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Fam Tours
What’s a Fam Tour? That was my first reaction when I was starting this business. It’s short for Familiarization Tour in the tourism business. This is a free or reduced rate tour that is offered to travel professionals like travel writers so that they can become familiar with a destination, or a tour company.
I use them in a bit of a different way. I offer free trips to local hotel and motel owners and bed and breakfast owners on a given day in early-mid spring. It’s a great way to get them enthusiastic about both what there is to see in and around the Alberni Valley and about what Rainbird Excursions offers. It also gets them networking with each other. and I think they enjoy that. And it gives busy people a bit of a break away from the everyday stresses and strains of their businesses.
This year the Rainbird Fam Tour was a bear watching tour. The weather was fantastic! but there were a few glitches. One of the guests was very late in showing up.
The tour finally got underway and we had a great walk along the pipeline at the Somass Estuary. But when it cam time to leave I found a gate shut blocking us in. This was very unexpected. I have been there many, many times and it has never been closed except in the evening or on a religious holiday. fortunately we could bet out another way. however, then a logging road that I had checked to make sure was open was blocked. Four very large boulders blocked the way! Oh well. Where’s plan B!
Plan B was to travel down the the Alberni Inlet to the Nahmint River. I expected to see bears along the way as we travel quite slowly due to the bends and roughness of the road. We had many excellent views of the Alberni Inlet, found some culturally-modified trees and had a wonderful lunch at the Mactush camp site. But we only saw one bear.
Ironically, the following week my wife and I went to Tofino. On the way there, right beside the highway, was a young Black Bear, a yearling. It spent the entire day munching grass by the side of the road and posing for tourists. I was amazed at how unconcerned it seemed to be when people approached within 25 feet (8 meters).
