A few shots taken around the lodge.
The boot room made me chuckle; there is absolutely nothing to stop you falling into the estuary at the end of it.
Lodge rules are that you can walk across the metal girder bridge but not to get off the other side without a member of Lodge staff being with you.
I wonder if the water is ever warm enough to swim in.
We made the now very boring 25 min trip in the school bus again this morning for our final session but had no luck whatsoever and we just sat in the hide, bored silly. Unfortunately the weather has played a huge part in our disappointment with our few days here but whilst the location is probably ideal for covert bear watching, the huge trees all around (yes I know it's a rainforest) make for rubbish light levels.
The plane was due to come and pick us up about 15:00 but the cloud, especially back at Port Hardy, was too bad for it to fly so - hurrah - we were marooned and got to stay another night. It must have been so much extra work for all the staff, they'd already prepared the bedrooms for the incoming guests, but everyone was brilliant and just got on with it. We were more than happy as we got to spend another hilarious evening in the company of A&A enjoying good food and wine, although they did run out of Sauvignon Blanc so we had to make do with Chardonnay.
This is the little plane that came to pick up the other 3 of our group.
Our pilot was the guy who'd flown us out but this time there was no one from the lodge in the co-pilot seat so I asked him if I could sit up front, which he happily agreed to. I got in from the back as before and then climbed through the open hatch but he climbed straight in the window.
Having arrived back in Port Hardy a day late we now had a very long and time sensitive journey back to Nanaimo to catch the evening ferry back to the mainland. Unfortunately our leaders still found time for a final supermarket run and park bench lunch.
A couple of shots taken during the 2+ hour crossing.
We eventually arrived back at the Tsawwassen hotel we'd stayed in on our first night and a few of us went next door for a farewell dinner (according to Barry who we met on the Tiger Marathon trip it is a tradition that Naturetrek pays for the last meal, something he successfully pushed for in Delhi - well it didn't happen on this occasion despite us pointing out they'd saved the cost of dinner for 11 whilst we were stranded at GBL and consequently several people declined to join in).
