Our trip to Churchill began from Winnipeg on Friday 8th October with a 1.5 hr Calm Air flight to a town called Thompson. From Thompson we were to catch the train at 6pm for the 14 hr overnight leg to Churchill on Hudson Bay. This was the same train that had left Winnipeg the night before. We compromised here because to catch the train all the way from Winnipeg to Churchill was a 36 hr (2 night) journey at about 30 miles per hour and to fly all the way to Churchill was 3 times more expensive than just flying to Thompson. What it did mean is that we had a few hours to fill in Thompson before the train arrived.

We weren't expecting too much from the town and our expectations were quickly met when, while making the walk from the train station into town, a woman pulled up alongside and the following conversation was had - "You heading into town???" "Yes we are" "Well hop in, I'll give you a lift. You won't miss much"???? And she was right. After dropping us at the "mall"? we did the town walking tour in about 5 mins, went for some lunch and then ended up at the local library because they had free internet access. Late afternoon we walked back to the train station eager to head north.

The train trip was interesting. The locals rely on the rail line to get to and from different settlements along the line because there is no road past Thompson and being a Friday there was quite a few heading back with all their food and supplies. By about midnight though most of the towns have been passed and the numbers on the train have thinned out considerably. This allowed us to grab a couple of adjacent seats and swing them around to face each other so we could stretch out a bit and try and get some sleep. I think I got about 2-3 hrs if I was lucky. Michele managed a bit more but we were both a bit average the next morning. The comment earlier on about 30mph was no joke either - the track conditions prevent us from going any faster. I did get my first glimpse of the Northern Lights while on the train. They were difficult to see because of the light reflections within the carriage but if you looked closely you could see them.

We arrived into Churchill about 9am on Saturday morning 9th October and we were picked up at the train station by Wally from the Lazy Bear Lodge where we were staying (website for Lazy Bear). After freshening up a bit we were taken on a town history tour by Wally in the afternoon. We were both surprised at the history of the area with european involvement from the early 1600's and the english Prince of Wales Fort built during the 1700's up to the US & Canadian military presence during and after ww2 and the cold war. We also visited local ship and plane wrecks, the polar bear gaol (not too close!!!), the rocket range and a small forested area where we were introduced to 'flag' trees. Image of flag trees. Many of the trees in the area are stripped bare on one side by the ice crystals blown off Hudson Bay by the strong northerly winds. The locals don't mind because in winter when everything is white it enables them to tell which direction they are heading!!!
Also in our travels we saw about 5 arctic hare, 3 polar bears (from a distance) and a couple of red foxes.

Later that afternoon we went to buy a few beers for the evening. The beer wasn't stored in fridges and I was trying to think of some way to get it cold. That was until I walked out of the liquor store and remembered it was about 1 degree outside. I just walked back to our accommodation with the beer under my arm and it chilled itself :-) We ate that night in the Lazy Bear cafe next to our lodge. I tried the Caribou - not too bad.

The next morning we were up early as we were to be picked up about 7.30 by the bus to take us out to the tundra buggies for a day of viewing polar bears (hopefully!!!). It was an overcast day but the temperature was expected to reach a balmy 8 degrees. On the bus we met two other South Aussies - Shane and Saideh from Clare and also Matt from Perth who was travelling on a 12 month working visa in Canada. We travelled about 1/2 hr out of town to where we boarded our tundra buggy. The buggy wasn't full so we managed to grab a seat, and hence a window view, each. The buggies had plenty of room inside to move about and a full on propane gas heater to keep everyone too warm!! The day was spent driving across the tundra in search of Polar Bears. In all we saw about 8 bears during the day but we think a couple of them may have been the same bear ;-) 3 of the bears that we saw were within 20-30 metres of the buggy. It was a pretty succesful first day on the buggy. We had been a bit concerned about whether the bears would be in the area this early in the year and given the time and money it takes to get here it was a great relief to be able to say we had seen them. Whatever we saw the next day was going to be a bonus.
Image of bear from day 1.
Second image of bear from day 1.

After returning to town Shane, Saideh, Matt and ourselves decided we should do a pub crawl of Churchill. Two pubs later we were done!!! At the first pub - the Northern - Matt did some good scrounging work and got the bartender to bring out the 2 litre plastic bottles of beer. For $6 a bottle they were pretty good value. We were joined at our table by some friendly locals who were keen for a chat but 'regardless' we had to continue the pub crawl so off we headed to the Seaport Hotel. After partaking of a few more beverages and some food we decided to head off for the night. Outside, the cloud that had blanketed the sky all day had moved away to leave a clear night sky and we were treated to a wonderful display of the Northern Lights. The whole sky was taken up by amazing shades of green as the lights danced their way across the heavens. Even the locals agreed it was a good display. No photos to prove it - you will just have to trust me on this one :-) or better still go there and see them for yourself...

Monday October 11th again saw us out on the buggies. Once again the aussie contingent was strong with 7 out of 23 on the buggy. Also on the buggy again were Sue and Jack from Pennsylvania. They had been out the day before and they were a wonderful couple. All I can say is that I hope I have half as much energy and love of life when I get to their age - they were real good value and a pleasure to meet. The sun was out today but the temperature was cooler than the previous day - only about 5 degrees. The problem with the sun being out is that the polar bears tend to 'hunker down' for the day because they overheat in these sweltering temperatures. We did see a couple of bears early on near another buggy but our driver thought he would go in search of our 'own' bear. We found one a bit further on but he was snoozing heavily and had no intention of performing for the dopey sods with their heads stuck out the bus windows. You really have to wonder what they make of all the busloads of tourists that venture across their territory!! There was another bear sighting later on in the morning but he was a long way off. We did see lots of arctic hare, ptarmigan and a snowy owl that allowed the bus to approach suprisingly close but we wanted bear. Our driver was heading to the lunchtime spot near the tundra buggy lodge where there was usually at least one or two bears camped out because of the smell of food. Shane and I could sense he was getting a bit anxious to find one and thankfully there was one laying down near the lodge. Our driver parked the bus upwind and while we opened the windows he took the lid off the soup container. Pretty soon our lunchtime bear had raised his quivering nose and decided he might venture closer to check out the aroma. The mad rush on the bus was incredible as people tried to get good viewing spots as the bear approached right up to the side of the bus. For the next half hour we were treated to an amazing experience with the bear 'up close and personal'. See for yourselves...
What can I smell??.
Checking us out - 1.
Checking us out - 2.
Checking us out - 3.
Bored with us now!!.
Us with Shane and Saideh on the buggy.

It is interesting to note that he is not considered a big bear. He is a young adult male weighing somewhere near 500-600 pound. Fully grown males can hit anywhere up to 1200-1400 pound. To give some comprehension of size I have included here a photo of us next to our tundra buggy. Our driver said he has had bears up at the side of the bus with their heads level with his window!!!!!
Us and the Tundra Buggy.

We didn't see any more bears but we were satisfied and the camera had been given enough stress for one day. That evening, given that it was Canadian Thanksgiving, we settled in for dinner with Shane and Saideh, Matt and an English couple we had met, Sylvia and Brandon at the Lazy Bear Cafe where we had turkey with all the trimmings. Much laughter was had at the table, most of it concerning a product called Cheese Wizz which was close to orange in colour, plastic in texture and occassionally was passed off as something vaguely edible ;-) We also enjoyed a bottle of red that Shane had brought from his winery in Clare - Cardinham Estate.

The next morning we had a few spare hours so it was time for Michele to get her souvenir shopping done. The day started off bright and sunny but there was a northerly wind blowing and we could see a front rapidly approaching. I had wanted to take a few photos of the main street but by the time we got back to our accomodation and grabbed the camera the bright sunny day had turned overcast, cold and windy. I did still take some photos though...
Main shopping drag in Churchill.
The local caryard?.

Around lunchtime we readied ourselves for our last planned activity in Churchill. We were going dog sled riding. I know we did this back in Alaska as well but we had this one booked well before we left. By the time we boarded the bus to head out to the dog area there was a bit of rain around to go with the 40-50 km/hr winds and dropping temperature. We were joined on the bus by Sylvia and Brandon and also Sue from the tundra buggy who was rapt to have her aussie friends joining her!!!! We had a great time. The dogs were fantastic, the ride was good fun and the hospitality very good. Dave our host was a bit upset as he had lost one of his best dogs two nights before to a wolf attack. Unfortunately it goes with the territory. He stopped and showed us one of the paw prints left behind by the wolf. It was huge. Dave could fit his whole hand inside the imprint. This was one big wolf and a very unpopular one. Because there was only 5 of us we got to do double the length of the normal sled ride which was a bonus. Unlike our earlier ride in Alaska there was only the two of us on the sled and I think we enjoyed this ride more. We were lower to the ground and got a better feel for the speed and power of the dogs. It was however bitterly cold. All trip we had been dressing in layers but I didn't have too many layers left to put on. My fingers got too numb to operate the camera properly!!! After the ride we went into their large tent to thaw out next to the wood fire and had tea with finger foods including the traditional musher's snack - bite size chunks of moose meat fried in a pan. Michele wasn't game enough to try it but I quite enjoyed it.
Gone to the dogs....

Once back in Churchill Michele decided she wanted to head back to one of the shops again so off we trudged up the main street into the wind. By now we were approaching 50-60km/hr winds and the rain had turned to ice and it was rather difficult walking into it as you had to look down the whole time. The walk back was pretty quick though!!! Apparently the ambient temperature was around -2 degrees C but then you have to take into account the windchill factor with a wind that was consistently over 40 km/hr with up to 70 km/hr gusts. That's ok for the locals but for a couple from south oz it was getting pretty cool. By the time we left for the train that evening the ice was starting to gather against the buildings and leave a white tinge over the ground.

And so that was the end of our time in Churchill. We were back on the train again. We found seats next to Matt and chatted for most of the evening before adjourning to the park car for a beer and then back to our seats to attempt to get a few hours sleep. We arrived back into Thompson around 11.30am the next day where Michele and I alighted and left Matt and the other travellers to continue for another 22 hours onto Winnipeg. We were originally supposed to stay on the train but a few weeks before we decided to change plans and grab a seat on the plane for the leg from Thompson to Winnipeg so we could get a decent nights sleep before heading back into Vancouver. The only problem was we had another few hours to kill in Thompson and it was cold so guess where we ended up again - in the library. This time though Michele found books to read on polar bears while I fell asleep reading a magazine and caught up on some much needed zzzz's.
Us, Matt and the train!.

We arrived into Winnipeg from Thompson late on the evening of Wednesday 13th October. We had booked a room in the downtown area so that we could make the most of the next day before our Vancouver flight. However we awoke to a cold and rainy day so we took our time having breakfast and checking out to give the weather time to improve but by lunchtime it was still cold and now it was snowing!!!! Michele sat in the hotel lobby but I was determined to see a part of the town so I headed off with the umbrella. Half and hour later I was back emptying out all the snow that had collected in the creases of my clothing. Oh well, at least we saw snow!!! It was all a little depressing now as we had started our journey back towards home. But we weren't quite finished with yet...