12th – Captivating murals

A quick glance outside when waking up (with a view of the airport tarmac) showed plenty of snow blowing horizontally past the window, but as planned we met in the reception at 0615 to hand over our checked luggage before having breakfast. With no hesitation we boarded the bus that didn’t only take us to the airport but all the way out to our plane. 

Then we sat in the bus waiting for a bit while watching the ground crew running around doing their thing getting small planes ready and sending them of in snow and high winds – visibility was maybe 100m. Finally it was our turn, maybe an hour delayed but being the only 16 passengers in a 40-seater we had plenty of room.

The flight north went off without a hitch and a bit past 1100 we arrived safely at Churchill airport which was nothing but a short landing strip and a small building. On the way in to Churchill – which has a population of app. 900 people – to have lunch we passed by a polar bear internment facility which basically is a containment building for bears that are caught in town where they are kept before transported away and let loose. As opposed to Winnipeg it isn’t snowing, but there is snow everywhere and it’s still quite windy.

Bear trap. It's like a humane mouse trap (enter in one end, nibbling at food triggers the gate that closes), but slightly bigger.

Mural on the holding facility. 

Following this we visited Polar Bear International to have a small lecture/speech on polar bears before we got to an ATM and a chance to buy beer and wine. Before leaving town we had maybe ½ an hour by ourselves to roam around before meeting at 1600 to go to the buggy loading dock. The town is full of murals all over the place, depicting primarily wildlife, but also historical people and events, among many other things. On the way there we went by a rocket facility they have been using to launch rockets used for measurements and tests of the atmosphere. 

We finally arrived at the loading docks where we loaded into our buggy – but not before being charmed by a red fox sitting in the parking area not being bothered by the presence of vehicles or people at all, just minding its own business. The 1½ hour long bumpy drive to the lodge was dark, with only the head lights of the buggy and lights in the far distance as light sources. We did manage to spot a bear in the headlights close to the lodge, though, so great success already!

"Is it windy?". Well....

Arriving at the lodge around 1830-1900 we quickly found our beds (I, and a few others, got two beds as the capacity is for 20 which will make it so much easier to spread out and not have to tidy up when going to sleep) before having dinner. This was followed by a safety briefing where I and another ended up being designated emergency buggy drivers. We were quickly introduced to the workings of the buggy but crossed my fingers that this would end up being unused knowledge.

Throughout the evening polar bears were walking around being their curious selves so before we made it to first daylight out here we had already seen the first 5-7 bears.