Churchill, it all about the bears

you watch your step in churchill
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Churchill is the proclaimed polar bear capital of the world cause it's nicely situated in the bears track

while they wait for the ice to reform on Hudson bay, although they also get lots of whales during the summer months. Now i could just get into the whole polar bear thing but hold up a bit. Half the story is getting up to the place as the only ways are by train or boat as there is no road. I took the train for budget reasons i took the train, this is a gruelling 35 hour train ride that is done over a day and two nights. Make sure to have some reading material as this ride can get a bit boring even though the views in the most part are fairly scenic. On the first morning i got to see quite a lot of deer running about near the tracks, well about 10 to 20 anyway and as there was a snow fall you could see loads of animals tracks as well. You might wonder how you can see these well let me tell you the train doesn't actually go all that fast in alot of places. I got talking to a cree guy who had do some trapping when he was younger and was able to point out what tracks were what. On the second morning as we were approaching Churchill got to see a bear although from a good distance and also a fox/wolf. Although the ride is so lot there is definability something of an adventure to it compared to flying.

Polar bear
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As for Churchill itself there isn't much to it, a town of about 1000 people. Two of the mainstays of the town are the tourist industry and the grain port. The port is an oddity in itself. Built by the grain farmers in the late 1920's so they would be held ransom by the rail barons it has not exactly being a roaring success as the bay is only ice free for three to four months of the year.

Now on to the bears, there does be lot of them. The population is about 200-300 that pass through here during the year, so during the season you have a great change of seeing them.

Polar bear 1
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I took a tour on what is called a tundra buggy. The buggy are a mixture of buses with big giant tires on there to make the ride some what comfortable over the tundra. Once you get out there it's fairly barren and it takes about an hour and a half to get out to what called the tundra lodge, which is about six of of the buggy's joined together where you can stay overnight, set up where most of the bears pass through. Fairly expensive from what I've heard. Plus you see alot more then bears out here. Also got to see Arctic fox and an Arctic hare and some birds that i can't remember there names. Up close i got to see three bears at the buggy lodge and it is amazing to see them in there natural habitat as much as these trips can be called that, but the bears don't seem all that put out by it. A good deal of the time they are just lazing about, which you can't really blame them for as they haven't eaten in about 5-6 months. Sometime their is bears get up to some playfighting but unluckily we didn't get to see any one of them wanted to get it on the other one just ran away. You wait out there for a few hours and you don't feel it pass as watching these guys can be so fascinating and as you drive away you just wish you could wait there for an extra half hour, but these guys have a business to run. If you come up here on the train you have to wait for 3 days up here so you could get 2 day trips out to see the bears, but it is kinda pricey at about $ 275 a go. To pass some time in the town there is the Eskimo museum which is a small building that mostly dealing with native artwork which can keep you mulling around for about an hour if you read all the stuff about the myths and legends, but just be careful walking around the town as bears do come for a look now and again and they even have a polar bear jail to keep the offenders in. I was talking to a few people that had a bear in their back yard the previous night and the jailers, i mean conservation officers come along with their firecrackers and tranquillisers and its of to jail till they can be put out into the wild.

Polar bear 2
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The train ride back to Winnipeg and because of the timing during the day time got to get a look at all the little small northern towns/villages that rely on the train from supplies and transportation.

While this trip took up a lot of time without doubt it was worth it for probably will be a once in a lifetime visit to the polar bears domain.