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An account of our trip to this fantastic region of Canada, and our encounters with the majestic Polar Bear.

Churchill, the Polar Bear capital of the world

Djb1166
2004-03-11 16:38:12

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way you look at it, we had a delay as a bear had been spotted at the town dump and one of the helicopters, earmarked
for our transfer, had to be used to capture the bear and fly it out. I say lucky because it took a while for them to find
that bear so the helicopter had to return to base to refuel with bear in tow. My first live, if somewhat drowsy, Polar Bear.
Unfortunately Julia missed out on this as she got the first helicopter out with three other members of our twelve strong
group.

I finally transferred in the third group of four, and what a transfer! This was our first helicopter flight and we both
really enjoyed it. Anyway I caught up with Julia and the rest of the group only to find they had already seen bears so I
guess Julia hadn't missed out after all! It turns out that a couple of second year cubs had been hanging around the lodge
since their mother had died a week or so earlier. The mother was around 24 years old, a good age for a Polar Bear, and it
seems her last offspring had proved too much for her.

Introductions followed, Mike and Jeanne who run the lodge and Dennis Fast, a naturalist and
photographer who was to be our guide during our stay. Mike and Dennis gave a brief talk about safety during our stay at
the lodge. In simple terms this was "stay inside at all times unless accompanied by an armed guard"! The lodge site contains
several buildings, two of which are used as accommodation blocks, a third which is used as the dining room and a few other
out buildings. As we were to see during our stay, Polar Bears think nothing of walking around between the buildings.
The transfer to the lodge had seen a complete change in the weather. When we left Churchill it had been cloudy
but on arrival at the lodge the cloud had been replaced by beautiful blue sky and sunshine. The temperature was ...