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Published: October 27th 2014
A blog centered on the polar bears, and I'm not publishing a single picture of a bear. The reason is simple...I've got way too many pictures and these are coming in my next blog.
I had planned this trip for a while...and it was on my wish list for even longer. If you want to see polar bears, and want to see a lot of them, there is only one place in the world....up North in the middle of nowhere in Canada, I name the little city of Churchill.
Bear season is very short, just 6 weeks from early October till around the 20th of November. The polar bear spend most of their year on the ice in the Bay of Hudson. By the end of July, the ice has melt, and the bears are simply waiting for the ice to come back, which is done by the middle of November.
Not really easy for my planning, as I need to be the last week-end of October in Congo, and this for a good two weeks. Leslie and Tiffany had a week of school holidays, so they went to Vietnam for 10 days, and
I jump on planes to Canada.
You can either reach Churchill by plane or by train. There is no road linking the small city on the Hudson Bay and the rest of Manitoba in Canada. The train, going 2 to 3 times per week takes another 36 hours from Winnipeg. But there is no direct connection on the train if you arrive by train from Toronto. You can also fly. The airline flying from Winnipeg to Churchill is Calm Air, and a return is minimum 1000usd...and that's just the start of the bleeding. Nothing is easy in Churchill....and a liter of milk just cost 4 times the price you would pay for it in Winnipeg.
Polar bear have been known to room into the city of Churchill. 900 people live here, and having a bear crossing your path is simply not a solution, these a true killers. So the city have guards at the entry of the city to make sure the polar bears are scared away by using different kind of flares. If a polar bear is found coming too close from the city, he is darted, and "jailed" in the polar bear
detention center till the ice has come back. End of November, the bear will be darted again, put in a net, and fly 40 miles north on the ice. Operation cost, 2000usd per bear. The day I visited the bear jail, they had 18 of them in detention. No food, minimum human contact, and only water is provided to them. You see the outside of the building, but that's it. They don't provide food for the bears to make sure they are not tempted to come back too fast once they are released!
Only two companies have the permits to bring you inside the natural reserve where you will encounter the bears, so I decided to go for a full package, originally sleeping three nights in Churchill. I'm really not a big fan of group tours, but after serious homework, it seems there is no other proper option.
So after visiting Winnipeg and enjoy a good night in a nice bed, we woke up at 6am to get ready for our charter flight to Churchill. Just have a look at the blades of the propeller...those planes can land on gravels strips...as well as on
ice. Pretty impressive!
It was a Sunday, so no visit of the local eskimo museum or the local church. But we spent time visiting the "jail" for the polar bears, and spent some serious time next to the Churchill river and the Prince of Wales Fort. Imagine the French or the English, young men, living around here back in the 18th century...pretty impressive too!
We saw an artic hare...cute...plus few foxes. I didn't had the right lense with me when the artic fox showed up. No polar bear in town today, but this is not a bad thing.
Next stop...just few kilometers of Churchill....spending few days with the polar bears, out with the Tundra Buggy Adventure company...they call it a life-changing once in a life time trip!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Churchill
It has been at the top of our list for the past couple of years. We should make it soon. Eager to hear your impressions and see lots of photos.