Monday, October 09, 2006
You are in bear country
Well, not wanting to be accused of being too snobby to slum it, Rhod and I decided to embrace the Rockies and stay for 2 nights in a 'wilderness' hostel. (This decision was actually forced upon us by the fact that there were no vacancies anywhere else for a reasonable price.) Anyway, all we knew was that these hostels were a bit off the beaten track and didn't have all the usual facilities that most city hostels have. Fine, we thought. No problem.Well the brochure didn't lie but it also didn't tell us the whole truth. We were to be deprived not only of hot showers but of any sort of showers at all for 2 whole days! If you wanted to brave the loo it was a dash across the car park to some outdoor ones with no lights. Oh and don't forget that we are in bear country.
The only bonus was that the first hostel had a sauna, one that you had to share with a cold squirrel who had no intention of being moved on. Luckily we didn't meet a bear on our pitch black trips to the loos having been so careful to hide all our food in the cupboards in the kitchen. The downside of this however was a knawed loaf of bread and a half-eaten cereal bar the following morning by a slightly smaller animal.
We haven't seen a bear yet. I think it will be great to see one but I'm hoping we are sat in the car at the time. The thought of rounding the corner on a scenic alpine hiking trail and being confronted by a 300kg Grizzly does not sit easily in my head. We are following the rules when we walk and making noise every few minutes to alert the bears to our prescence. Apparently if one looks like it's about to attack us we should lay face down on the floor and play dead. I'm not sure my sense of self-preservation will allow me to do that.
# posted by Rhodri @ 12:05 am 
