Day 6 – I am a day late with this post, the last of our trip. Our last day was the coldest of our trip. After a morning of dogsledding (I’ll post a picture later as I don’t have one yet), we had lunch and went to see the polar bear holding facility. One side of the building is a fantastic polar bear mural. This successful program relocates bears that come to town in anticipation of the freeze up of the ice. They stay in “jail” until the ice starts to form. They are helicoptered out onto the ice where they can hunt and breed. Natural Habitat (our tour company) is a partner in this expensive practice ($10K per bear flight). The locals refer to a relocation as a pizza delivery! 

Our last stop in Churchill was the airport. We carefully walked across the tarmac in single digit temperatures and a stiff wind for our flight to Winnipeg. At our farewell dinner in Winnipeg, we celebrated a trip with a season high number of polar bear sightings. Hope you enjoyed riding along. Thanks so much!

 

Day 5 – We spent another day on the tundra. It was overcast and windy today, but we still had great success spotting wildlife. The morning began with an extremely rare wolverine sighting (sorry, no picture as it was moving fast and running away from our tundra rover). Right after that sighting, we saw a mother polar bear with 2 cubs. We saw a total of 27 bear today which included several mother/cub duos or trios as well as some sparring young males. 

One bear paid a close visit to our vehicle and posed for pictures before wandering away. We also saw a covey of ptarmigan in their winter plumage.

 

Day 4 – Today we toured some historic sites in Churchill. We took a chilly walk around Prince of Wales Fort. After the English spent years building the fort, it fell to the French without a shot being fired. 

We visited the Polar Bear International House to hear about their research of the local population. We drove back out onto the tundra for stunning views of the sunset and a close-up visit from a large bear.

 

Day 3 – We spent the day on the tundra. The morning was beautiful as we enjoyed the beginnings of daylight and sunrise. The day was not too cold and clear. 

We saw 12 or so bear (not sure of the exact number since we may have seen some of the same ones twice). Some were alone; some pairs of young males sparring with each other in preparation for breeding season. 

Our guide says this was the most successful day of the season thus far. These are spectacular animals that you want to see from the safety of the tundra buggies.

 

Day 2 - Today we flew to Churchill. The flight was 2 hours above the clouds before we began to descend to the frozen ground of far north Manitoba. 

Arriving in Churchill, we landed in blowing snow and temperatures in the 20s. 

We stopped to take pictures at the Inukshuk beside Hudson Bay. 

A visit to the Itsanitaq Museum followed. The museum has a beautiful collection of artifacts and native carvings of ivory, bone and local stone. 

A short driving tour took us by the port and a huge grain elevator complex. 

The day wrapped up with a visit to the Parks Canada Visitor Reception Centre.

 

We’re off on our Polar Bear adventure. After arriving after midnight last night, we spent the day touring Winnipeg. Winnie the Bear was rescued as a very young cub by a veterinarian who later took the cub with him to England as a member of the service during WWI. The cub was left at the London Zoo when the troops were deployed. Winnie became a favorite of children, especially the son of A. A. Milne. The British renamed the very tame bear Winnie the Pooh. Winnipeg wants everyone to know the origin of the famous ursine.

 The bison herd is a part of a tour of FortWhyte Alive. 

We took a brief stop along the junction or the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. 

This Polar Bear is an exhibit at the Manitoba Museum.