Northern Exposure

I have returned, intact, from my trip to Churchill, on Hudson Bay, and it was a very interesting experience.

Its a very isolated town (30 hr train journey or expensive charter flight from Winnipeg) of about 800 people, rising to 1200-1300 in polar bear season. That's pretty much all that I knew before I arrived, and I was expecting a quaint little town like in 'Northern Exposure', which is kind of what it is, but in its own different way.

It's a small place - you can walk around it in about 15 mins - and there must only be about 3km of decent roads: once you leave the town itself you're on dirt roads that get worse and worse the further you go. It's a tough place - functional buildings, a lot of which look the same even though they serve different purposes (a 'cocktail lounge' looks identical to the residential houses around it). The place is littered with the corpses of old trucks - school vans particularly - as I guess if something breaks down there's nowhere to take it, so it's left to rot. Outside of bear season - from the end of November onwards - when the tourists have gone and the severe weather is settling in, it must be a hard place to live and work.

It has loads of good points though: mainly the people, who are a really friendly and relaxed lot, and their main hobby seems to be belting around town on quad bikes, which looks great fun. Even though the local bar is a big barn of a place with no atmosphere the restaurants and diners are all full of friendly people who chat to you - generally about bear sightings.

The nature of the area is amazing too: great night skies, including the Northern Lights, thousands of Beluga Whales coming into the river every summer, loads of birds, the bay, the river, lakes and, of course, polar bears.

I went just before polar bear season kicked off, so I didn't see any bears, although there were lots around the outskirts of town as they wait for the bay to freeze over. They are getting bolder and bolder every year it seems - there had been quite a few coming into town this year. Those that come in are tranquilized and transported to the "Polar Bear Jail" outside of town, where they are held until the bay freezes and then released back away from town.

I love walking around places, but you are limited when the bears are around as if you disturb a sleeping bear you can become bear lunch. There were signs around the outskirts of town warning of bears, but I drove out to see the Ithica wreck a few miles out of town and walked down to the shore - a local told me on the way back that that was not a smart thing to do, as they often sleep in the rocks. After that warning I found myself getting halfway to a couple of places and then turning back because of the possibilities of bears. Polar bears are the largest land carnivore and can run at up to 60 km/h...they look cuddly in pictures, but would have no problem making a snack out of a stupid English tourist.

So I missed the bears and, more importantly, they missed me, but I had a great time in Churchill. I took a Tundra Buggy tour, I rented a 4x4 and rode around the place pretending to be an explorer. I think I saw an eagle, and I definitely saw Beluga Whales, which swam alongside and around our boat and then buggered off as soon as you pointed a camera at them :-)

I would like to go back to Churchill for the bear season proper, but also to see the place when it is covered in snow and the bay is frozen over - it must look incredible.