8 | Tuesday, June 18, 2013 travel

If you godown tothe woodsSuzanne Morphet enjoys more than the bear necessities on awildlife-filled wilderness cruise in British Columbia

(Clockwise from top); Youngbears in theNekite River;travellerswithMaple Leafcruises; awolf catchessalmon in theGreat BearRainforest; the river oxbowsamid dense forest. Pictures /Supplied; Kevin J. Smith, Maple

Leaf Adventures

‘‘We won’t see wolves,’’said our captain em-phatically early inour voyage into theGreat BearRainforest on

Canada’s West coast. No problem; most of our smallgroup have come for the scenery and the bears,either the grizzly bears behind the area’s name,or the white spirit bears that live nowhere else inthe world.

Wolves thrive here too, but they’re elusive andrarely seen. So as we left the mother ship on ourthird evening and puttered to shore in zodiacs,bears were top of mind.

The mouth of the Kynoch River is about 600kmnorth-west of Vancouver, within the FiordlandRecreation Area, a part of the GreatBear Rainforest where glaciersgouged deep inlets long ago,and granite walls tower1000m above the water.It’s also prime grizzlybear habitat.

In late June, thegrasses and sedgesin the river’s estu-ary form a brilliantgreen carpet.Bears spend theirdays digging uproots and tearingoff shoots whilewaiting for salmonto return to the riverin late summer.

‘‘Don’t point if yousee one,’’ warned ournaturalist, Briony Penn.‘‘Your arm looks like a rifle andthey’ve seen that before, sadly.’’Instead, Penn shows us how to signala bear by putting her fists on top of her head tolook like ears.

A few years ago, a conservation group boughtthe guide-outfitter’s licence for this part of thecoast, abruptly ending bear-hunting by foreigners.Since then, bears have become bolder, no longerhiding from people, according to our captain,Kevin Smith. ‘‘They’re not the scary animal thatHollywood would like you to believe,’’ adds Smith,who’s been sailing this coast as owner of the MapleLeaf for the past 10 years.

Earlier, he guided us ashore where we exploredthe estuary, saw grizzly tracks, examined tufts ofbear hair caught on tree bark and poked at bearscat with a stick. We’ve seen everything but a bearitself.

So when a deer races out of the estuary pursuedby a black and tawny wolf in full flight, we’regobsmacked. A wolf? This wasn’t on the agenda!

Of course, there’s no agenda when you’re in thewild and the Maple Leaf is not like a cruise shipthat always knows where it will be on any givenday. All Smith had promised was to put us ‘‘in thepath of magic and let it happen’’.

It’s happening now. ‘‘Run deer, run!’’ I urgesilently, not sure why I’m siding with the deer.Wolves are efficient killers, but soon, the wide-eyeddeer reaches deep water and swims safely to thefar side of the inlet.

The wolf gives up, but instead of disappearinginto the bush, he paces the rocky shoreline forseveral minutes. If a wolf can scowl, this one isscowling. Our adrenaline pumping, we’re nowfully alert to the possibilities this remote rainforestoffers. Bigger than Switzerland, with snow-cappedmountains, fast-flowing rivers, cascading water-falls and 1000-year-old cedar trees — not to mentionbears, wolves, whales and other wildlife — it’s anaturalist’s paradise, a throwback to ourprelapsarian world.

The next morning we eat Mexican-stylescrambled eggs and toast on deck

under a blue sky. The Beattlesare singing Here Comes The

Sun from the wheelhouseand First Mate Greg

Shea is hauling in twocrab traps

squirming withlife.

‘‘Those are thebiggest crabs I’veever seen,’’exclaims ourchef, Steve Letts,as Smith reachesin, pulls two out

and holds them upfor inspection. We

count 24, all withshells at least six

inches across, the mini-mum legal size for eating.

But Smith is feeling generousand throws the smallest one

back. ‘‘Don’t mess with us again!’’ hequips.

That night we feast on butter-drenched crab.We’ve been eating so much seafood — prawns andsalmon were on the menu earlier — that we’rerunning short on white wine.

‘‘Dreary and uninteresting,’’ wrote CaptainGeorge Vancouver when he charted this coastlinemore than 200 years ago. Obviously, the greatmapmaker didn’t have nearly as much fun as we’rehaving, and understandably.

Vancouver’s four-year expedition was filledwith hardships we can only begin to imagine. Hisship, Discovery, ran aground on a falling tide andcame close to being flooded; one of his officers diedafter eating mussels that were likely contaminatedby ‘‘red tide’’ or algal bloom (we pass the bay wherehe’s buried); and Vancouver’s boat was cramped,with more than 100 men sharing living quarters.

There’s only 14 of us on the Maple Leaf — nineguests and five crew. It’s a comfortable 92-foot, two-masted wooden schooner, with space on deck tolounge on warm days and cosy rooms below deckto escape bad weather.

When it was built in 1904 the Maple Leaf was

considered the most luxurious pleasure craft onthe Pacific Coast. She even had electric lighting.During World War I her lead keel and brass wereremoved for the war effort. Later, she wasconverted to a halibut liner, where she repeatedlyoutfished newer boats in the Bering Sea.

‘‘We never saw the Maple Leaf but heard all thestories about her,’’ recalls Donalda Redford, whohas fished along this coast with her husband formore than 20 years and is now on-board to exploreit again, this time in style.

The Maple Leaf was restored as a pleasure craftin the early 1980’s and today her sleek lines,

travel Tuesday, June 18, 2013 | 9

ChecklistBRITISHCOLUMBIAGETTINGTHERE:AirNewZealandhas threedirect flights aweek fromAuckland toVancouver.Seewww.airnz.co.nz

GETTINGAROUNDMaple LeafAdventuresoffers summer trips to theGreat BearRainforest.www.mapleleafadventures-.com for schedules.WhiskeyCoveBedandBreakfast andCabinRentalis a funplace to stay thenight before youboard theMaple Leaf .

ONLINE:www.greatbeartours.com;www.hellobc.com

Vancouver

Calgary

BritishColumbia

Canada

GreatBearRainforest

gleaming white exterior and mahogany trim getadmiring looks whenever she pulls into port.

Our only port of call is Klemtu, a small FirstNations settlement of 420 people. We need to re-fill our water tank. We visit their Big House wherepotlatches take place, breathe in its sweet cedarscent, learn about the family clans — wolf, raven,eagle and whale — and admire carved totem poles.

On our fifth evening, we finally meet our firstbears; a mother and her cub. It’s not the heart-in-the-throat experience we had with the wolf, but it’sexhilarating in a different way. They’re grazingpeacefully in an estuary and show no fear as we

sit watching from a few metres away. When theyswim past us an hour later, they’re so close we cansee milk on the cub’s muzzle from nursing.

‘‘Don’t look at your watch,’’ Joan Langley tellsDonalda after a late four-course dinner to celebrateour last night together. Seventy-five-year oldDonalda is usually the first one to bed; 73-year oldJoan, from Massachusetts, is one of the last in thesack. A few photographers on board have puttogether a slide show and want everyone to watch.

We oooh and aaah as our week flashes by — thewolf chasing the deer, the mother bear standingon hind legs, dall’s porpoises playing in the boat’s

wake. We laugh at Mark and Briony jumping offthe bowsprit for an early morning swim, Gregpulling in an empty crab trap, Steve sucking thebrains out of freshly caught prawns. We re-immerse ourselves in natural hot springs, revisitthe Big House and re-hoist Maple Leaf’s sails.Snowy mountain peaks, emerald green estuaries,red-headed mergansers and red-footed pigeonguillemots come and go.

It was a smorgasbord and now we’re sated, readyfor home but grateful for a week in paradise.● Suzanne Morphet was a guest of Maple LeafAdventures.