Grizzly

A great bit about a Grizzly Bear in the Sunday Times

"THE PROBLEM with binoculars, though, is that they do tend to distract from the unmagnified world around you. The bear was no more than 40 yards away when I shot to my feet with an unpublishable flurry, hand wobbling over the bear spray like a novice gunfighter. Jet black, but with the distinctive hunchback of a grizzly, it was strolling towards the river, nose down for dinner. My stumbling announced that there was company, he looked up, and our gazes met in stillness. For an unforgettable instant, I stared into those eyes, two unfathomable, pristine black pools, awash with . . . well, with complete and utter indifference. With boredom, in fact, at yet another scrawny, meat-free, scarcely-worth-killing hiker making a racket and scaring away the real food. The bear silently hung a left, moved on over the river and followed his nose west, never giving me another thought. "

Pity we don't have Grizzlies in this country, it would add a certain frisson to a ramble.