We are still trying to adjust to the time zone! Last night we had just under 4 hours sleep waking at 2 am (1100 am UK time). I made us cups of tea then put on the TV just after 3.45am to find, as I flicked through the channels @ 65, an NBC channel showing the British Grand Prix, so we watched a typical summer cloud burst and the cars start in the wet under the safety car! After 5am I headed to the gym and continued to watch the Grand Prix while exercising - and celebrated a Hamilton win - perhaps a good omen for British Sport and Wimbledon in particular.
I was channel hopping towards the end of the Grand Prix as Murray had started playing Ranoic in the Wimbledon final. I returned to the room in the early stages of the first set then saw him win the first, at a suitable break I showered, then saw him start the second set. We opted to head to breakfast hoping we would return to further success. As we got back we saw him win the second then third sets..he won....a brilliant achievement, a real testament to hard graft and well deserved.
I then rang to check our pick up time with Andrews Airways as today we are off to Katmai Wilderness Lodge. They confirmed an 1130 pickup and a 1230 flight - bears are not far away now!
With the timing this gave us a chance to watch Heather Watson, with a young Finnish player, win the mixed doubles final and then the start of the Euro final between France and Portugal. What a day of sport and all before lunch....all be it's taken its toll on John who is now sleeping in the chair pre our 1125 check out!
We finally got picked up by Andrews Airways just after midday and were taken to the float plane airport - a strip of water on the other side of Near island ( connected to Kodiak by a bridge and which we walked over yesterday to get to the trails).
We were weighed, as a three - we had been joined by Remmy - a French traveller, our luggage was packed and we jumped on board the float plane.
Henny our pilot, explained the safety features and we were off down the water runway and in the air in no time.
As the weather was lovely we had scenic view of Kodiak. He explained the two types of commercial fishing - i.e. boats with big nets or lines strategically placed in water to catch the salmon
And looked after by fishermen in skiffs. We luckily spotted and had rare views of a pod of 5 fin whales before heading up a river, over lakes and then across 35 miles of open water to Katmai.
As it was low tide we had to land away from the lodge which was high & dry.
We landed by a beach and as we three got off three travellers who had just completed their stay got on. Perry the lodge manager, and a guide met us, hauled out the much welcomed lunch box and we nibbled away while he loaded the boat.
We then experienced the scenery and wildlife of the bay for the next 3 hours - as only then was the tide high enough to reach the lodge!
The sun was out so it was a beautiful warm afternoon - only chilling as the boat went faster. Our first sightings were of a red fox foraging on the seashore and a rare cross fox ( a red fox, with a recessive gene making it much darker with cross markings) having a run in with some bald eagles!
We could see some bears on the shore in the grasses, but they were a way off and as were yet to have our waders inaccessible to view properly.
We watched sea-otters, seals on a rock & then the sighting of the day, a one eared brown coastal bear, named Uno, and her two cubs who entertained us for ages- play fighting, eating, running in and out of the water to cool off, digging a hole to lie back and nurse the cubs then listening to one cub cry after mum had had enough of feeding it and wanting more, then finally slowly clambering over the rocks and disappearing. As we headed back to the lodge we saw more sea otters, murrelets resting on the ocean and a rocky outcrop with nesting black legged kittiwakes, glaucous gulls, one horned puffin, black oystercatchers and a black turnstone. Not a bad set of sightings for our first hours in Katmai!
Back on dry land we met Angela, Perry's wife, and Roger, the chef, and the other guests Felix and Sandra from Switzerland who would be with us for the next four days.
We settled in showered, enjoyed the evening sun, got kitted out with our waterproofs, had a lovely dinner and all before 8.30pm. My eyes were giving way so we headed for sleep even though the sun didn't set until 11.15pm....thank goodness for BA eyeshades.

(Today's photo is of the floatplane dock - our plane is the first one)