Canada 2011 - On Great Bear II

Our boat trip was on the Great Bear II and hosted by Eric and Trish Boyum with Eloise as crew. We were two of five guests so very well looked after.

The title of the trip was "Islands of the Spirit Bear, Waters of the Humpbacks" and within a few hours of leaving Hartley Bay we had spotted both a Spirit Bear and a Humpback Whale.

We were hoping to see Humpbacks bubble feeding - this one was on his own which makes bubble feeding pretty difficult but he had a go.

Over the next few days (when the weather allowed) we spent quite a bit of time on the Zodiac exploring to see what we could find. Many of the places we visited are to be kept secret so the bears aren't disturbed too much so rather than putting the photos in chronological order with named locations I've put them in animal / topic order.

First of all I'll introduce the Gang.

On the immediate right is Eloise, our biologist and assistant to Trish and Eric.

On the far right, with me, are Trish and Eric, our hosts.

Our fellow guests were Sam, Tink and Donna. First Donna, in yellow ...

... then Tink and finally Sam

The man in the photo on the left is Eric - our host. He'd crossed the creek to see if there were any fresh bear tracks but sadly not that day.

The hot springs were very welcome after a very wet day bear watching

Eric set the crab traps so we could have Dungeness Crab for tea one night (so successful we had crab for lunch the following day as well!). After a quick lesson from Eric, I soon learned how to eat them. It was just as delicious as the rest of the food on the boat - simply scrummy - dread to think how much weight we put on but Trish's cooking could not be resisted!

eric

Eric delivering our luggage to the sea plane

eric, trish & eloise

Eric, Trish & Eloise waving us goodbye as we left Hartley Bay

With storm warnings all around us, we didn't know whether we'd be able to get out of the "Wilderness" and back to Prince Rupert. To make things safer, Eric moored up in Hartley Bay for our final night. It gave us the opportunity to have a quick look around before we left (thankfully the winds abated for enough time for us to leave).

Hartley Bay is a small community where everyone is very friendly, even the dogs it seems.

No cars are to be found in Hartley Bay - the main mode of transport along the boardwalks are these quad bikes with a golf cart acting as a bus for those who need it.

There's a big movement in this area to try and stop new tanker traffic. The tankers (and there would be many of them) would go through the areas we visited and you will see from the views at the bottom of this page that that would be a travesty. We were told that none of the First Nations communities support the new tanker route so hopefully for them, the animals and the countryside around they will win their battle to block it.

The sea plane arrived much to our relief (not that we wanted to leave but we couldn't afford to miss our various flights back to London). For the Norberts amongst us, the sea plane we went out on was a Beaver and this one was an Otter.

Once again, Jonathon sat up front with the pilot.

I've added a few views from the plane in the views section at the bottom of the page.

Back to the wildlife and Bald Eagles come first, lots of them. The juveniles don't have the white heads but they are still pretty huge.

The picture on the left is more to show we saw some blue skies between the rain!

There were loads of Gulls of different species. Most of the photos are on a separate page - please click here for those photos.

The Steller's Jays were lovely and blue....

... the Belted Kingfisher was very fast ...

... this Sandpiper was tiny (we think this one might be a juvenile but there were lots of adult ones at Hartley Bay). The adults were a lot noisier than the juvenile - possibly because there were so many of them ...

... the American Dippers were really tiny as well - but very chatty ...

geese

... and the Geese were very Canadian.

Funny how I don't mind Heron (Great Blue Heron in this case) when they're not trying to eat our fish

The Common Merganser look anything but common!

Jonathon saw them on a separate trip and they were paddling like fury against the tide.

These Grebe were floating around near the Humpback Whales we saw one day.

These tiny Surf Scoters were whizzing around - also one day when we were looking for Whales and Bears. Very pretty and very fast!

Just as we were turning to go back to the boat one day, Eric spotted a Black Bear checking us out. He didn't hang around long. The Spirit Bears (aka Kermode Bears) are Black Bears with a regressive gene. When we were speaking to some of the other guests in Prince Rupert, they mentioned that they'd lived in that area for many years and not seen a Spirit Bear so we shouldn't get our hopes up too high. Goes to show how special these bears are.

We saw quite a few Black Bears on different days so, again, I've popped them on a page of their own. Please click here to see that page.

Jonathon went out with the rest of the gang on one of the very rainy days whereas I stayed in the warm and dry. That meant I missed seeing a large male Grizzly Bear. Jonathon took a whole load of photos so I've put some of them on a separate page - please click here to see them.

The Pine Martens seem to live quite happily with the Bears.

The Harbour Seals kept us entertained! They kept popping up and disappearing down again but from time to time we'd find a few resting on logs.

One of the treats of the holiday was spotting a Fin Whale, the second largest whale on Earth and not generally found in the spot where we saw him.

We enjoyed watching a Humpback Whale play around in a bay and we saw several others during the course of the trip. We took quite a lot of photos of Humpback Whales - please click here to see them.

The River Otters were cute

The Salmon are the reason the Bears like it here so much - gives a new meaning to fast food.

The lichen that attached itself to some of the trees looked really interesting.

The views were pretty spectacular - whichever way we looked.

The little boat at the bottom of the very long waterfall was Great Bear II, our home for the week.

We had a fabulous time on Great Bear II despite the weather. Everyone on the boat was used to travelling and, more importantly, used to animal watching and therefore nobody was expecting miracles. Before we arrived, we hoped to see Bears, Whales and Bald Eagles. We saw all of those along with many other interesting things and the scenery was stunning.

Eric is a brilliant captain, making sure that we were all safe in the high winds and torrential rain, Eloise was great crew keeping everything clean and tidy and helping us identify various birds etc. However, the best advice I can give is make sure you lose weight before you go on the trip because Trish's cooking is second to none and you will eat a lot!

Canada 2011
We'd always promised ourselves that we'd go back to Canada but it took us until now to get there. Our first holiday together was in Vancouver and on the Island - this time we started in Vancouver but then ventured further north. As seems to be usual these days, the pages needs to be split so the three sections are: Vancouver Prince Rupert Great Bear II Please click on the above to visit the pages
Our boat trip was on the Great Bear II and hosted by Eric and Trish Boyum with Eloise as crew. We were two of five guests so very well looked after.		The title of the trip was "Islands of the Spirit Bear, Waters of the Humpbacks" and within a few hours of leaving Hartley Bay we had spotted both a Spirit Bear and a Humpback Whale.
	This Spirit Bear is seen fairly regularly by the team. As you can imagine, we took several hundred photos of Spirit Bears so I've put a whole load of them on a separate page. Please click here to see that page.

		We were hoping to see Humpbacks bubble feeding - this one was on his own which makes bubble feeding pretty difficult but he had a go.
	Over the next few days (when the weather allowed) we spent quite a bit of time on the Zodiac exploring to see what we could find. Many of the places we visited are to be kept secret so the bears aren't disturbed too much so rather than putting the photos in chronological order with named locations I've put them in animal / topic order. First of all I'll introduce the Gang.
On the immediate right is Eloise, our biologist and assistant to Trish and Eric. On the far right, with me, are Trish and Eric, our hosts.
	Our fellow guests were Sam, Tink and Donna. First Donna, in yellow ...
... then Tink and finally Sam
	The man in the photo on the left is Eric - our host. He'd crossed the creek to see if there were any fresh bear tracks but sadly not that day.
Donna	Eloise	Trish
Trish		Sam
Sam & Donna	Tink
Sam	Eric	Donna
	The hot springs were very welcome after a very wet day bear watching
Jonathon & Tink	Sam
Eric set the crab traps so we could have Dungeness Crab for tea one night (so successful we had crab for lunch the following day as well!). After a quick lesson from Eric, I soon learned how to eat them. It was just as delicious as the rest of the food on the boat - simply scrummy - dread to think how much weight we put on but Trish's cooking could not be resisted!

Eric delivering our luggage to the sea plane	Trish	Eric, Trish & Eloise waving us goodbye as we left Hartley Bay
With storm warnings all around us, we didn't know whether we'd be able to get out of the "Wilderness" and back to Prince Rupert. To make things safer, Eric moored up in Hartley Bay for our final night. It gave us the opportunity to have a quick look around before we left (thankfully the winds abated for enough time for us to leave).		Hartley Bay is a small community where everyone is very friendly, even the dogs it seems.
	No cars are to be found in Hartley Bay - the main mode of transport along the boardwalks are these quad bikes with a golf cart acting as a bus for those who need it.


	There's a big movement in this area to try and stop new tanker traffic. The tankers (and there would be many of them) would go through the areas we visited and you will see from the views at the bottom of this page that that would be a travesty. We were told that none of the First Nations communities support the new tanker route so hopefully for them, the animals and the countryside around they will win their battle to block it.
	The sea plane arrived much to our relief (not that we wanted to leave but we couldn't afford to miss our various flights back to London). For the Norberts amongst us, the sea plane we went out on was a Beaver and this one was an Otter. Once again, Jonathon sat up front with the pilot. I've added a few views from the plane in the views section at the bottom of the page.
Back to the wildlife and Bald Eagles come first, lots of them. The juveniles don't have the white heads but they are still pretty huge.








		The picture on the left is more to show we saw some blue skies between the rain!
Bonaparte's Gull	There were loads of Gulls of different species. Most of the photos are on a separate page - please click here for those photos.	Herring Gull
The Steller's Jays were lovely and blue....

	... the Belted Kingfisher was very fast ...
... this Sandpiper was tiny (we think this one might be a juvenile but there were lots of adult ones at Hartley Bay). The adults were a lot noisier than the juvenile - possibly because there were so many of them ...

	... the American Dippers were really tiny as well - but very chatty ...

... and the Geese were very Canadian.

	Funny how I don't mind Heron (Great Blue Heron in this case) when they're not trying to eat our fish
		The Common Merganser look anything but common!


		Jonathon saw them on a separate trip and they were paddling like fury against the tide.


	These Grebe were floating around near the Humpback Whales we saw one day.

	These tiny Surf Scoters were whizzing around - also one day when we were looking for Whales and Bears. Very pretty and very fast!
Just as we were turning to go back to the boat one day, Eric spotted a Black Bear checking us out. He didn't hang around long. The Spirit Bears (aka Kermode Bears) are Black Bears with a regressive gene. When we were speaking to some of the other guests in Prince Rupert, they mentioned that they'd lived in that area for many years and not seen a Spirit Bear so we shouldn't get our hopes up too high. Goes to show how special these bears are. We saw quite a few Black Bears on different days so, again, I've popped them on a page of their own. Please click here to see that page.

Jonathon went out with the rest of the gang on one of the very rainy days whereas I stayed in the warm and dry. That meant I missed seeing a large male Grizzly Bear. Jonathon took a whole load of photos so I've put some of them on a separate page - please click here to see them.

	The Pine Martens seem to live quite happily with the Bears.
The Harbour Seals kept us entertained! They kept popping up and disappearing down again but from time to time we'd find a few resting on logs.





One of the treats of the holiday was spotting a Fin Whale, the second largest whale on Earth and not generally found in the spot where we saw him.


We enjoyed watching a Humpback Whale play around in a bay and we saw several others during the course of the trip. We took quite a lot of photos of Humpback Whales - please click here to see them.
	The River Otters were cute


	The Salmon are the reason the Bears like it here so much - gives a new meaning to fast food.
The lichen that attached itself to some of the trees looked really interesting.
The views were pretty spectacular - whichever way we looked.







The little boat at the bottom of the very long waterfall was Great Bear II, our home for the week.



















We had a fabulous time on Great Bear II despite the weather. Everyone on the boat was used to travelling and, more importantly, used to animal watching and therefore nobody was expecting miracles. Before we arrived, we hoped to see Bears, Whales and Bald Eagles. We saw all of those along with many other interesting things and the scenery was stunning. Eric is a brilliant captain, making sure that we were all safe in the high winds and torrential rain, Eloise was great crew keeping everything clean and tidy and helping us identify various birds etc. However, the best advice I can give is make sure you lose weight before you go on the trip because Trish's cooking is second to none and you will eat a lot!	The rain was good for something then!
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