My Arctic Adventure

If you are visiting Canada/US this summer, it is certainly worth making a trip to Churchill, the polar bear capital of the world in Manitoba, Canada. The bonus being, you will get to swim with the beluga whales as well. With beluga whales filling the Hudson Bay and polar bears leaving the pan ice, summer is the perfect time to visit Churchill.That’s exactly what I did. I joined an international group for an expedition to Churchill, in summer. Being close to the North Pole always fascinated me to include myself in the list of brave adventurers. After a long journey (Hyderabad - London- Toronto), my patience was further tested, this time by Air Canada (on my way to Winnipeg). You can’t expect everyone to travel 24 hours, and go further north in another 3 hour flight all the way to look at the polar bears and the elusive northern lights. It is only people who are madly in love with wildlife or the desolate tundra, who undertake such journeys (is that me?).

My flight from Winnipeg to Churchill (almost three hours), was filled with curiosity, but as I looked from above, the land appeared barren like a vast desert, with small patches of water. Denise, sitting on my right in the small plane, poured her heart out to me about how she came first and fell in love with Churchill, settled down there and is still in love with the place and can never leave Churchill in spite of all the hardships one has to face there. At minus 50 degrees centigrade for almost three months, I can imagine how depressing it can get. She further told me that people take up three to four jobs for sustenance, switching over according to the seasons.As we alighted, Colin Frey received us with a broad smile and on the way, narrated how he came as a visitor to Churchill four years ago, but settled down here with a job. Now he is a guide with the Lazy Bear Lodge where we were going to stay.

A nondescript place with a handful of houses and a population of 800 inhabitants, Churchill doesn’t impress you at the first glance. People come here because it is the Polar Bear capital of the world what with the sign boards everywhere reminding you of their awesome presence. Another trump card is the “Northern Lights”, the ever elusive Aurora Borealis, which some people can’t see even after three or four visits, while some lucky ones can do so in the very first visit.

The “Lazy Bear Lodge”, where we stayed is a unique log cabin hotel, built with over 1000 hand-crafted logs from boreal forest. The Lodge offers a good choice of expeditions and excursions. On the jet boat tours of the Bay and river estuaries, we used to see countless beluga whales from sun rise to sundown. In summer, the sun sets at 9 or beyond and what with plenty of sunlight to enjoy the long days, we had a whale of a time watching the belugas. It is unending and untiring. Those loveable creatures swim along the boat, following you everywhere. The merry creatures pop up and go down in fraction of a second, making it impossible to take pictures. I would give up and just gaze at them, enjoying every minute.

We also spotted Polar Bears in their summer environment on the rocks and swimming in the water. Kayaking and snorkelling with beluga whales was such great fun and I also realized that it is totally harmless. When 60,000 beluga whales (the highest concentration in the world!) descend upon Hudson Bay, the sight is amazingly magical with hundreds of whales all around. The historic sites of Churchill too are interesting to explore. Colins took us to some impressive ruins around Churchill. I found the lichens too interesting; specially the orange ones that make the age old huge boulders look as though they are painted.

In their modern Arctic Crawler– a ‘huge’ state-of-the-art four wheel drive specialty vehicle, we searched the Churchill Wildlife Management Area spotting lazy mama bears with their babies and some amusing Siq- Siqs. We went identifying different arctic plants that put up a tough fight against the harsh winters and emerge victorious at the onset of summer, swaying in the gentle breeze; so much like their people, who take the ruthless winter in their stride and come summer, welcome the warm weather with a smile!

By Vijaya Pratap