Saturday in Churchill

We started early this morning. After we loaded onto the bus from the hotel, we headed to the back end of the airport. We got onto a plane that was built in 1959 and all crossed our fingers. It was one of the nicest flights I have ever been on, surprisingly. During our 2 1/2-hour flight, we were served juice, coffee and tea, a sizable snack, plus a bottle of water. We also had a chance to talk with some of the people around us. The biggest novelty was the amount of leg room they offered back in the 50's! I could stretch out comfortably, and you all know I am tall! Once we landed in Churchill, we headed onto a big blue school bus for our area tour. (Check out the Newburg, WI phone number!)

We stopped at the polar bear "jail" first. When bears come into town, they are processed. This does not mean they are turned to meat. It means that they are recorded and tagged. They get a button in each ear, their top lip gets a tattoo, plus they extract a tooth to determine the bear's age. There used to be a system to monitor how many times the bears visited. The first time a bear came to town, it got a green dot. If it visited again, it got a yellow dot. On its third visit, it got a red dot. If a bear came to town a fourth time, exhibiting a rainbow of colors, then it was shot. Now the town is set up into zones. The red zone is in town, the airport, and the dump. These areas are actively patrolled 24 hours a day. If you are outside of town, you are in the yellow zone, and the polar bear patrol will come out if you call. It is unacceptable for people to kill polar bears except in self defense. The jail we visited is meant to contain captured bears until they are able to be released. Bears can be held for up to 30 days. Keeping families together, they are kept in their own cells, completely hidden from others by cinder blocks. This design is to alleviate as much stress as possible. Mothers with cubs get priority for release because they are the most stressed in these conditions, sensing other males nearby. I took some pictures of the facility as well as the culvert traps.

After the "jail," we headed toward the Hudson Bay. Along the path, we saw a plane that had been carrying milk and crashed in 1979 called Miss Piggy. Just past that, we stopped and saw a fox running around with a bird. We also stopped to see some sculptures by the edge of the Hudson Bay. Inukshuk is a large landmark in the shape of a person that shows a path. If it only has one arm, it shows the direction you need to travel. Someone once told our guide that he should always camp near inukshuk so he would not be lonely. 

We really felt the winds when we got out of the bus at Cape Merry, Prince of Whales Fort. That is where the mouth of the Churchill River meets the Hudson Bay. Our tour guide from Parks Canada was not fooling around. Not only was she able to withstand the cold with her coat open, but she carried a gun that would scare away any bear that came into sight. She made certain we knew not to take out cameras if we saw a bear. Instead, we needed to listen to directions and get back to the bus! We did not see any bears out there, but we did feel a bite from the cold. The winds whipped around and froze us! We were getting a taste of the cold that was rolling in. The winds tonight are going to reach around 70kph, and temperatures tomorrow are going to be well below 0 C.