Journey to Churchill

In July 2012, my unit took the unbelievably long train ride up to Churchill, Manitoba. Since I am going back there for a couple days this summer (by plane, thankfully) I thought I'd share a bit of our trip last year:

After a two-day train ride, looking out your window and seeing nothing but prairie, we arrived in Churchill. We got on a little bus and rode to the Northern Studies Centre. It's a great new building that is big and bright. It has an awesome "Aurora Dome", a spiral staircase leading to a large bubble in the roof. It made for a great place to read and relax. After a quick tour around the Centre and a quick explanation of how to avoid being eaten by a polar bear we built model rockets and went outside to launch them. Anytime we walked outside, a fair distance from any building or safe structure, we were accompanied by a person with a rifle: our polar bear protection. It was a little odd at first, but it was nice knowing there was someone looking out for you. We all wanted to see a polar bear, maybe not while we were launching model rockets, but at some point during our trip. You see, there was a "Polar Bear Sightings" whiteboard inside the centre and we were determined to write on that board... even though everyone told us our chances of seeing a polar bear were slim. Well, we didn't see one polar bear on our trip, we saw three!

Looking down into the main entrance of the Studies Centre

The steps up to the Aurora Dome

The Aurora Dome had a beautiful view of the sky!

These signs were all over the place. I was very happy when we went shopping and found a crest that resembles these signs

Our first polar bear sighting was while we were Beluga Whale watching. After watching the playful white whales and their adorable grey baby's, our tour guide took us for a tour of Prince of Wales Fort. We were accompanied by two men, one who I nicknamed "Ranger Gord" (a Canada Parks officer) and the other riding a quad. They both told us to keep an eye out for polar bears since they seemed to frequent this particular area. As luck would have it, we did! It was a fair distance away, on Eskimo Point, so we quickly and quietly jogged back to our boat, hopped in, and went to get a closer look at our first polar bear. Although we got a little closer in our boat the polar bear was still extremely far away and tiny looking; only a camera with an incredible zoom could get a half decent picture. Still, we had accomplished our goal: we saw a polar bear.

Belugas

Prince of Wales Fort

Inside the Fort

I Spy with my little eye a polar bear... Can you spot it?

Our next polar bear sighting had to be the most exciting. That day we got on an enormous Tundra Buggy and journeyed out into the Tundra. Our tour guide took us to the spot where the ashes of Debbie (the world's oldest polar bear) were spread, and began a presentation on polar bears. A short while later a polar bear was spotted in the water swimming towards the shore. We all immediately pulled out our cameras and binoculars, and began to silently wait. The polar bear made its way all the way up to our Tundra Buggy before continuing down the path. It was an incredible, being less that 10 feet away from a polar bear, and being to get such amazing photos.

The Tundra Buggy is like a monster truck-school bus that has a large deck on the back

It's coming towards us!

I think she's looking for Girl Guide Cookies...

This demonstrates just how close she got to us in the Buggy

We added our sightings to the Polar Bear Sightings board

Our final polar bear sighting was on our last day in Churchill, and completely unexpected. Behind the huge building that houses the school, hospital and much much more, there is a wooden boat play structure type thing that looks out onto Hudson's Bay. Apparently all of us girls were a little too crazy so our leaders had us go play on the boat to let off some steam. Just as we were loading back up on the bus a polar bear appeared on the shore. We all quickly took our seats and watched it. In the blink of an eye two large trucks appeared and proceeded to direct the bear away from town.

This boat was a great place to have lunch!

Our final polar bear sighting

During our touring of Churchill we also visited the Camp Nanuq and Caribou Hall. Camp Nanuq is a Girl Guide and Boy Scout camp just outside of Churchill that we would have stayed in, had we not be able to stay at the Northern Studies Centre. As much as staying at Camp Nanuq would have been cool, having to go outside to the outhouse was a bit of a turnoff, especially with the potential threat of polar bears. In town we drove by Caribou Hall, a cool looking building where the Girl Guides have their meetings. It was nice to see how Girl Guides have left their mark on Churchill... especially since the entire population of Churchill is about 2/3 of that of my High School!

Camp Nanuq sign

The lovely facilities at Camp Nanuq

     Caribou Hall

We had many other great experiences in Churchill such as going for a tour of the tundra, kayaking with beluga whales, dog carting, caribou hair sculpting, seeing Miss Piggy (crashed C46 plane, not the Muppet), the Ithica, Eskimo Museum, the polar bear "jail" and of course, shopping down the one main street. One of the best parts of the trip had to be bonding with the other girls. This trip strengthened our friendships tremendously, and I am extremely thankful for that... even if it means never looking at "bug wipes" the same way again. Overall it was an incredible experience, a trip that I would recommend to anyone and everyone.

The belugas loved following the kayaks

Polar bear "jail" sign

Miss Piggy

Beluga swimming under our boat