Knight Inlet - BEARS

Well, we've arrived back in Vancouver after our sojourn to Knight Inlet...

Drove from Victoria up to Campbell River on Thursday, and were delivered out to our Lodge at the mouth of Knight Inlet, via a float plane - amazing scenery..

The crew of the lodge were there to greet us - 8 on the plane, all newbies to the lodge. A lovely fresh crab welcome snack, and cheese and crackers awaited us. After we settled in, we were taken on a long walk around a track on the island - no bears on this island, so pretty safe..

Dinner around a large table for 10, very convivial, plenty of wine and food. Early to bed - early start..

We were breakfasted and on our boat to go looking for bears by 7.30am. About an hour and a half later we arrived at a landing pad, in the middle of Knight Inlet. Were taken to land, and then transported via a vehicle to a salmon river to view bears. There are two elevated, secure viewing platforms, which are locked at ground level for protection!! When we arrived there was a bear sitting in the water, directly below us, fishing!! More bears came and went in the couple of hours we were there - hardly able to be bothered eating the fish they caught - mostly just biting out the belly, and eating the roe - they favoured female fish for the roe! Brilliant to see them, totally unbothered by us - I suspect most of the bears in this area have seen humans many a time, and couldn't really care less. Finally, all but one bear wandered off down the river, and so did we. Good day. On the way home we came across a "pod" of dolphins who accompanied us for about 20 minutes. Try to imagine 200 - 300 dolphins all careering about, diving in and out beside the boat, hurtling along, keeping up with us. It was amazing, and totally brilliant. The scenery en route to these little places is stunning, layer upon layer of mountains, inlets, islands by the dozen, and the weather is still beautiful; cool, but sunny. We are supplied with bright orange "survival suits" which we have to wear on the water, and we feel like outsize gorillas in them! The lodge supplies picnic lunch every day, and we eat wherever we feel like it - today it was on the "pad" in the middle of the water, but it won't always be thus!

There is a spa on the deck of the lodge, overlooking the inlet, so June and I felt obliged to jump in - her son David also joined us, and it was a nice spot for a drink or two before dinner.

The next day, we headed off to another place - "up river" to again look for bears - possibly! No luck, they were obviously busy.. Again, the scenery was magnificent, and the day started off very pleasant (weather wise), but got a bit windy later - rough in the boat going back to the lodge. Again we were accompanied back by this enormous pod of dolphins. This time, they seemed to split into two - one group was followed by the other about 10 minutes further along the way!

The other group of four went to the bears today and they had a mother and two cubs cavorting about below them for ages, she was rolling around in the grass directly below them, suckling the cubs, and playing with them. One of the girls had a video of the whole thing, and it was brilliant. They paid for their good luck with the bears by being out on the water coming home, when it became horribly rough, waves blowing up over the windscreen of the boat - and had to be rescued by a passing, much larger boat. Big excitement for them!

Our last day we went whale watching.... Not much but magnificent scenery to see for a couple of hours, and then an Orca appeared. She buzzed around us for about 30 minutes, and is apparently known to all the locals. It was brilliant to see her, and she put up with us following her for quite a while. It was a brilliant sunny day again, and very warm in the boat.


After a stop at a small village back on Vancouver Island, we headed out again. This time we ran into quite a few humpback whales. One humpback obligingly breached TWICE right beside out boat - we were delighted..... but sadly didn't get it on a camera! An hour or so later, there were many humpbacks wandering about, in close proximity, in this particular part of the harbour, and there seemed to be schools of small fish which they (and the gulls) were chasing. A very exciting afternoon, and we reluctantly left as we had to be back to the lodge to catch the seaplane back to Campbell River.


Also passed a rocky outcrop in the harbour which was draped in a whole heap of Sea Lions - totally unphased by our presence. Brilliant...

Sad to leave, but greeted our replacements who came in on the sea plane, and we went back to Campbell River. Stayed the night at a famous fishing lodge - Painter's Lodge. Joan's son David stayed for dinner with us, and then went home - he conveniently lives about 15 minutes away.

Said goodbye to Joan this morning, and flew down to Vancouver....


Really on the homeward leg now, and can't wait to get back. Three nights in Vancouver, then down to San Diego. Will probably post once more before we get back..

Cheers