Report from Churchill.

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Hi there blog-meisters!
Theresa and I have had a fun week up in Churchill... We dined in Churchill's finest restaurants (all two of them), and took a couple of very colourful and scenic drives along the coast. One highlight was having a polar bear run across the main street in town when we were out walking! Just a nice reminder that you could be killed and eaten at any time by Nanuq!!! I had to fly to Winnipeg for a day to do a work related course, which was fun, except the timing was a little bad. It was right in the middle of the week that Theresa was visiting! I guess that's just the way it goes.
We got out on the Tundra Buggy a couple of times and the colours were amazing! The light was incredible too! We had thunderclouds and rainbows, and a very entertaining Arctic fox.
There are still a lot of bears around and they are getting hungry! They haven't had a meal since late July, so they are starting to pace the coastline waiting for the sea to freeze over yet again. They just pop into town now and again to look for scraps! There are a bunch of bear traps set up around town and there has been a lot of guns shots in the last few days, so they are definitely on the move.
Dave..

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Photos

Incredible reds
The bear berry is one of the first plants to turn red after the first frost.

Bear in town
I heard gun shots one evening, so I decided to go see the action. This little guy had just wandered through town and was being chased out.

Friday night traffic.
Only in Churchill when there's a bear on the wander through town.

Trapped!
This bear was causing 'problems' in town? He was only trying to eat! I guess us humans don't really accept the fact that we have to co-exist with these wonderful bears?

Go to jail.
Do not pass go and do not collect $200!!! Off he goes to the polar bear jail.. Yes, seriously! We have a bear jail in town.

Dryas integrifolia
The white mountain-avens shedding their seeds.

Great fields of yellow.
The fertile ground by the old dump-site, has a huge variety of plants that are not found anywhere else in the Churchill area.

Arctic fox
Almost in it's winter colours. The foxes turn from their gray/black summer colour to their white winter coat in the autumn.

Bear on road.
He was in no hurry to move for us, so we just waited...