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Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - High 12°F Low -17°F - We had the chance to sleep in and I guess we did, but were still up by 5am. I made a really awful cup of coffee in our kitchen. I hoped it would be better than Gypsy's but no such luck, sadly. I won't do that again. Today we were supposed to have helicopter and dog sled rides then free time for a few hours. Since the helicopter rides were the first day we arrived, today we are going to start late, see some shops and I think another museum in town, go drive around town in the school bus looking for bears, have lunch, then go for the sled dogs kennel visit and dog sled rides. After that I don't know. Dinner, I guess.
Tomorrow we go back out in the Polar Rover. We fear it will be too late. Pat, and everyone else here, is stunned by the sudden freezing of Hudson Bay. He says in less than 4 days, the ice has doubled and he has never seen it freeze so suddenly in his 18 years working in Churchill. I think that tells us how really cold it has been here the past few days! Good for the bears, I guess, but not so good for tourists. Evidently bears have already been seen seal hunting on the bay's ice. Again good for bears, but that means few bears are left in tundra buggy land. Maybe we'll get lucky around town today as the buzz among the locals is that there have been a lot more bears in town this year. An interesting fact is they don't lock their vehicles here in case a pedestrian needs to make a quick escape from an errant and hungry polar bear. That's a little scary and if the cold, snow and ice weren't keeping me from wandering and discovering Churchill, that piece of information would!
For some reason, I am having a much harder time than usual of regaining my equilibrium after flying. I wore my Ear Planes on all the flights and did not experience any really unusual symptoms on the flights, but I have some lingering and long lasting mild vertigo-like spinning sensations that are getting really bothersome at this point.
I had oatmeal with a very ripe banana and a peach yogurt for breakfast. I think Clay had his usual breakfast. Gypsy's has something like an Egg McMuffin and tomorrow I may try it. We drove to the hotel to allow a potty break and for people to pick up their passports and then we drove to the Post Office to get polar bears stamped in out passports. We drove by a plane wreck. After that we drove out as far as Cape Merry and watched ice floes pass on the Churchill River as the tide was going out. Pat talked about the history of the local area. There were rangers there with guns because they had chased off 2 polar bears and had lost track of a 3rd one. We did not see any live polar bears today, so I'll just break your suspense. We did see 2 red foxes and a white ptarmigan on the ground and flying. I don't think we got a photo of the red fox.
Then we came back to the hotel for another potty break and drove in the other direction to get photos of the Churchill sign, photos at the polar bear jail and the traps they use to keep them away from the town. Then we drove along the coast road to check out how the ice had blown back off shore with the South wind today. It is amazing how that much ice can change and move so quickly. Hudson Bay looks different every time we see it and the difference in just hours is stunning to me. Next, Pat took us to the Great White Bear Tours gift shop as they are the tour operator for the Polar Rovers we are using through our Churchill Nature Tours Polar Bear Adventure. They gave each of us a small souvenir tote bag with their logo on it which I thought was a nice touch. We found some great t-shirts there of a black polar bear face on a white T-shirt. I was hoping to find a white coffee mug like that but I use t-shirts at home too. We also bought a polar bear Christmas ornament there. Then it was time to eat again!
Pat drove us across the street to Gypsy's since it was so very cold, windy and snowing. Nothing sounded good to me but I had seen people with grilled cheese yesterday and that sounded good still, so I had a grilled ham and cheese on whole wheat with fries, they also gave me a long slice of pickle and it really hit the spot. Clay was interested in the special of Portuguese chicken, but the lunch special portion is dinner-sized and he thought it would be too much. The people who got it said it was really good. Clay ordered a hot dog with fries. He ate it all, but I don't know if he really liked it or not. For dessert I asked Clay to share what was signed as cream cheese brioche. It looked and tasted like a kind of gooey cinnamon roll with a snow-like arc of cream cheese frosting. He brought one back but also brought a dessert of some kind for himself. I didn't want to do it, but I ate the whole thing! We have now been pretty much alternating between the wood table and the Formica tables. I am not sure I prefer the wooden table as it seems to slope off either side from the center, but it is still called the good table as it's a little wider than the Formica ones that are pushed together to form another long table in the center of the room.
Time for dog sled rides. We visited their shop in town first, though I did not see any souvenirs related to dog sledding and we did not buy anything. Dave Daley called his dog sled tour The “Ididamile”, a clever phonetic play on words of the most famous dog sled race, the Iditarod. Then we boarded another bus in white with some independent travelers and went out to Wapusk Adventure Kennels for our tour, talk and rides. It was the coldest I have ever been and I had on so many layers I could hardly walk or see. It was interesting. Having done it, I still wouldn't have visited a sled dog kennel or taken the ride if it hadn't been part of the package. I just hate seeing the dogs living on short chains outdoors in the bitter cold. I’m not saying those dogs weren’t healthy and happy. They seemed to be. We had a very noisy dog or two in sled 2. It was magical when we started running as the dogs went quiet and we glided silently through the snow falling down the tree-lined path. The sleds had 6 dogs and 2 seats, or rather places for riders, in addition to the driver. I was too cold to try to take photos, so I made Clay sit in front since they said the photographer should sit there. I stood at the back seat on the rails as directed and held on. The driver was behind me and was a young woman. Everyone seemed happy at their work. We got signed certificates. Another nice touch.
Then we were driven back into town to Pat's bus. He brought us back to the hotel and since it was our only free afternoon for shopping offered to drive those who wanted to go to the furthest store and we could walk back, Clay and I went to the Northern Lights store and then walked back without buying anything else. We both rested quietly on our separate floors until dinner time. Other than Winnipeg, this was the closest we came to taking naps in Churchill. You don’t do a lot of walking, or get much physical activity other than shivering in the cold, but you stay busy without much downtime. So, this is not a relaxing vacation by any stretch. The lack of a fitness room, or treadmill, would be the only downside that Clay or I would probably point about about the whole package. That is only available the 2 nights in Winnipeg, but not in Churchill at our hotel anyway.
Back to Gypsy's where it was packed and finally overheated as we were wearing all our clothes since it was so crazy cold! Clay asked for the Portuguese chicken from lunch, but they were sold out. Against my advice Clay had the Italian-style chicken and like me pronounced it too dry and almost inedible. I had the special pork Parmesan and it was the best thing I've had there. Clay started with salad and I started with turkey rice soup that was also the best I've had there. For dessert I had a strawberry and whipped cream filled French horn pastry shell, Clay got another apple blossom, this time heated and with ice cream.
Pat drove us back to the hotel and offered to take those who wanted on a fox hunt. We drove around the port area looking for arctic foxes. We saw 2 out on the ice, but only very briefly. We drove back up through the rocks where we had seen red foxes and had very good sightings of at least 4 different arctic foxes. No one could get a photo of them darting back and forth across the road in the headlights, but it was great seeing them. They are very small and fluffy with fast tiny legs. Adorable and beautiful.
Pat brought us back to the hotel and offered to be the designated driver for a trip to a bar, lounge or pub of some kind. Clay and I were done for the day, so I have no idea if he had any takers.
Tomorrow is our last day on the tundra and we have to report for breakfast at 6:50am. Everyone has fingers crossed for bears. Pat hopes because the ice went away today that we will see lots. We saw the couple from Steve's group that went on our rover yesterday and they had been out on the tundra with his group again today and they reported that they saw lots of bears today, more than with us and better. We'll see. They and another group reported seeing a mother with 2 COYs, that is cub of the year, so small cubs. We hope for a good bear viewing day for us tomorrow.
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