On Wednesday we leave to go see the Polar Bears in Churchill. If the internet is good enough I will post pictures. Getting to Winnipeg where we start our journey I cannot count how many flight changes have occurred. We are on Delta.

Hope also for some Northern Lights - supposedly an outstanding year for lights for some scientific reason I do not understand. BUT it all depends on the weather. Forecast said it will be snowing lightly before we get there. Churchill does not have a lot of snow so I was surprised. But weather always changes better it be snowing now and coming to an end when we arrive. Plus it will be prettier with snow around.

Just checked and on Thursday when we fly in supposed to be sunny and scattered clouds. This is the night we go to the Tundra to see the lights away from town. Maybe we will be lucky.

For those that read LCT we have an exceptionally good weather forecast.

10/26 - Blowing Snow - we will be in Winnipeg
10/27 -10/28 a mix of sun and clouds
10/29 - mainly sunny
10/30 - We leave this day - scattered flurries of snow.

The three days in Churchill look very promising, both for sun and also for the chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

Sounds good! I am actually looking forward to a bit of snow. We don’t get much here in Los Angeles
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Helen

Hope the weather holds up for you and you have a wonderful trip!

Ngaire - I was thinking we arrive in Churchill on Friday 10/28 and leave Churchill on 10/31. If that's correct, it looks better on Friday night than Thursday night for northern lights. The forecast shows more cloud cover Thursday night than Friday night. Those of us who couldn't get to Winnipeg by 5:00pm on Thursday 10/27 have to come in a day earlier and have 2 nights in Winnipeg.

I'm envious....I wish Tom and I were on this. Have a GREAT time.

Beautiful SUNNY day when we arrived, barely a cloud in the sky. We had lunch went to the museum and then to the hotel. Lots of great murals painted around town. Then off to the tundra for the evening.

NORTHERN LIGHTS
Out on the tundra the first night. They pulled the two tundra buggy’s together and lined up the outside viewing area so we could all be together. Then served a three course dinner. Salad, chicken with vegetables and a brownie with berry compote. I ate every morsel. Outstanding. We had a stunning sunset shown below. On the way back the driver saw a bear on the road but he ran off before we could see him.

Then we saw the Northern lights. We saw them first driving back to town. Then Churchill checked an area for polar bears and stood guard while we all got out and were able to spend about 30 minutes watching and taking pictures. The lights probably were active for over an hour. They were amazing, constantly changing and dancing. Wanted to see these all my life and while it can happen at this time of year it is not common.

Needless to say we are all VERY HAPPY and high hopes for this adventure to continue.


Sunset.

Looking at the pictures they look blurry but you can see how they move and change shape. It was really incredible. On the last one you can see a little red forming.

So happy for you and the group. Has always been on bucket list.

Wonderful experience to be there and see those amazing lights. And the bonus of a great group of friends. Wishing we were there too. Looking forward to the polar bear sightings.

So this morning it was colder and windy. But only a few steps from the lodge to transfer to the transfer vehicle.

We found a bear under the tundra motel. We stayed parked there and waited. The bear moved closer to where we were parked. Overall we saw three or four bears moving around and we could see them quite well, one rolling around with feet in the air.

Then the original bear came right up to our tundra vehicle. Walked right next to us. The deck is a metal patterned deck where you can see the ground. The bear went under the deck of vehicle and looked right at us and he was just a few feet away. Amazingly close to a bear in the wild.

We had a wonderful coffee break with a special coffee called a tundra-chino.

Found two sub adult males that occasionally spar a little. Fun to watch.

So we were watching the two bears while we ate lunch and the lunch was good. Great red pepper soup, Caesar salad, multiple types of sandwiches. Followed by pound cake. They also had some bags of great nuts and chocolate chip cookies. Feeding us well.

After lunch we started trying to find the two bears again. Having trouble locating them when one bear stood up on his hind legs as is to say, “look here we are”.

We watched them for quite a while and then it was time to go back to the lodge. Overall we saw nine bears today. Had a great time.

Pictures from this morning

Bear approaching the tundra vehicle



Bear underneath our tundra buggy



Bear on the ice

An Arctic safari! Fantastic to see all those bears. Sounds like everything so far has been above expectations.

We are also here. Fantastic polar bears, northern lights and a couple of Arctic foxes close up. Food has been better than anticipated. Fresh salads at lunch both days, plus soup and really good sandwiches. Our room at the Churchill Hotel is basic but very clean and comfortable.

After dinner the two groups went to a social hall for drinks. They had a man singing and he was really good and not too loud. Turns out he was from New Zealand. Jerry sang three songs as well.

The sky was totally clear and they expected Northern Lights. So we went to the polar bear safe spot and again saw the Northern Lights. Quite different from the previous night. We had a series of events after we boarded the bus. The bus driver was also the bear guard so we had to wait for him to come back from patrol.
Then we saw red flashes that were scaring the bear but he ran in our direction which slowed the process down. Finally the driver/guard came back and the bus battery had died. So they had to bring school buses to get us back to town.

This morning we had a great male bear who was very active. Stretching, laying with his feet in the air eating kelp. Pictures were great. Then the next sighting was the best of the trip. A female being followed by a male. We kept tracking them and finally she had enough and she became vocal and chased him and he ran. Just such interesting behavior between the two bears.

Good food on the buggy far better than we have had in the past. Really loved our guide Leah. Been a great trip.

I wrote this while on the tundra will try and get pictures being picked up shortly for dinner.

Our Tundra Buggy Group



The bear eating kelp.



The bear playing with his kelp.



The female giving the male a “get lost and stop following me”. He ran away immediately and he was much bigger than her.

Yesterday was a fantastic morning. We saw a red Fox and a wolf then went dogsledding which was really exciting and fun. George and Ed also did a helicopter ride. Then we flew back to Winnipeg and had our final group dinner. Now headed back home, currently in MSP awaiting our flight to ATL then TUL. The flight schedule for this trip has changed at least 20 times. After awhile I just stopped really looking at the changes—well, I should have paid more attention. While we are together on the first and last flights, for the flight from MSP to ATL, the computer put us on different flights, which we didn’t realize until tried to board. So I am waiting an hour while George is already in the air.

Here is a link to my Churchill, Canada photos:

https://ngaire.smugmug.com/Nature/Churchill-Canada/

Such great photos!