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Polar Bears and Beluga Whales – What Else Does a Tourist in the Subarctic Tundra Need?

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Travel Articles >> Locations >> North America >> Canada

Churchill, the Province of Manitoba, Canada

Several minutes after you arrive in this small region, blown by the winds of the subarctic tundra, you realize that this part of the world is ruled by animals, rather than people.

Guests are sometimes warned not to walk in the city in the evening in order to avoid a sudden meeting with a polar bear. On Halloween – the season of polar bears – local citizens use transport and flickering lights to block the roads and encircle the city around the periphery for assuring the young jokers’ safety.

In the east of the city the forest area ends clearing the way for bald mountains and badlands where foxes and other wild animals walk freely and there are no signs of human civilization – neither buildings, nor roads, only the wild land, apparently, leading to endless waters of Hudson Bay.

This is a piece of virginal nature indeed. Its numerous bears, whales and other creatures attract thousands of tourists every year.

Even after many years of work local guides are full of devout fear. “Every time you look into the eyes of a polar bear – is like the first time”, John Gunter tells. His family brings tourists to see big animals in safe cross-country buses, called “tundra carriages”.

“When this 1000-pound creature bends over our carriage and looks straight in your eyes – it is a great sensation. We look like a big human sandwich, and they are hungry – they haven’t eaten for several months, and they stare at us in such a way as if they are ready to eat us.”

Tourists can travel in such carriages from one to three days. Some tours even include overnight stay in carriages in the open air among animals.

Bears come to Churchill every September as if according to the schedule, just when water in the bay freezes. Somehow they know that water freezes here first, since fresh water from the nearest river Churchill dilutes salty water from the bay. They stay here approximately two months and in the end of November go away on the ice to hunt seals.

Groups of tourists who come here in the end of spring can see other big wild animals – beluga whales. Thousands of white 4-meter long whales come here in the end of June. Tourists can sail on small boats or kayaks close to these affectionate creatures. Whales remain in these waters till September.

They are very playful. “They sail up to your boat so close that you can touch them”, tells Erin Madden who went on such a tour in August. “They want us to follow them, sail up to the boat, then go down and rise at some distance from there. When we sail to the shore, they sail near the boat. And then wait us to come back for a long time, as if they don’t want us to leave them”.

The most difficult thing in Churchill is to book a room and a tour. There are very few hotels there. You have to book carriage-tours and other excursions at least one month before your journey.

It is more convenient to buy tourist packets “all included”. Cost of the tours is rather high – 1000$ per day and more.
Those who have already been here claim that the journey is worth all these expenses and concerns.

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Article Submitted On: October 24, 2007