Timing is everything.
Much to our disbelief the sightings of bears along the river at Bella Coola dried up this week. The Salmon run came to an end a week to ten days ago, and then a flood a few days ago swept the dead and dying salmon out of the river. As a result, there was no food left for the bears so they had abandoned the river just as we arrived. It's hugely frustrating as there are looks of bears around in the valley and we keep meeting people who have stumbled over bears along the main road or in town.
After 24 hours of complete deflation we heard reports of an ongoing Sockeyed salmon run about 4 hours away along the Chilko River. After a fair amount of internet research and several phone calls we're now booked in for a day of bear photography on the Chilko Lake. We're feeling quite excited again, after all the whole reason for this trip was to photograph Grizzly bears. Hopefully the next blog update will include a photo of a very large bear :o)
It's such a shame not to have seen the bears in Bella Coola as the setting was so beautiful and atmospheric. Hey ho.