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Surprisingly little jet lag and we make the strategically correct call to be queued up at the ticket office at 8 am much to my wife’s chagrin who values her sleep ins. We only have to wait 20 minutes to gain entry. (Later in the day as we walk past the line extends back into the distance and the punters are up for a 1 ½ to 2 hour wait.) This place is gobsmackingly beautiful and massive. It is one of those places where you look around and ask yourself how did they do that in those days? The massive 90 metre dome soars 55 metres over the floor. The dome itself is an architectural marvel defying gravity by virtue of 16 ribs rising from the roof. It was the biggest church in the world at that time and it kept that title for 1000 years. In 1453 it was converted into a mosque and in 1935 a museum. Two years ago it became a mosque again. When I was here in 2018 it was still a museum and entry was by the front door to the ground level. Today tourist entry is to the second level the ground floor reserved for prayer. It is interesting to have done the two, the ground floor experience accentuates the dimensions of the place and today’s gives a prettier overview.

On a roll we high tail it to the Blue mosque and get similarly lucky with the queue again. Built between 1609 and 1620 it derives its name from the blue tiles that dominate the interior. We are lucky to see a wedding happening there in full view of hundreds of us tourists.

Now it is Suzanne’s turn to be blown away!. The grand bazaar here is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. Built in 1459 it has 61 covered streets and 4000 shops. My life partner was in 7th heaven!

A late degustation lunch and visit to the Basilica cistern completes the day. The latter was also built by Justinian in the 6th century to supply water to the Topkapi Palace. This is an intriguing otherworldly place that in all of my travels I have not seen anything like it. Since my last visit they have added some coloured lights and lit up crystals which may be “cinematically” attractive but for the purist who is more than satisfied with the historical appreciation of the place it detracts from the experience.

Our final day has us with an early morning visit to the Topkapi Palace and here it is me who is again blown away. While the sprawling palace complex is beautiful there is a particular pavilion which has a collection of incredible relics. Numerous relate to the prophet Mohammed (PBUH) but the ancient biblical stuff ranging from a pot belonging to Abraham to Moses’ staff to John the Baptist and David’s sword leaves me spellbound.

The finale has us on the “wrong side” of queue management with an hour wait to ascend the Galata Tower. Built in 1348 by the Genoese it affords lovely views over the stretch of water known as the Golden Horn to the old city.

Don’t take anything out that you don’t need and secure anything that you are carrying. These are the instructions for the Monkey Temple at Ubud, a 700 year old Balinese Hindu temple in a forest filled with sacred macaque monkeys. Monkeys with attitude and reknown for their nimble fingers. Our minibus pulls up in the heart of the complex and I am off camera in hand taking pictures. A scream suddenly pierces the silence. I turn around and see it is Suzanne, a large monkey is trying to tear off her skirt. An umbrella wielding tourist comes to the rescue and fendes off the would be simian sex offender.

Fast forward 40 years and I am reminded again of my dereliction of duty in failing to guard my spouse. Over lunch I gently suggest we revisit the monkey temple, promising to stay by her side and guard her. I can see the apprehension in her eyes but she says yes. Unsurprisingly 40 years changes a lot. We are greeted by a modern ticket office and complex with shops cafes etc. There are boardwalks in and out of the complex. This time there is evidence of food for the monkeys who are much more amiable. It is not long before Suzanne overcomes her “PTSD” and is enjoying the experience.

As we are leaving the complex there is a small booth for taking selfies with the monkeys for a fee. The sign said closed but, comically there is a monkey lying there relaxed. Presumably this is his gig. Soon a crowd gathers and we are all taking selfies.

While there are some picturesque spots with Hindu statues and architecture, most of the town here is cafes and tourist shops. There is little here that would entice me to come back to Bali. And our 2 days here is just the right amount of time. 

This series of pictures shows the sequence from a catch to kill to feed for a grizzly. Remember that these animals hibernate for around 6 months of every year. Hence during the warmer months top priority for bears is to stuff themselves with as much food as possible. They need to gain hundreds of pounds in weight at this time to survive the hibernation. Bears are omnivores but clearly the best chance of gaining the required weight is with oily, fat rich salmon which swim from the sea upstream for hundreds of kilometres to spawn before dying.

This is where Katmai is so special. The river here is close enough to the sea to sea massive numbers of salmon here, Then there is the small but significant interruption to their passage that is Brooks Falls which further concentrates the salmon numbers resulting in a veritable smorgasbord for bears.

Finally there is a pattern to eating these fish that is common to all of these bears. Once caught the first bite will be to the head to extract the fatty brain tissue first. Then the skin is stripped off and eaten as all the fat is beneath the skin and that’s what they after. Early in the season there is so much fat on the salmon that they will often discard the meat. Later in the season all of the fish is consumed.

The year is 1912, coincidentally the year of the Titanic sinking but a bigger disaster befell the planet with the second largest ever volcanic eruption on the planet occurring right here. The source was Katmai volcano erupting through a side vent a few miles away now known as Novarupta volcano. The resultant ash cloud went 20 miles into the air and was visible from Europe. Millions of tons of ash were dumped for miles around and the extra carbon in the atmosphere lowered global temperatures by 2 degrees celsius for the next 2 years. In 1918 this area was proclaimed a national park to preserve and study the area of the eruption. Paradoxically national park status has nothing to do with the bear show.

For the next 30 years the devastated area all around sported over 10,000 fumeroles belching out sulphurous gas hence the name. Sadly that has petered out but the day trip out here does not disappoint. Sadly the weather is not kind but I did use the available sunshine to the max yesterday and I can’t complain. At least the rain did not interfere with walking and photography. The cloud, while obscuring the ring of volcanoes was at least high enough to allow for some pictures of the moonscape like lava ash fields.

Throughout August in the lead up to coming here every day I would log onto the live bear cam feed online before starting work each day and then having a quick look at what was happening between patients. August is said to be unimpressive yet every day I would see at least 3 bears at the Brooks Falls camera. I booked for the month of September as that has better bear viewing and as I logged on to bear cam in September bear numbers seemed to have doubled or tripled and the bright sunshine was obvious. My first afternoon here was bright and sunny and I made the most of it knowing that the forecast for the next 2 days was for rain.

The walk from the lodge to Brooks Falls takes around 20 minutes. Walking alone has me at a disadvantage and I follow the rangers advice that human noise is a deterrent and I talk mindlessly out aloud to noone as I go there. I arrive at Brooks Falls around 1 in the afternoon and there is one massive bear at the far end of the falls. Finding a nice front row spot on the platform I enjoy watching this well fed guy bide his time before wandering to his favourite pool and catching a large deep pink salmon in his mouth and wandering to the shallows to eat up. I watch him repeat this ritual over and over again. Secretly I was a bit disappointed that there was only one there but what the heck, I had never seen one in the wild before so I was not going to be greedy.

Grizzly bears are crepuscular animals, are active around dawn and dusk, but this park with its high food environment changes those rules. The wild salmon run from the sea upstream to spawn before dying. The peak months here are July and September in those months bears are here feeding all day. My log on time for bear cam in Sorrento was 9am which is 3 pm here. Come 3 pm the number of bears here had increased to 7 and the bears were all over the place, mainly fishing but wandering over and under the falls, jostling for position. Wow, what a show, under brilliant sunny skies the camera got a real work out.

 

Eventually after over 3 hours of bear watching and sated, I determined to make use of the brilliant sunshine and do the walk up Dumpling Hill to get the panoramic view of the lake and the mountains. Walking solo, through the forest past lots of smelly bear scats and in the late afternoon it is anxious couple of hours of chatter and song up and down the mountain but the views and pictures more than make up for it.