From a safe vantage point, Sue Wallace is enthralled by Canadian grizzlies in their natural habitat.
Just in front of us, two grizzly bears effortlessly toss heavy boulders along the beach like they are marbles as they scavenge for food and enjoy the sunshine. They are determined to make up for lost time after long months of hibernation and no one can take their eyes off them.
Our small boat with a party of six is anchored in British Columbia's spectacular Knight Inlet, home to many grizzlies. Guide Howard Pattinson and his son, Lindsey, are experts when it comes to these bears and tell us to sit back and expect the unexpected.
Another big grizzly heads down the beach to hunt for food and then another lopes down to the beach, and another.
"We are in for a great day," says Howard, who operates bear-watching tours from the quaint boardwalk town of Telegraph Cove, on Vancouver Island.
Despite having more than 15 years' experience with bears, Pattinson says every day is different.
"Often it is mothers and cubs, adult males, single young adults, who come by and take turns fishing and hunting for food at the hotspots - they know we are here, grizzlies are masters at pretending that we are not here," he says. "They will give you the bum-end view to ignore you but they know we are watching them."
Knight Inlet, about a 90-minute boat trip from Telegraph Cove, is one of the largest fiords on the British Columbia coastline and the Glendale River and estuary are renowned for their large concentration of grizzly bears. Access is available only by boat or seaplane.
The pursuit of bear watching plays out amid spectacular scenery where snow-capped mountains give way to steep cliffs covered in green cedar trees, strips of rocky beach and bright-blue glacier-fed waters.
Pattinson explains the life cycle of these bears, which hibernate from late November to April and, as the snows melt, emerge from their dens on the mountain slopes and make their way down to feed on the spring sedge grasses in the river lowlands.
At low tide they feed along the inlet beaches, eating seaweed and turning over rocks to find crabs, eels, barnacles and mussels. Many of the young bears are blond in the spring and their coats turn darker during the season. "Bears are conserving energy this time of the year and they get up late and take siestas whenever they feel safe," Pattinson explains.
The mating season is from late May to June. Mid-July is the season of cubs scrambling along behind their mums as they first explore their wilderness home.
"Mum is very protective of her cubs as she teaches them bear survival," says Pattinson, who has seen many cubs die from a blow from a big boar (a male grizzly).
Right on cue, we watch two cubs appear from behind a boulder and tumble over rocks and driftwood. They are putting on a show but their mother is wary of any noise and soon herds them off into the forest.
Pattinson, who is armed with bear pepper spray just in case, reminds us that as cute as they appear, they can be dangerous.
"Our tours are not bear whispering tours," he says. "We consider grizzly bears to be wild animals, wanting to be unmolested as they feed."
At lunchtime we motor out further from the shore so the bears won't get a whiff of our sandwiches. The last thing you want is bears associating the smell of people with the smell of human food.
"Food-conditioned bears are often shot because they aggressively seek out human food or garbage, so we are very careful," Pattinson tells us.
By mid-August the salmon are running in the river mouth and bears chase fish around in the low-tide pools. Bears need to pile on fat for winter hibernation and grizzlies are drawn to the river by the smell of fish.
Pattinson says every bear has its own preferred fishing technique. Some like to stand up and pounce when an unsuspecting salmon goes by and other bears run around trying to corner salmon against the bank. Others use less energy and snorkel along at a leisurely pace, snatching up remains of partly eaten fish.
"The big bears hog the hot spots, growling off any newcomers," Pattinson says.
"There is plenty of fish but grizzly bears get annoyed when another bear approaches.
"Bears fight but they have evolved ways not to get hurt. They look as if they are dancing the salsa at times and when the big boars are around, the cubs stay close to mum."
Our bear encounter over, we return to Telegraph Cove, which has a permanent population of 20 in winter; numbers swell in spring and summer as holidaymakers come to see whales, bears and fish.
Tucked away on the northern coast of Vancouver Island, it is a virtually untouched area of North America and a paradise for nature lovers and anglers. The tiny sawmill and cannery community, built on stilts and connected to the mainland by a boardwalk, was established as a telegraph station in 1911. In 1920 a Japanese salmon saltery and a sawmill to cut logs for boxes to ship the salmon were built.
The original boardwalk cabins have been restored and each has its own story - legend has it a cougar was shot under one of them years ago.
After an exhilarating day, we head to the Old Saltery Pub and Killer Whale Cafe for fish and chips and swap stories with anyone who will listen.
The writer was a guest of Canadian Tourism and Tourism British Columbia.
TRIP NOTES
Getting there
Air Canada flies non-stop from Sydney to Vancouver, phone 1300 655 767, see aircanada.com. From Vancouver you can fly to Campbell River and then rent a car, to avoid the ferry.
Staying there
Telegraph Cove Resorts has self-contained restored cabins on a boardwalk and a camping site, see telegraphcoveresort.com.
Bear tours
Tide Rip Grizzly Tours offers day trips from Telegraph Cove. Grizzly bear expeditions run from May 15 to September 20 for $C250 ($300) a person. Grizzly bear and salmon tours run from August 25 to October 10 for $C360. There's a 98 per cent success rate on bear sightings in May and 100 per cent in June.
Further information
See tiderip.com.
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