Friday 5 August 2011

black bear bonanza - getting close to Cody's cousins

On the way back to Vancouver from the rockies we took a scenic route, the Yellowhead highway.

The poster shows grizzlies which is a bit of  trading standards issue as they then told us when we were out on the boat that they never see grizzlies as they stay away from people up in the hills and don't venture down to the river bank like the black bears do.

One of the main reasons for us turning off the road for the bear trip place was the crazy driving that was going on.  The Yellowhead Highway is a long winding single carriageway and everyone was getting frustrated by slow RV's and doing really risky over taking manoeuvres including the lorries.  After one horrible experience of a lorry nearly running us off the road during a failed over take attempt Ralph sought refuge by turning off towards Blue River Bear Safari.  The mosquitos were so bad they had massive industrial strength fans blowing mosquito repellent across the car park, sustainable development in action!

The boat trip up river was brilliant.  There were black bears patrolling the river edges for scraps left by bald eagles.  They must have been teenage bears which couldn't  hold territories elsewhere with richer pickings such as berries.  We saw 5 different teenage males (not sure how many of them I got photos of).  They reminded us of Cody (Harry and Mhairi's dog) especially when they were rootling in a rotten trunk with their noses all wrinkled up. The only downside were the viscous mosquitos who munched on us throughout the trip, they were all around the bears - I really don't know how they put up with it.

That evening we stayed at a b and b run by a crazy German lady, she had 2 cats one of which was named "Robbie get down" as every 5 mins he jumped on a shelf, table or wardrobe and was shouted at for doing so.


looking cool - I hope they call me if they bring Howard's way back


On the way to the bears and a heavy dose of mosquito brutality



Something yummy in the log








camel hair blanket


Fiona with "Robbie get down"


the b and b


He's not drugged I just forgot the flash was on


The worlds largest cross country skis - genius!


an average trailer, they all look like this

3 comments:

Mhairi said...

Beautiful beautiful bears!

Jenna Hegarty said...

Oh my god, 'Robbie get down' is the spitting image of Noah, one of mine! But really what I mean to be saying, is wowzers, look at dem big ol' bears!!!! Because that is of course, much more interesting

Ralph said...

Sod the bears what about the worlds biggest cross country skis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!