Alaska is the ultimate big wilderness - no inhabited area on planet earth comes close; a land mass of 1.7 million square kilometer with a population of around 700,000 people – quite a contrast to India’s population of 1.2 billion living in over 3.2 million square kilometer or Dharavi’s 800,000 people living in just 2.4 square kilometer.
After last year’s trip to Kaktovik in October with windy conditions in temperatures at minus ten degrees, this trip in the Alaskan summer to photograph grizzly bears catching spawning salmon was supposed to be relatively easy. It would all begin with as per the tour itinerary – five days of trekking to photograph big brown bears catching salmon in remote Alaska. It was going to be less than a twenty minute walk every day to the bears who were supposed to be there in abundance.
Then just before we landed there, the weather changed.
So here we were on day zero being kitted up for the next day - “those shoes you have won’t work in Alaska, those rain pants are no good for walking through flowing rivers...”, said a wrinkled old man named Cliff, as he fitted us up with waders and wading boots for day one. The grizzlies were a maximum of 20 minutes from the lake where the sea-plane would drop us – that’s what we were told.
Come day one and there I was wading in ice cold water to board a sea-plane (with Daryl and a few other people) which would take me to a lake from where we were supposed to walk to the bears. I had no clue of the terrain or the weather conditions except that it may be raining and a bit cold. What followed was sheer agony.
The seaplane dropped us at a small lake - we had to jump into the lake with our waders on, form a human chain, and pass all our camera bags to the shore. And that was just the beginning.
My first step on the mossy tundra in those rented shoes which were a size too big involved landing with my foot at right angles to my leg, and I knew my shoes were a problem. The winds were blowing at gale force (30-35 knots per hour or around 55-65 kmph) and the rain was horizontal. A big camera backpack and tripod didn’t do the city-body any good, also, walking on one’s ankles isn’t exactly a pleasant experience.
A good 2.5 miles it was before we sighted our first bear – and we still laboured on a step at a time. We had to roll down a really steep 20 feet embankment to reach them at eye level. You walk to the bears in the excitement of reaching them. It is once you are there that you realize that the trek to them was optional – the walk back is mandatory.
What follows are photos of over 2-3 days of excruciating hikes over terrain which can best be described as walking on wet sponge with embedded bowling balls (someone else’s description).
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