Bearly Survived!

Most people only get to see big brown bears in zoos like this.

Not us...

As we headed out of Anchorage and down towards Soldotna to meet the not so distant (slightly northern) cousins of Timothy Treadwell's famed Katmai bears, we knew that this would not be one of those close encounters of the barbed wire kind...

Now thats not to say that zoos don't perform a valuable community service - just as Los Angeles jails for wild humans who claim to lead the simple life... come to think of it, bears also lead pretty simple lives... but we are straying...

So there we were - strapped into, of all things, an Australian-made plane (an Airvan from Latrobe, Victoria!), at Soldotna airport about to cross to the world beyond time. We made sure we had the essentials -- camera, binoculars, all images and products of animals tucked out of sight, brown safari trousers, air horns, mace, boomerangs, ... just kidding!!

The little airvan did a great job, chugging across the lower Cook Inlet with spectacular views of Mt Redoubt and other volcanoes of the Alaska Range right in front of the nose - pretty amazing to see a snow covered, but steaming, volcano... but that's Alaska, where the unexpected is the norm.

Karla had done an amazing job setting up this trip with a local wildlife photographer and a couple of his mates - and we had timed it just right - not a cloud in the sky for the first time in 2 weeks - a genuine 10/10 spring day!!

After flying over the grey blue glacial waters of the Johnson River and then the emerald green flats in front of Silver Salmon Crek lodge (and spying our first bruin at the preferred range of 1500 feet above the ground), we landed on the beach...

Yes that is right... we landed on the beach!

Not quite Waikiki, not quite Surfers Paradise... but as good a beach as it was an aistrip! That was far more interesting for the Tasmanians in the party than landing on floats as some Alaskan planes do...

We were met by our guide for the day, Levi who had an amazing ability to keep 5.5 adults moving gracefully along on an ATV at 36mph when needed (apparently bears top speed is only 35mph - thats 60kph for those who run in metric).

The only exception was when we encountered a little mud and then it got exciting, especially if there was a bear close by! As we made our way to view our first golden brown bear, each member of the group sized the other up to see who might run the slowest...

After eating two 100lb halibuts the night before, Dad was in serious danger of falling behind and so he made everyone wear wellies to make sure that even the young and fit members of our group (like me!) all ran clumsily!

Then we remembered rule #2 of bear viewing - NO RUNNING! That somehow made us all feel safer - we could all be eaten at walking pace...

So what was rule #1??

Oh, yes, stay behind your guide and stay together...

Rule #3 was to not wear anything that might resemble an animal that the bear may wish to eat

Guess Dad's hearing isn't what it used to be or he is just CRAZY - had a tenderised kangaroo hide hat on and was wearing BRIGHT red moose embroidered boxers!

Talk about waving a red flag!

... the only thing worse would have been if the bears were Yankees fans. uh oh... duuuh!

OK, so now we know he's crazy...

The first bear paw print got our hearts racing --thats Alice's footprint next to the bruins...

Oh my goodness!!

"He's only a young un" said Levi reassuringly as if that really made us feel safer.

And then we saw him - some "young un!!!!" About 400lbs (200kgs) and obviously trying to fill out to his full potential (1,000 lbs+) quickly - he was chowing down on some special grasses which made us all think that he was eating his salad entree before his main course.

WOW! HOW COOL IS THIS... Close enough to a wild brown bear to see the colour of his eyes (brown naturally). Close enough to hear him breathe (but fortunately not to smell his breath). And then close enough to see another bear and then another and another - what a place!!

Amazing to think that just a few weeks earlier they were lying in a semi-comatose state for months in a snow cave after eating dozens of salmon and berries at the end of last summer. Come to think of it - that sounds like the perfect way to survive the Alaskan winters, especially if you are stuck on the cool slopes of Mt Iliamna.

And so we whiled away the day watching one bear and then another do what they have done for eternity - disinterestdly keeping a watchful eye on these crazy tourists who had to get their breakfast at a bakery and their lunch at a supermarket while they sampled nature's bounty at will... the salmon run was due next week and there are clams for the picking at the next low tide... and then yet more berries to gorge on as the summer really kicks into high gear... mmmm

What a place - as we sat around the lodge swapping stories about "close encounters", bragging about how vicious Tasmanian devils are compared with these big cuddly bears and learning how to survive a bear attack when conditions are not necessarily so bearable, we felt very, very privileged to be able to enjoy nature up so close and so personal.

Must say though that the bear we posed next to for the photo below was a little easier to be very close to... he had no desire to eat Dad's hat and his breath was just fine with us!