Northern Nights Lodge Ltd Churchill

... the building ...

The reason for all this activity is that Churchill is at the mouth of the Churchill River, and for various reasons this is the first place in Hudson Bay to ice-over in winter. The bears have eaten nothing all summer, except the occasional morsel, and are keen to be back on the ice from which they can catch seals. So they gather in the vicinity of Churchill. The Centre is some 20 odd kilometers closer to Cape Churchill and even closer to the bears ...

... comfortable and the whole lodge is kept comfortably warm.

We had drinks and appetizers and then dinner. The crew of the Lodge are Julie and Bree who do most of the cooking and cleaning, Dave who looks after maintenance and Trevor, the Buggy driver. These guys are not local, they come up for the two month bear season each year and have other guiding jobs the rest of the year. They live on the lodge for that two months. The girls don't leave the lodge at all ...

... all husky cross breeds and you can tell how well cared for they are just by their reaction Gerald and Jenafor when they walk into the camp. As there was no snow we were on a cart with wheels, but to be honest when you are being dragged around rugged countryside by eight very eager dogd, it really doesn't matter if you are on snow or ground. It was exhilarating - just great fun. We also got to do two miles instead of the usual one as the dogs ...

So remember from the last entry that I had joked to Martin that there had been some disaster and that was why there was no-one in the centre of Winnipeg? Imagine our surprise when we were out to get dinner and were passed by fifty people dressed as zombies.... wierd huh? So I had another day in Winnipeg to waste before going up to Churchill and I met James checking out of the hostel who had to wait until the evening to ...

... morning! We ate lunch at a cool place with lots of animal pelts and moose and caribou antlers everywhere, then we headed out for the airport. Tonight in Winnipeg, we got to ride in a limo to the restaurant (it was less expensive than two taxis), which was so cool! We are watching the last game of the American League championship game tonight - Go Red Sox!!! Then back to Nashville tomorrow.

This morning we woke up early to go see the polar bears. We took a bus out to the tundra (it means a treeless area) to catch our Tundra Buggy. A Tundra Buggy is like a giant bus with huge wheels, a bathroom, and a back porch. Our guide's name was Mark and he has been a polar bear guide for 10 years. There was also a lady from Polar Bear International named Sarah who told us lots about polar bears. Mark was lots of fun and crazy! He is also a river guide in the Yukon and a ...

... tundra to hopefully see Polar Bears, but also have dinner in town and maybe pick up a souvenir or two. About 20 minutes later we were called to board our awaiting plane outside. It was a quite warm 25 degrees outside and was forecasted to be partly cloudy with a temperature between 10-15 degrees for a high in Churchill. Being Towards the end of the line didn't afford us much of a choice of seats...well only one choice if we wanted to sit together. This was at the front of the ...

... for the day. Great White Bear Tours were a great company to book with and are one of only two companies that have rights to go out on the tundra to give us the pleasure of seeing the bears up close. No, you don't have to go on the tundra to see the bears but it gives you a better likelihood of seeing them, plus it would depend on when you are ...

... coffee (or hot chocolate, or hot tea--I don't like hot drinks). I always drink it iced. I live next door to a coffee shop, and every day I have at least one iced mocha. And not just that, it's an iced mocha, skim milk, half the chocolate, and made with toddy (cold-press coffee. It's not brewed, so it's not as bitter and it is stronger than regular coffee). The Center doesn't have anything but regular coffee, and on my second day there (after three days with no coffee at all), I ...

... bathrooms and showers. But there was also a sense that we didn't have to share it with anyone else, it was ours. Then a new group came. We returned from the second tundra buggy trip to find them clogging the hallways and the bathrooms. They looked as surprised and dismayed to see us as we were to see them. When I first ran into two of the newcomers in the bathroom, we didn't greet each other warmly. I didn't welcome them, they didn't make any ...