Bear Safari - Day 8 - Rest day

My alarm woke me at 6am. Generally I wake up when I'm ready, but today I had to be up in time for low tide. This is when bears can be sometimes be spotted on beaches foraging for seafood in the inter-tidal zone. I was also happy that today I would not have to pack everything up, cycle somewhere new, find a place to stay and then set everything up again. I was staying in Ucluelet for 2 day nights. I haven't stayed in the same place twice since leaving Vancouver.

I hopped on my bike and rode around town in search of somewhere offering bear-watching boat trips. I found a lovely guy called Brian who is the captain of a small inflatable Zodiac boat – a very fast manoeuvrable craft - as used by lifeboat teams. The boat tour was advertised as a whale, bear and sea-lion watching trip. I made it very clear to Brian that no quantity of leaping 15 metre Humpback Whales would appease my thirst for bears. He took this on board and said he would do his best to find me a bear. I had to wear a full-body floating dry-suit which indicated that this would be no sedate pleasure-boat ride.

As the boat set off from the harbour we cruised along the coastline, looking all the time for bears. Brian stopped the boat and started heading with purpose towards the shore. I thought perhaps this was it but alas just a pair of bald eagles. I was disappointed initially but as one flew right over my head with its 2 metre wing-span outstretched it was a pretty magnificent sight. We spent another 30 minutes working our way along coast, every large, dark rock played games with my mind. When you want to see something that badly you begin to see it everywhere. Just as I'd pretty much given up hope Brian stopped the boat. 'I think I saw one over there', he said, pointing to a piece of distant beach. I strained my eyes desperate not to miss it. Then I saw it. A small, young Black Bear running along the beach. I caught only fleeting glimpses as it darted behind rocks. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I never thought for a minute we'd actually see a bear. Brian explained the reason it was running nervously was because it had probably only recently left the care of its mother. Now it was constantly at risk of being killed by a larger male defending it territory. This reminded me a little of when I started at secondary school.

Having seen the young bear flee into the woods we moved on once more. I was happy now, I'd seen my bear. I was happy to go and see some whales now. Just a few minutes later though we stopped again. Another bear. This one bigger. Even better, it had 2 cubs with it. This was quite a find. It was fascinating to watch the bears working their way along the beach, carefully lifting rocks in search of crabs. I know from my research that a mother with cubs is the most dangerous bear you could ever come across. We were obviously safe on the boat, had we been on the beach we would have doubtless been torn limb from limb.

We headed out to tour the Broken Islands Group and search for whales. Brian was clearly not running this purely as a business. At every opportunity he would get out his camera. Each sighting was just as exciting to him as it was to me. It would not be interesting to read my clumsily written descriptions of the amazing sights we saw so I'll include a few pictures to do the job inadequately instead.

On returning to camp I had a 'shower with pants'. This is a technique I've invented I think, although I believe Jimmy Saville does something similar. You basically take a shower and in addition to washing yourself, you wash one of your 2 pairs of pants. You then hang the clean pair of pants out to dry on the guy rope of your tent. For the rest of the day you have the choice of either wearing your other pair of pants or going commando. A couple of warnings to anybody out there attempting to emulate this system. If you're working to a token-based time limited shower system - such as the one here in Ucluelet - be sure to allow enough time to wash both yourself and the pants. It's really a false economy to end up with a clean pair of pants and a dirty body. You should also take into account the weather. If it is raining then you have little chance of getting the pants dry once washed. In my experience, having a wet pair of pants waving like a flag from the back of your bike wins you no friends on the road.

Spending a relaxing afternoon hanging out in my favourite cafe, taking a coastal walk and building another fire I was really starting to feel at home in Ucluelet. I am in no hurry to leave but my ship comes in tomorrow and if I miss it I will be stranded here until next week. I can hear the sea-lions barking down in the harbour, it must be time for bed.