Photo: The suitably remote Kennel Creek Refuge Cabin

We quickened our pace because we'd now lost sight of the bear, it could be anywhere close by concealed in the undergrowth. Our only safe option was to hide inside the Kennel Creek Cabin still around a hundred yards away, we could then bolt the door and stay hidden. Henry impatiently urged us to hurry quickly whilst Dave had his taser ready... not that his ridiculous taser had ever proven any good. We raced to the cabin and thankfully found the door unlocked.

Being a two storey cabin Henry argued we'd be safer upstairs on the upper floor... especially after flipping his lid when discovering the internal door bolt was a flimsy little clasp that'd not even hold a mouse at bay. Dave laughed, saying the grizzly was long gone by now and that we were stupid. Then a heavy noise outside on the lower veranda made us turn to look in alarm... sure enough there was the large brown grizzly staring at us through the window. Without a second glance or a moments hesitation we raced up the wooden stairs to the upper floor. There, we looked at each other realising just how stupid we were... the bear could easily knock down the door then follow us up the stairs - what would we do then? So Henry had another plan, there was a second glass door leading outside on to the balcony so we hurried out there, closing shut the balcony door behind us hoping that would be enough...

I looked down over the balcony and there was the grizzly just a couple of feet below, it looked up as I looked down. Henry then had another dicky-fit saying the bear could easily climb the balcony which, thinking about it now, wouldn't have been a huge problem for a full sized male bear. Then it stood on its hind legs which brought its nose roughly in line with the balcony where we stood worryingly petrified. It sniffed, stood down and then ambled off unconcerned before disappearing into the bushes. And that was it. It was gone.

We'd first spotted the grizzly prowling the shoreline of Freshwater Bay. The three of us, Henry, Dave and myself were picking wild strawberries without paying too much attention to what was around. Dave saw the bear first heading in our direction although we weren't sure if it was aware of us or not. Afterwards we stayed inside the safety of the cabin for easily an hour or so because we had no idea where the bear was. Then we left, tentatively keeping a keen lookout, firing off the taser every few moments just to make sure...

The locals in the Icy Straits Lodge Bar said we were foolish, we should carry guns. We're English we said, we don't carry guns...

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