Saturday 12th July: The bear had felt so at home he had organised a toilet spot

Mikko insisted that before we could call it a day we had to explore our little island, all 500 sq m of it

Actually in a rainforest quite a lot can be crammed into 500 sq m. Like the leftovers of two of someone’s deer dinners and a shitload of bear shit.

It dawned upon us that some bear or other was particular about this place. There were a lot of signs of foraging for roots etc.

But what made us pause was the fact that it had chosen a particular small dump as a toilet spot. And loaded it. Not something you do if you just happen to pass through.

There obviously was a bear out there that considered this home.

However, he wasn’t home just now. And judging from the shit he hadn’t been here for some time. He had probably done what bears do in July around here: “gone fishing”.

Probably. But just in case we put up two alarms on the spit of land that was the only dry entry to the island. Yes, we know that bears can swim, but why waste the calories if you can walk?

Then it was “lights out” for a night of light sleep.

But no alarms. The bear had really gone fishing.