The small boat slows down, the engine is almost completely silent, the hull glides over the icy waters zigzagging without wavering between large and small ice islets.
The bear – an imposing male – watches us from not too far away, follows the vessel’s movement without particular interest, barely lifting his snout toward us. He feels safe.
I am lying on the deck with the telephoto lens and all my senses focused on the bear, my heart pounding. I try to live every moment, the encounter has been dreamed of too long to lose even a moment of it.
It seems impossible, but I can feel the heavy breathing of the large carnivore, at times a cloud of steam comes out of that snout smeared with the blood of the prey, a freshly caught seal. The scene has a unique and ancient flavor of primordial nature. I can’t believe my eyes and my luck, I never would have hoped for so much. I feel privileged.
There is not a sound on the ship, everyone around is in religious silence, I feel the tension of others without any need to look.
That encounter will be for me the most emotional of that trip and one of the most intense experiences in the wilderness.
