Driven on by a jet hundreds of miles south of normal, the small low brought cloud for much of the day to Beenham as it moved ENE'wards. Stats: Overnight low 11C, high 17C, rainfall 2mm, thicnkess: 548 dam.

13C, a light breeze and mostly overcast - those were the conditions that greeted me as I reversed from the drive and left Leysdown behind.

I sailed along the motorway network, breezed through Bracknell and arrived at the Trust at just after 10. With an hour to go until cleaning time, that meant I had the perfect excuse to go wolf watching! Camera in hand, I zipped down to see Kodiak and Kenai. Much to my delight, Kodiak bounded over, closely followed by his sister - yes, Kenai's finally healed and her cone has gone.

After some to-ing and froing, the wolves all started howling, led (I think) by Kodiak. Kenai's long, deep howl stood out for me, but by the time I'd gone back to the car to get my Psion (to record it), they'd stopped. Bah! What's more fun is they started again as I went back to them, sans Psion. However, that did give me a rare chance to snap a photo of Kodiak howling:

Taking advantage of things, I hopped over the safety fence and said hello to Duma and Dakota. I've got tons of shots of the pair, but this one of Dakota really stood out. Shame about her ears, but when you're fiddling around inches from a wolf it's not always easy to frame the shot!

I then headed back to the Obersvation Room to meet up with the rest of the crew, but enroute I said "hi" to the Europeans.

Here's Alba, with his sister Lunca not far away:

The two of them had great fun sniffing me, but I've not stroked them - not yet, anyway.

We cleared up the sleeping quarters as usual, and this time Duma and Dakota had hidden tons of (raw) meat in amongst their straw bedding. It seems they weren't hungry, and just like their wild cousins they cached the meat for future use.

It was then time for the walk - and this time I went along. I was on car duty today, so for the first hour I watched the leaden skies with interest, it had been pretty much overcast since I pulled up at the Trust. After an hour, I was relieved of duty (thanks to a wonderful guy called Mick, who was covering for some others who didn't show up). I zoomed through the forest to find the 25 walkers listening to Sue, one of the seniors, who was giving a talk. Before I could listen in, I had to "check in" with the wolves - holding a fist out so they could sniff me. Indeed, Duma raised her head and almost bumped me on my nose with her own nose, a wonderful sight.

We then went around the pond, up over a hill... and then it was another one of those amazing moments that I'll remember for the rest of my life. I was asked which wolf I'd handled last time (Dakota), and then it was decided I should take Duma for the last section of the walk. So, with all my attention focused on her, I lead her (or rather was lead by her) for 10 minutes or so, learning all sorts of bits on the way. Holding a wolf is actually much more complicated than it may seem, and indeed it really does require most of your attention. Most, as I nearly tripped up twice on some stumps, being too focused on what Duma was doing!

As the end of the walk approached, I handed back control and Duma was taken off to the trailer for the journey back.

Back to the Trust, and the skies cleared a bit - the sun felt really quite strong, certainly strong enough to melt chocolate hobnob biscuits! The public went down to see the other wolves, and this time I threw caution to the wind and hopped over the safety fence. To my delight, I managed to stroke Kenai, and Dakota - both of whom came over to me once I crouched down. As a final fling, after everyone else had gone back to the main building, two members asked me about Duma. Amazingly enough, she quite happily came over and was given a good scratching by me while I was answering questions. And just as those two folks were leaving, the wolves started howling, for a good 3 or 4 minutes - I think that really made their day.

Then it was time to head for home, and by then the skies were becoming really quite menacing. I went once again to Kodiak's enclosure and (as the wolves were the other side) I stuck the lens through the mesh and got a picture of Kenai as she trotted over:

However, with this little lot heading my way, I decided to call it a day:

Back through Bracknell, along the M3, M25, M26 and M20, then back to the soggy Isle of Sheppey... Soggy, as it looked like a heavy rain shower had just stopped. Indeed, to the east the skies were pretty black, wheras to the west... well, this picture is worth a thousand words:

With a faint rainbow in the east, it marked an end to a truly wonderful day!

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