Churchill Polar Bears - Part 5

Saturday, 14 October 2023

An Extra Afternoon in Churchill

We started the day with a tour of three museums: the Parks Canada Visitor Centre at the Churchill train station, Polar Bear International, and the Itsanitaq Museum.

The Parks Canada Visitor Centre has an impressive polar bear in the lobby.

The Itsanitaq Museum is filled with pieces of indigenous art - mostly Inuit. Several cribbage boards carved from walrus tusks are on display. I liked the figures used for the pegs.

A close-up view of caribou hides stitched together to form the waterproof hull on a kayak.

After the museum visits, we were supposed to have a quick lunch and then go to the airport, but the fog was so thick that the incoming plane couldn't land. The plane circled for a while hoping to have the fog lift, but then it had to divert to Thompson to refuel. The Nat Hab support team was scrambling for updates on both incoming and outgoing tours. Fortunately, we weren't the ones having to have a 2 1/2 hour flight turn into a 6 hour flight! We got lunch, and then continued our town tour.

Guides Kurt and Pete airdropping photos to each other.

Our buses lined up at the Inukshuk on the edge of town. The fog is thick.

Driving along the coast road we saw a red fox scrambling on the rocks.

We got a good look at it's bushy tail as it ran off.

Another fox wasn't too far off the road, but the fog made it nearly impossible to see it.

Foggy tundra.

These domes date back to Churchill's military past, where they sheltered equipment used to eavesdrop on Russian communications. We never got close enough to see the mural painted on the building.

Our final stop of the day was at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. We got a short briefing on the research that is conducted there. Our visit was cut short because word came that the fog was lifting at the airport.

By the time we got to the airport, the incoming plane was just about to land. You'd never know that 30 minutes earlier the fog at the airport was impenetrable.

Baggage and supplies are unloaded from the front cargo compartment with a large forklift.

We finally took off about 5:30 PM. Sunset was about 7:00 PM.

Last glow of sunset over Lake Manitoba as we got close to Winnipeg.

It was close to 8:30 PM when we finally got to our farewell dinner in Winnipeg. It was a good meal, but a bit of a rushed ending to our trip.