been hunted by man and they don’t associate man with food so they don’t mind people watching them. So we are really excited to get the chance to go out tomorrow and hopefully see some bears at close range catching Salmon or going about their other daily business. People can fly here from Homer for the day or several days. We’re staying in one of several weather ports, a cosy PVC pod on a metal frame which gets striped down in the winter. It’s time for bed as breakfast is at 7am! How exciting.

Today’s headwind was only 5-10 knots so we made the most of our best conditions for a while and pulled off a 19 hour day. “Only” 14 hours of that was paddling, the rest was breaking or making camp or stopping for lunch and an evening meal. We were up before sunrise and landed after sunset, covering about 35 miles to near Cape Nukshsk. We crossed between many small fingers of land, gradually curving a course to the North and enjoying a new view every 4 miles or so. The mountains continue to amaze, the scenery is amazing and we see whales and otters every day.

We’re now in the tent and are pretty pooped. The reason for our over keenness is partly because my flight home is on 16 August and I’d like to make sure we reach Homer in time to enjoy a few beers plus get organised. A more imminent reason is that Hallo Bay Bear Camp is now only 13 miles away up the coast. We hope we’ll be able to paddle there tomorrow whatever strength headwind is likely to be thrown at us. Last we saw tomorrows forecast was 15 knots and Sunday’s was 25 knots. As we’ve experienced, 15 knots can turn into 5 (rarely) or 35 in reality.

We’re excited to visit Hallo Bay camp which specialises in taking people to see bears and other wildlife safely. We’ll most likely have a day off there on Sunday and sleep in!