Part Two

Day 7

Another 6 hour drive to Port McNeal, where we are to board "The Sea Wolf" for a day's outing looking for Grizzly's. The trip could involve short boat trips followed by extensive walking through the island rainforests with guides.  

To get there, we had the option of a shorter journey to Port McNeal, via another "gravel" road BUT, I decided that the earlier gravel road took long enough and on the map, this road was thinner and longer than before. So I had grave doubts about our ability to traverse it!!! So we went the long way round. Tiring, but at least we and the RV are in one piece. I guess it would probably have been fine..... but it was a big delay if we had had to retrace our steps!

Being mostly the main highway, the run to Port McNeal was mostly uneventful..... apart from the fact that I think this was Stef's first drive of the RV. No Problem for an Advanced driver! 

Again, with all the driving, we arrived just as the light was going.... mainly because of the diversions we took along the way. The Site was next to the sea , literally a few yards away from the edge of the water. We had a meal booked at the restaurant "on-site", which turned out to be very nice,

We needed to be at the "Sea Wolf" premises by 6:45. This again meant an early morning start, which we always negotiate gingerly, as we hate making that much noise so early in the morning. Arriving at Port McNeal we found another 8 people were coming along for the ride as well. 

We were heading out early to meet the low tide.... A time when grizzly and black bears frequent the shoreline to discover whatever food they can find.... The reason for booking this trip with "Sea Wolf" was to discover Grizzly Bears. We would cover water and land, with walks lasting several kilometres, taking in Native settlements as well.

We could not take food, we could not apply anti-perspirant.... We could not stray from the path, we had to keep in groups.  We needed to take waterproof gear as we did not know how far we would need to walk and therefore could be stuck in a bad spell of weather.  As it happens..... we needn't have worried about most of this!  The weather was expected to be bloody awful!.... and it was!

We met the three members of the crew. Sherry, Karissa and Julia... at the boat. Very friendly and welcoming - before long we were having a bit of a laugh between us all. We related our experiences that we had had over the previous few days as we headed out to discover what we could find.

Sherry, the Captain, with Sea Wolf for a few years, explained that the trip today would be very much harder trying to get to see the Grizzlies on land as the weather wasn't going to behave itself! So she suggested that instead of roving the land in the rain on foot..... we should stick with the boat and shift our search a little over to Orca and Humpbacks.... We put it to the vote and we all agreed that this would be the best avenue of attack.

So we, headed out.... Stef and I had already found out that the best place to be was the front of the boat if you wanted the best opportunity for photographs. So we made sure that we were at the front, which also meant that we were actually seated across from Sherry.  Whilst we were heading out, we discussed our previous trips and she was very interested in seeing the images we had taken. Sherry had a wicked sense of humour, essential, I suppose, when you are dealing with the general public!

We hadn't gone very far at all before our guides were pointing out Black bears on the beach -  but it was still relatively dark, so we didn't tarry too long!

It was dry at the moment but we knew it wouldn't last long.  Sherry received news that we had Orca within the vicinity - and without delay we sped right over to the point where the Orca were supposed to be..... and sure enough, we saw the Orca.

One bonus for us was when one of the Orca performed an action which Julia informed us is called "Skypoppin". They go vertical in the water and raise themselves out of the water so that the top six feet or so is out of the water. It is believed that they do this so that they can get a "Fix" for where they are geographically. Apparently, it's activity that's not seen very often and Sherry said she was glad that we managed to get an image. 

There were Humpbacks nearby as well, but again the light wasn't great yet so it was nice to sit and watch.

It was great to watch them surfacing, blowing off, pulsing up and down through the water for a few minutes before diving again for several minutes. We managed to get off a few shots.... but the light was very poor and they do not show much of themselves. So, you just point and shoot and hope for the best. 

I was particularly pleased about a sequence of images I took of the Humpback whale's flukes as it was diving. All the indication you get, is that just before it dives, it raises a slightly larger section of its body out of the water than normal and arches it's body more than when it is swimming on the surface, so you have to be watchful, otherwise you miss it (As I did several times!)

This first image is of a Humpback swimming at the surface.

The second image shows a Humpback diving. You can see the added arch in it's body as it heads to the sea floor
As it is diving, the arched body, its tail (Flukes) lift out of the water ready to power it downwards as the tail submerges.

I was particularly pleased to get these shot from the rear. When I was younger, It was an image I always remember seeing on posters for your walls at home. 

It is an awesome sight to witness. There were a few groups of people in Kayaks in the area and there were at least half a dozen Humpbacks, plus Orca's in the area. It imagine that it must be an incredible feeling, to have one of these majestic animals surface and dive, if you are nearby and sat in a kayak!

Again, it wasn't long before Sherry heard news of a Grizzly sighting..... so off we went and arrived after about twenty minutes or so. It was still overcast but the light was becoming a little brighter as the sun rose higher.

Having said that, unfortunately the ISO's were well above 10,000 for the majority of the day!  There was a fairly decent swell on the day, so the boat was always constantly moving in all directions. Keeping the subject in the viewfinder was very difficult at times. Add to that the fact that the subjects were also on the move most of the time and we didn't have much choice but to use shutter speeds in excess of 1000th of a second and occasionally over 2000th of a second.  But as they say "It is better to have a sharp noisy image, than a blurred clean one"! We did experiment a little with slower speeds, when the opportunity arose, but the images turned out to be very soft or totally blurred. 

We arrived at a large island with a small, steep rocky shoreline with dense rainforest directly emerging from the boulders on the shoreline. 

For quite a while we could not see anything at all. As we got closer we could hear branches snapping in the trees as well as seeing branches move. There was obviously a bear in the trees eating the fruit/berries, but what it was, as yet, we could only guess.

It was amusing to be able to hear the devastation this bear was causing to the trees and shrubs - there were branches snapping every few seconds! Then we could see branches moving in different places that were too far apart to be caused by one bear... so we had more than one bear here... but we still couldn't see even one!

After about a ten minute wait, a large Grizzly came out to feed on the fruit above the shore, so we had good views of the whole bear for a while until she went in and out amongst the shrubbery to get to the berries. For a good while she rummaged through the leaves to get to the fruit.

We knew it was a sow as, shortly afterwards, a second smaller and darker Grizzly came out to join her on the shoreline. So, a mum and a cub, nice! But wait.... there was still movement in the trees.... so there must be another cub in there as well. A mum and two cubs.... the day was getting interesting.

The Bears apparently need to eat around 200,000 berries a day to provide them with enough calories to help bulk up for the winter. No wonder these shrubs are so prolific and on all the islands in the area. The Bears (and birds) have scattered the seeds in their droppings for thousands of years!

Knowing the size of the adult bear, you can imagine the size of the tree in the background and that is small in comparison to some of the trees on the islands.

We watched the two for a while and eventually the mum walked over the boulders towards the water and she just kept going!  She just walked straight in and started swimming away from the island. The cub on the shoreline saw her going and strolled down to the waters edge and again just walked in and started off after its mum. Within a couple of minutes they were a good 100 metres out and heading towards another island about 4 or 500 metres away.

All of a sudden, there was a crash in the trees and the second cub burst out of the shrubs and looked around.

As he couldn't see mum, he almost ran along the boulders on the shoreline, going off towards a little spit of land that went into the water, but off to the left, away from the direction where his mum had gone.

He stood in the water to his chest and bellowed loudly.  Immediately, his mum gave an answering bellow. He quickly turned towards the noise and almost dived into the water, setting off in the direction of her call.  

Every couple of seconds for the next 10 or 15 minutes or so, he bellowed. Then his mum would bellow again a second later.... all while they were both swimming in the sea.

By now, mum and the first cub had reached the island. I was worried because I could see through the binoculars that they had arrived at what looked like a 50 - 60 foot, solid wall of stone, which I thought would stop them getting out of the water. Wrong!  

Mum arrived first and went up the wall like it was a flight of stairs, quickly followed by the cub..... and they did it with soaking wet fur coats on as well!

As they reached the top of the cliff.... mum turned and kept bellowing, and both bears waited (while searching for berries!) for the second cub to arrive.

When it arrived they walked around the shoreline and entered the water again, swimming off to yet another island. This next island was not much more than a bit of rock in the sea and they scrambled out, dripping water as they scrambled over the rocks.

Again, they walked around the shore and set off again for another island, which was bigger an covered in shrubs

These grizzly bears really are very accomplished swimmers.

This was in my estimation going on for a good half mile swim!

When they got out of the water they walked the shoreline for a while and then started to climb once again towards the shrubs.

Mum came out of the greenery and stood for a while on a little rocky out-crop and watched us in the boat as we drew towards their location.

As they carried on walking, it took them to a raised area of flat rock. As they came to the top, the mother and first cub went onto their rear legs and gave a good bellow. Obviously, something had caught their attention and we believe that they had seen some Seals or Sea Lions hauled out on the rock. We saw some in the water a while later.

The second cub came over to see what all the fuss was about and so we managed to get a few good group images as they ambled around the flat rock.

Eventually, they got bored with that and moved off to investigate where they could find their next "fix" of berries!
We left them there. So relaxed in their environment. They can go where they want, when they want, and nothing, other than a massive expanse of water, seems to get in their way. In the end, the sun came out, albeit briefly while we were with the Grizzlies, and it turned out to be the best part of the day, affording us the chance of some images in the low thousands ISO, instead of very high thousand ISO's. 

So.... was Sherry pleased with herself?..... Oh yes, very pleased!

Black bear, then Orca's, including one "Skypopping", then Humpback Whales (with a rear Fluke shot!) and a mother Grizzly Bear with two cubs..... climbing trees and cliffs and eating berries and swimming and calling to each other in the sea. She said that she had never heard Grizzlies vocalising like that before and so it was a brand new experience for her also.  

Oh yes, and it wasn't even 9:00 am yet!!!

As this was a tour that included learning about the lives and customs of the native Indian people, we headed off over to where the First Nation Peoples had an abandoned village on an island. After a fleeting visit to the village of Julias's ancestors, we were left in no doubt that the "First Nation" people's of British Columbia had been well and truly, sold out!  I will not even attempt to try to convey the story of the First Nation people to you You can for yourselves by clicking the following link   AkalaSociety.com

Afterwards, we headed off to see if we could find any more Orca and Humpbacks and although we did establish contact with both species on numerous occasions, the weather really plagued us and the rain came down with a vengeance. The rain was coming down vertically and the sea reflected the fact that there was no wind by giving the impression that we were sailing on oil!

The surface was viscious!....  a shiny, oily, reflective moving mass of sea water. It really does need to be seen to be believed, and especially when a leviathan breaks the surface, it is truly magical.
On several occasions, the Humpbacks looked to be going under the boat, which they actually did and surfaced a good few yards in front of us. A weird experience, holding your breath, and wondering if it's gonna come up under the boat or not!
On a couple of occasions, we took a few short trips to shore where we found a few other wildlife diversions. Sea​ Lions​​​​​​ were spotted, so we went off for a short while to see them. In the water, a group of several Sea Lions are called a raft, where as on land, they are called a colony.   

There must have been 50 or more in this group!

Just behind the rocks where the Sea Lions were was a small island of trees. Bald Eagles were present in the branches of the trees around the edge of the island and Sherry steered the boat forward to enable us to get a reasonably good close up images. Again, if the sun had been shining, the images could have been stunning.  As it was we were dealing with driving rain and low light which resulted images that were more atmospheric.

Now. What happens when, you see this from any bird? When it bends forward .....

And evaluates its bowels? As below ( the white streak!)

You can bet your bottom dollar that, shortly after, it is going to fly!

Told you !

During our voyage, Julia had given us serious insight to the habits of the Humpbacks. 

For example, how do you locate a Humpback?  Well, you can scan the surface looking for the tell tale "puff of steam" which could be close in, or in the distance. Either way, unless you are lucky, you won't get much notice in order to get some shots in.

Or, as Julia says, the best method is to watch for birds gathering.

Why? Because the birds can spot the fish gathering in shoals just below the surface and fly around trying to feed on the fish is they stray within the birds reach. If there are that many fish around, the whale will shortly be seen!

Returning to the Humpbacks, we had a superb example of what Julia was talking about. Bait-Balling!

A massive flock of sea birds were gathering to take fish that were shoaling below the surface and, as you can see, the surface was boiling!  We pointed the cameras and waited. 

After a while, which could be any length of time, the activity comes to the attention of the Humpback's and all of a sudden a Humpback would explode out of the surface of the water with a mouthful of fish! (and probably the odd sea bird as well!)

The only problem is that you haven't a clue when it is going to happen.

Even though we were ready, we were both too slow to get the initial burst above the surface of the whale. For such a huge animal, it really is incredibly quick!

I am sure that with enough exposure to this behaviour, we could have captured the moment when the Whale explodes out of the water. However, we had to start back to Port Mc Neal.....  On the way back we picked up some White sided Dolphins who followed on our wake for twenty minutes or so.... no mean feat at the speed we were travelling!

However, they eventually broke contact and for us, our trip was over.

Back at Port Mc Neal, we went for a bit of shopping in the supermarket (running into Sherry and Karissa again!) and then set off on the 35km run to Quatse Campsite just outside Port Hardy, again checking out the ferry terminal where we had to go very early tomorrow morning.

Ariving at dusk, as usual, we set off for a walk around the campsite. This was another place we would have liked to have stayed a while at. The owner told us that grizzlies had been seen around the campsite earlier in the day. Didn't come across anything of interest though, except for the trees!. They are absolutely MASSIVE! as you can see from the image below!..... yep, that's me, at the bottom of the picture!! 

Anyway, after another early morning, plus a "full on" hectic day, we had some food, It was throwing it down - BUT it never dampens our spirit! - improvisation is the order of the day!
and then, went to bed early as we had to be at the ferry terminal at 05:00 am - which meant a 04:00 am alarm call, just to be sure.  Miss the ferry, and we totally screw up the rest of the holiday on Mainland British Columbia.

We were looking forward to the ferry ride (or rather I was!) as we thought that we would see some exceptional scenery and possibly some wildlife. However, as usual as of late, the cloud was down and spoiled the show. Although, later on the trip, what we could see was impressive, albeit a little monochrome!

The first half of the journey was across a bit of open sea and the Captain reported a 2 metre+ swell so it was a bit dodgy walking on deck. Eventually we had to do a manoeuvre to Starboard (right) to ease our voyage a bit as it was getting a little "Splashy" on the bows!.....  this added around 30 minutes to our journey!

To be honest, it was a bit of an uneventful cruise though. We saw one humpback whale (in the distance), came across another pod of white sided dolphins that kept up with us for a few minutes and a raft of Sea Otters (6 or 7). Other than that we didn't see anything until we drew nearer to Bella Coola. On two occasions, we saw Black bear on the shore in the distance and the odd bird of prey, presumably Bald Eagles.

So. It was a very long trip on the ferry. We spent almost the whole of the last three hours on the upper deck, almost willing the wildlife into view! However, nothing really happened, and we just went down to the car deck and drove off the ferry at Bella Coola!

On the British Columbia mainland, at last!
 

More to follow.... in Part Three.