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Churchill – Part 2
So i headed up to the Northern Studies Centre which is located around 25km from the town of Churchill itself. This was to be my home for the next 5 weeks or so, volunteering for 6 hours a day, 6 days a week. Cleaning, washing up and giving a hand where necessary (re-stocking the gift shop, admin work that sort of thing). The perks of the “job” are that i get to go out on the tundra buggy at least a couple of times, along with the paying guests/course participants.
I met my room mates (the volunteer rooms sleep four people in bunks) Lizzie who is from Aberdeen and Sarah who hails from Oregon in the States. I didn’t want to bore you with too much writing so i’ve uploaded the photos as a slideshow and written a short caption for each one, click on the first photo and you will be able see a bigger version.
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- The 2012 Polar Bear Season volunteers! I didn’t notice until afterwards that i was standing right in front of the Snowy Owl picture and it makes me look like i’ve got great huge ears 😀
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- The balcony – our only place to go outside for fresh air. We were’t allowed to go walking around outside without an armed guard in case we encountered a polar bear.
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- the dining room, all set up for traditional food night.
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- Tundra berry jam, ready to go on the homemade bannock at traditional food night. The first course was arctic char.
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- Sarah (left) and Lizzie (right) my fellow volunteers and room mates 🙂
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- View from our room – the first snow!
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- The studies centre building, it only opened quite recently.
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- The view along the back of the building from the viewing deck – i didn’t stay out long it was around -15’C
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- A trip into town to the Parks Canada exhibition which is housed at the station.
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- First time out on the tundra buggy! How cool is this!!
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- The Polar Bear International buggy, they film the bears and do educational webcasts.
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- And the bear came right up to the tundra buggy!
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- What an amazing creature!
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- The young males sparring – play-fighting while they wait for the Hudson bay to freeze up so that they can go back out onto the ice and feed.
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- We also saw Red Fox out on the tundra.
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- and Willow Ptarmigan (like our Red Grouse but they turn completely white in the winter). I didn’t see Rock Ptarmigan on this trip.
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- Heading back across the tundra at the end of the day out on the tundra buggy. Stunning scenery!
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- The studies centre in the background. The centre is sited on what was previously a rocket range.
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- Yes, washing up and looking like i’m having fun – whatever next!
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- Rob, the cook, went outside onto the back steps for his morning cigarette and saw this, it came right up to the steps! The Mike the station director came in one of the vehicles and chased it off. The policy in and around Churchill is not to encourage bears in any way, it is illegal and there is a massive fine for anyone found feeding the bears. It is NOT a good thing for the bears to become accustomed to people.
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- Gorgeous wintery sunset
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- Polar Bear footprints outside the dining room window. Lizzie and i saw the bear but by the time i ran to get my camera he had gone 🙁
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- Night out in town with the girls at the Tundra Inn. Great bison burgers! We drank way too many cocktails. The taxi that took us back to the centre stopped on the tundra in the middle of nowhere and we all got out to watch the aurora. Great night out!
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- The Canadians are very patriotic and you’ll see the national flag flying everywhere 🙂
It was a sad day when i had to say goodbye to Lizzie and Sarah as they headed for the train but we have made plans for the future – Sarah and i are going to meet up in 2013 in France and walk the 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago together and Lizzie, depending on work will hopefully join us for at least a part of the walk. It will seem very strange to be sleeping in a room on my own again, i feel i was so so lucky to have been able to share the last few weeks with such great girls, we’ve had such a laugh and got along so well together.
At the end of the 5 weeks i headed back to town to stay again at Heidi’s house and will post again with more images.
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