0057 4-7th July - Churchill

Well, after waiting so long to go to Churchill, today was the day !!  Woke up early, breakfasted and packed some clothes for 3 or 4 days into my back pack, parked Troopie out in the car park, and waiting for Colleen, the camp site owner, to pick me up at 7 am and take me to the airport.  I had the last available seat on the plane until next Monday, 8^th July !  The flight out is amazing – You realise why there are no roads up here – It is all water !!  Just as far as you can see.

 

Basically what has happened is this.  Surprisingly, Churchill is a big grain export port for the prairies because at Churchill, ships are already in Hudson Bay and go straight out into the ocean and to Europe etc, whereas other grain terminals are located where the ships have to go through the St Lawrence seaway, which is slower and more expensive, and can only accommodate smaller ships.   But a month or so ago, a grain train to Churchill derailed about 40 kms from Churchill, and disturbed the tundra / permafrost, meaning the repairs were a lot more complicated than just repairing the track.  So for the last month or more, the only way into Churchill has been by air, and as a result the summer tourists are staying away, while those that are still coming are taking all the available seats on the small planes. This in turn means that the hotels in Churchill are 2/3rds empty, staff have been laid off, and now food (and beer !) stocks are running low, so restaurants are closing too.  So it is all a bit of a mess at the moment.

 Anyway, I got in to Churchill on the last seat on the plane until 4 days later, and shared a taxi for the 5 kms into town where I went to my accommodation – Ice Burg Inn, owned and operated by Dick Hunter.  All good, nice little room, and Dick quickly drove me around town to show me where everything was before he had to take off to his weekend cabin in his boat because he had to repair a wall that a polar bear had smashed in, looking for food !! Once he left, I went across the road (its not a big place – You can walk almost everywhere) to the Beluga Whale tour place, and they had one leaving in an hour – So I booked it.  It was a fairly warm yet calm day, so a good day to be on the water.  Eventually about 10 of us set off in a (thankfully) quite large rubber

duckie – The rest were a group of US science teachers on a research visit to Churchill, and this was just a day off for them.  When they started donning wellie boots, and full insect suits (head to toe), I got concerned that I was on the wrong tour !!  But no, I was fine – Yes there were a lot of bugs, but not eating me alive, and I certainly didn’t get my feet wet !!  Anyway, having donned life jackets we set off across the bay, and were immediately surrounded by dozens of white beluga whales !  But whales were not our first concern, so we were told to ignore them (yeah, right !!) and we went across the bay to Fort Prince of Wales. 

I had never heard of this fort – All I knew about from Geography / History at school was about the Hudson’s Bay Company, which were the Brits doing trading in Canada – That’s all I knew.  Well it turns out the French were (as usually at that time) a right PITA to the British, trying to nab all the trading

rights, and pinching furs etc from under the British noses, so the Brits built all these forts to defend their trade. Anyway, this fort took 40 years to build, from 1733 to 1771, and then only 11 years later, the French rolled in with a massive gun ship which outgunned the fort, and the Brits surrendered without a fight, leaving the French to pinch all the furs !!  Anyway, the fort is now being restored, but a lot of the original artefacts are in remarkably good condition because while it may be cold up here, it is very dry, so corrosion is minimal, so cannons and other metal items are in good shape. 

Anyway, as we set off to the fort we were introduced by the Ranger to Kevin – Our armed guard, with a shotgun and lots of shells, powerful binocs, and a walkie talkie.  All tours have an armed guard due to a bear attack last year, but in this case a polar bear had been spotted nearby and everyone was on high alert – We were told to stay together, with the Ranger at the front, and Kevin at the rear.  On the way to the fort, they pointed out a second armed guard up on the ramparts  - He was keeping an eye on the bear that was on the rocks down by the water’s edge, and if the bear moved in our direction, we would have been quickly moved.   Anyway, the fort and its history really is fascinating – As has been the case on the rest of this trip already, I continue to realise how little I know about the history of this area, and find it all absolutely fascinating.

I know I have mentioned them before, and I am sure I will mention them again, but the wildflowers in this part of the world are just stunning. On the plane from Thompson I was with some orchid specialists who have been coming here for 14 years – Apparently there are about 12 or more orchids around Churchill that are unique to the area. I was to learn over the next few days that several of the more general little wildflowers are also unique to the area as well.  Walking around, you are loathe to tread on them, and try to avoid them as much as possible, although it is virtually impossible to do so. 

Lets also just talk about the bugs for a moment.  Today was warm (25 deg C ?) with only a little wind, so the mosquitoes were pretty bad. So we certainly needed long sleeves and trousers, and everything tied up tight, and lots of aerogard (good Aussie repellent that seems to work really well – Maybe because the bugs haven’t come across it before ?!!).  There are just so many of the mossies that, like flies in the Aussie bush, they are just a bloody nuisance more than painful, but the good Aussie salute works pretty well most of the time.  No, the real problem is the horse flies, which I have mentioned previously when I was driving up to Thompson.  Up here in Churchill, the horse flies have to be seen to be believed – They are everywhere, and although they will bite, most of the time they are just a nuisance due to their high numbers.  You can see in many of my photos what looks like dirt on my camera lens – Not so, my lens was spotless – Those are Bull Dogs. 

Oh, didn’t I mention the horseflies local nick name ?  Yup, bull dogs, because given half a chance they will chomp down and tear a piece of flesh off you !!!

Anyway, fort safely inspected, and everyone still accounted for despite the polar bears (of hich e only spotted one as it ran off in the distance), we then went back to our rubber duckie and spent the next hour or more floating around in the Churchill river estuary with the beluga whales.  There are hundreds of them, here for breeding, and also hiding in the estuary from the Orcas, which will attack and eat them, especially the babies.  And the belugas really are the “Canaries of the sea” – our skipper had a microphone he puts under water and the noise they make, played through a small speaker in the boat, is just amazing – Incessant chatter !  They swim more like dolphins than whales, so usually all you see is their backs, and to get a photo, you have to guess where they will appear next.  Occasionally you get a tail shot, but they don’t seem to breach like humpbacks. They also like to swim under the boat and blow out their air, so you get these enormous bubbles bursting around you all the time.  The adults are white, while the babies are usually a grey – They will turn white later on.    You will also see on a couple of photos where one came up right beside us that there are grooves or scars on their skin – Apparently this is where they rub against ice floes.  You will also notice that they do not have dorsal fins – Again said to be a result of their rubbing against ice floes over 1000’s of years, so eventually they evolved without dorsal fins. 

There were people out on the water in kayaks with whales all around them – Trouble was they couldn’t move as fast as us, and were having a hard time with the bull dogs !!    

 Sadly, it was eventually time to go in, but as the estuary is not 5 minutes from the main street, one can just wander down and watch the whales play any time if you want.

Once back in town, I went off wandering with Joe Hartley from the teacher’s group, and we had fun exploring the local “Community Garden”, where local people can grow vegetables in old truck and tundra buggy tyres – Fresh vegetables in the short summer are a big deal here.  We also enjoyed the excellent Parks Canada Visitor’s centre (located in the train station), before heading over to a local pub for a beer.  Due to the early start, I was pooped by then (only about 7 pm) so I went and had a pizza at Gypsy’s Bakery (one of the good local restaurants) and then went straight to bed !!

First day photos are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0057ThompsonToChurchill?authkey=Gv1sRgCNO4h5bDp9W0jwE#

 

Saturday 5^th July, the morning was cold, and a bit rainy – But it was beautiful because both the mosquitoes and bull dogs had totally disappeared !!   Everyone was walking around with big smiles on their faces – Even the locals !! Went and had a great breakfast at Gypsy’s bakery, and by 9 am was back at my Inn to go off on another tour, searching for that elusive polar bear.   Paul has lived in Churchill for many years, as a tundra buggy driver for 8 of them, and lives outside of town in a remote location where he has polar bears around him all the time in the winter.  He knows the area pretty well !!  Normally he runs his tours in a big bus, but due to the current train situation there were only two of us, so we just went in Paul’s SUV, which allowed us to go down much narrower trails around Churchill.

The polar bear situation in Churchill in the summer is very different – The bears are in off the winter ice of Hudson Bay where they live off seals all winter, and basically just exist on land for the summer, going hungry, and waiting for the winter ice to reform so they can got back out and start hunting seals again. They congregate mainly out in the Wapusk National Park which is accessible only by air due to the surface water everywhere, and the lack of roads.  The Wapusk NP is east and south east of Churchill.  Bears do venture into town in their search for food, but when they do, rangers are immediately in action to scare them away before they can do too much damage or come into contact with people.  Every so often one hears shots being fired, and everyone goes out to see where the bear is – but basically the bears just aren’t allowed to approach the town at all during the summer.  (Last year someone was attacked just walking home in the evening, so the rangers are even more vigilant at the moment.)  There is even a polar bear jail just outside of town where persistent bears are put when they are caught, and held for a short time before being taken back out into the remote Wapusk NP.  So polar bear spotting is really difficult in summer – they are being kept away – and the only place you can see them is sometimes down on the rocks on the shore – before they are chased away by the rangers !   And it is too dangerous to go clambering around the rocks looking for them because they are ell camouflaged and rest up in the rocks – And you don’t  want to come across one at close quarters unexpectedly !!

So, you get guides like Paul, who are always armed and wander around the few tracks around Churchill, hoping to see a bear.  If you get out of the car, you always leave the doors open so you can get back in quickly – Although people have come back to their cars before and found a bear inside !!  But there are many more amazing things about Churchill – which one thinks is so remote and only known for polar bears.  First is the old HBC fort from the 1700’s, and then the grain export silo which I have already mentioned, then there is the rocket

launching site.  Yup, rocket launching !!  Back in the 50’s and 60’s the US had a major rocket testing and firing facility up here, and the rocket launching silos and rocket tracking radar stations are still there – A bit run down, but still there.  Really spooky, and quite amazing to see and drive around.

Then driving around the tundra, you come across a bunch of maybe 50 or more sled dogs, tethered out in the scrub – They are a breeding programme for a recently almost extinct sled dog called the Canadian Eskimo Dog, or qimmiq.   It looks harsh that they are out there, but being a sled dog is a harsh life.  There are quite a lot of other locations here you come across tethered sled dogs, as this is a major and popular winter activity up here.

At this time of year there is also a major population of geese, ducks and other birds which having migrated north for the summer. Canada geese, snow geese, all sorts of ducks, gulls and terns, and everywhere you go you see them wandering around the tundra, usually followed by flocks of goslings / ducklings, following mum and dad, and all enjoying the plentiful food and water.

 

The tide was out this morning, way out, as they have 17 ft tides up here. So as we drove along the shore, stopping to look at various plants, or 20 year old polar bear traps, or to check for polar bears, we came across an old ship wrecked and rusting on the low tide rocks.  Apparently there is a story that this ship was used to some mining purpose and very shortly before the mine went bankrupt, the boat went ashore and was wrecked, and the subject of an insurance claim.  All a bit suss in regard to the timing and apparently Lloyds of London thought so too, and a full pay out was never made !!  But she still sits on the beach, a reminder of past rich history of this area that few people know about.

When you are walking over the rocks (with armed Paul close by !!), you see deep scratches in the boulders – They are in fact scratches and gouges made by the massive ice fields up to a kilometre thick that used to cover this area millions of years ago, as the ice slid across the land.  Apparently there were three different ice fields covering this area, each at a different time, and each moving in a different direction !!  Almost unbelievable.  And another thing I never knew about before this trip is the phenomenon of post glacial rebound – Where the massive weight of ice actually causes the surface of the earth to subside, and one the glaciers and ice fields melt, the and very slowly rebounds !  It is proven in the Hudson Bay area to be at a rate of about a centimetre a year – Or a metre every hundred years – Which is quite significant.

One also comes across a lot of old ramshackle beach shacks around the town – I guess some people are living in them, but many are probably either abandoned, or only used in summer / weekends.  Some even have winter ice-fishing huts beside them, on sled runners ready to push out onto the ice and start fishing !!  Love to see this place in winter !!

 

Among the many little plants, Paul pointed out one to us which has 8 petals the first time it flowers in a season, and then has 16 petals when it flowers a second time !  (Both for insects and plants, things have to happen fast round here with the long daylight hours in the short summer !)

 

Unfortunately with Paul we didn’t see any bears – Although a couple of sightings were reported – one a mum with one cub, and another a mum with two cubs.  Unfortunately we never caught sight of either of them.  Hey ho.  But we did cover most of the accessible parts of Churchill and the coast line, and saw the excellent Research Centre where people can come up to from all over the world to do research projects on different things that can only be done in remote locations like this.

Most of the rest of the afternoon and evening I spent wandering around town, up the beach, around some of the interesting little stores around town, and chatting to people.  Churchill really is a great little town.  Had dinner at one of the diners, and then went back to my room and turned in.

Sunday was still quite cool, which kept the bugs at bay, most of the time anyway.  But if the wind drops, or the temperature rises just a little, they appear as if by magic – Zappo, and they are there.

I spent most of the day exploring the rest of Churchill on foot – It never ceased to amaze me how much is there – The Museum has a lot of local art on display, I paid another visit to the Visitor Centre where they not only provide information on any bear sightings, but also have an excellent display on the fauna, flora, and history of the area, and then just wandering around town looking at how everyone seems to survive up here.  Everything has to come in by rail, even the cars as there is no road in, so when, like now, the rail line is cut, the town really becomes quite isolated.

During the day, I decided that I couldn’t hang around Churchill any longer.  I had seen my beluga whales, I had seen a polar bear, albeit from afar, which I knew was always going to be a problem at this time of year, but most importantly for me I had found out that this isolated little town had an amazing history, both in the 18^th century with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and French, and the local trapping and fur industry, and also in the early 20^th century with the rocket programme, and even now as an important hub for the export of grain from the Canadian prairies.  Lot of interesting stuff.  So I felt fully satisfied, and booked my flight back to Thompson for Monday evening – The first available flight out since I had arrived on the Friday evening. Because the flight left at 7 pm, it gave me the whole day to look around further.

When I went over to Gypsy’s Bakery for breakfast, I met up with Frits from Winnipeg, who I had first met on Friday. Over breakfast he told me that his landlord had rented him a car to drive around in for the day, and he asked if I would like to join him and share the costs – An offer I immediately accepted, and shortly after breakfast we set off to explore parts that neither of us had been able to see previously. We went up to the end of the peninsula where there is a small 18^th century gun emplacement guarding the mouth of the Churchill River, opposite the bigger Prince of Wales Fort

we had visited on Friday.  From there we stopped at a small lake near the grain terminal where Frits said he had had an “encounter” with an Arctic Tern the day before – And sure enough, as soon as we got out of the car, these birds started dive bombing us !  Apparently Arctic Terns are known for their ferocity in defending their nests – so much so that a number of other animals will often nest near the terns, knowing their safety will be ensured by the terns !  Apparently even foxes have been know to live near terns for the same reason !  And they are truly vicious !  We were dive bombed repeatedly, and they will flutter not 2 feet above your head, screeching and really getting very aggressive.  Frits and I had a very “interesting” half hour with the turns, taking photos and videoing them and ourselves as we frequently had to pull back for our own safety !!

We then wandered round the coast, looking at some more beach shacks and ice huts, and then went some distance down the coast to a supposed wet land area and a walk, which turned out to be a bit of a fizzer.  But we did see the weir that Manitoba Power had had to build because when they built a hydro scheme on the Nelson River to the south, the levels of the Churchill river had dropped so much that to preserve the area and the wetlands, they had to raise the water level by constructing the weir.  All a bit of a cover up after they had screwed up rather seriously – Not good.

Found some amazing little flowers – One little purple one that is so hard to see, being only an inch or two tall, but when you look at it closely, you can see the minute hairs on it – Someone even suggested it is an insect eating plant ?  Maybe.  Gorgeous though.

After that we went down to see Miss Piggy.  Miss Piggy is a C-36 cargo plane that was used in the 1960’s and 1970’s in the area, and crashed on the rocks on the beach when it suffered an engine failure on take off from Churchill in 1979, tried to turn and return to the airfield, but didn’t make it. Apparently it became a location for local parties for a while, but is now just yet another of the interesting landmarks around town.

 

We then continued driving around the area, always searching for the elusive polar bear, and had some encounters with the Eskimo Dogs, and bald eagle on the beach (we were sure he was watching a polar bear eat something, and was hoping for scraps, but since we weren’t carrying a firearm, we weren’t brave enough to clamber down over the rocks to test our theory  !  I think I could have run faster than Frits if I had to, but as he had the car keys in his pocket, the thought never entered my head !   Ho hum.

 

So, a fascinating day, even if we didn’t see another bear, and then we went off to the airport to catch our flights out.  Once again, the amazing sight of all the lakes and rivers sparkling in the sunlight as we headed towards Thompson.  After the one hour flight, I caught a taxi back to the campsite, recovered Troopie and found a vacant site, and turned in for the night.  Loved Churchill, and would definitely go back again once the trains are working, and would hope for more polar bears.  While winter is the only real time to see polar bears, the costs of doing so are enormous, and way beyond my budget, so I will just have to enjoy it in the best way I can.

Rest of the pics are here.   

 https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0058Churchill2?authkey=Gv1sRgCIW58obKobuEkwE#