Churchill: Polar Bear Capital of the World
Churchill, Manitoba, which is located 970 km north of Winnipeg on the sub-Arctic tundra, accounts itself as "Polar Bear" and "Beluga Whales" capital of the world.
Province of the northern region, instead of its indigenous peoples, which provided land for the indigenous nomadic tribes, who hunted the vessel, seals and whales, and watched the caribou herd migration for thousands of years, through interconnected waterways within their means of transport. Although the Europeans, like Sir Thomas Button, sailed into the mouth of Churchill River as early as 1613 in search of the elusive Northwest Passage to China, it was a secondary discovery, fur Animal-rich, causing the residence to meet the demand created by cold-soaked the continent. In 1670 the company had Adventures in the Hudson Bay Trading was created because the first firm cooperation with existing natives who are confident know their territory, provided that the orientation and guidance, along with work and nutrition. Animals were caught and hided and their fur were transported across the river north of York, canoes and boats in the Hudson Bay, extending the Arctic Ocean, the transfer to the trans-Atlantic, Europe-bound ships. Supplies, on the contrary, had been unloaded from arriving ships and was transported inland to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), increasing the number of bases.
In 1912, the northern region has become the latest edition to the province of Manitoba.
Ore deposits, which is under forest, replaced fur trading as the modern-day resources, which leads to many mining camps, growths, were cities with the population swelling, while the hydro-electric power dams used in rivers.
Churchill himself, who located just below the border between Nunavut and the Province of Manitoba at the junction of Churchill River and Hudson Bay and boasts a population of little more than 1000, included only a few blocks, but still attracts more visitors in search of eco-tourism. The territory itself was inhabited approximately 3500 years, but the first permanent structure was the Prince of Wales Fort built in 1732 across the River. In 1769, the British Royal Society watched Venetian solar eclipse there, but it was not until 1929, after graduating from Hudson Bay Railway, the town site was moved to the current page and in conjunction with rail, developed in the grain port. During World War II, the United States built Strategic Air Command (SAC) base and during the Cold War with the Soviet Union Churchill Research Range, now the Churchill Northern Studies Center, were built. Modern, 22,300-meter square-Churchill Town Center complex, the most recent city construction project that is contained inside the playground, equipment childcare, curling rink, arena, bowling alley, gymnasium, swimming pool, library, pizzeria, 300-seat theater, a school for nursery schools to 12, and overlooks the-cold-to-use beach at Hudson Bay.
Journey to Churchill can be tedious at best. There are no roads in or out. Air Canada offers more-non-stop flights from Toronto and Montreal to Winnipeg, where Via Rail Canada offers three times a week-rail to its appropriately-named Hudson Bay, which lasts approximately 36 hours to cover 1700 kilometers to the ground, sliding three distinct topographical areas: agricultural land, boreal forest, austerely beautiful and tundra. In order to reduce costs, many disk Thompson, where the paved road ends, and Gillam, where the dirt road ends and place it on the train. Calm Air offers twice-daily turboprop Saab 340 service from Winnipeg, which is reduced by one day on weekends.
A half-dozen or so motels, including the Seaport Hotel, Motel Churchill, Aurora Inn, Iceberg Inn, Tundra Inn and Lazy Bear Lodge, all average about 25 rooms and vary from half to all the stars, but he hand-crafted from the fire-killed logs during the fur trade style, is the largest log building in all Manitoba. Although all fares are available, domestic North cuisine, such as Arctic char, caribou and musk ox steak, can be ordered in most restaurants that belong to the motel.
Sights depends on the season: the aurora (Northern Lights), January to March, seals from April to August, bird watching, May to June, wild flowers from June to August, beluga whale watching from July to August, and polar bears from October to November.
On his first day at Churchill, I was elected to a half-day tundra buggy adventure. Following the main, paved road from the city, van crossed the extension of the dirt drive past the former Strategic Air Command base and the current Churchill North Center study, and came to the Tundra Buggy Depot, consisting of two rows of five vehicles backed by increased wooden board platform. buggy itself, in terms of Churchill, featured cannibalized cargo-aluminum chassis, four massive, tubeless tires, and diesel engine 466, and included a school bus-like cushions, bench seats, ovens and toilets in the back and an outdoor viewing platform for viewing wild wildlife.
Negotiations gravel, dirt, rock, mud, swamps, and stream, and sliding barren treeless tundra, tundra buggy lurched around 11 military observation towers and purple, Fireweed wild flowers and green, velvet-like moss on the banks Hudson Bay, to meet tundra swans, caribou, forest, and snow geese on the way to the location of a polar bear. Drinks and snacks to the served as a lone bear by fasting on the tundra autumn temperatures again allow the emergence of ice sheets and more his daily hunt seals, moving around the pond and investigated very high tundra buggy, live maneuvering on both two and four feet, sniffing, looking, and carefully approaching, and got just in the foot observation platform.
Polar Bear life cycle revolves around the seasonality. 1300 polar bears in Hudson Bay, the largest land carnivores, and only a "sea" The bears spend most of their time watching seals from the frozen seas, looking for breathing holes, or hunting from the ice edge sheets. When the ice breaks in spring, are forced to the ground, where it quickly in a few months. Adult males, which differ length from 240 to 260 cm, can weigh between 400 and 600 kg, while females, half length, weighs between 150 and 250 kg.
Morning tour the Prince of Wales Fort and whale-watching area Churchill was scheduled the next day. The fortress itself, access zodiac crossing the river, is a national Historic Site in Canada and was built by the British at the mouth of Churchill in Eskimo Point, the 40-year period between 1732 and 1772 on three basic reasons:
- To create a business center with the natives-that is, Cree, Dene, and Inuit.
- To create a war-time shelter for Hudson's Bay Company ships.
- Building a base from which to carry out a survey to the north.
Star-shaped fortifications, featuring 12-meter-thick walls and bastion of support for the top 40 surrounding guns featured at entry, dual-level men quarter to the left and shops and services, including carpenter, tailor, blacksmith, bakery and, on the right side.
In 1782, when the French navy sailed into Hudson Bay, Prince of Wales Fort, to show miserable match of his opponent with a small, beleaguered crew and lack of ammunition, were handed over to the French Admiral Jean-Francois Galaup, even if the contract later, he returned to British control.
Morning trip, then through the zodiac Churchill, came 3 - to 5-meter deep space in a slow pace, moving in a circle Beluga whales, which regularly Archeda River sky, sometimes four side by side, to breathe the air. So high was two on the surface that the dove nose-first back the water, fins currently going vertical until she disappeared. Babies who are distinguished by their white skin, swimming with mothers who sported dark gray covering. Churchill warmer water, now no longer bound by the ice, was a source of rich marine life and whales, focused on prey, surrounded, tightening their perimeter until it was in their attacks.
Beluga whales, which brain is greater than people with larger areas that the upper lobe and the use of oily sound as their rationale makes sense to enter through their jaws. Because water provides a more effective medium than air, sound waves travel five times faster. Beluga whales are one of the few species that can move around the neck. Typical dishes performance means holding the breath, using the perception deep dive as low as 1000 meters, and attack the fish before returning to the surface.
Spent the afternoon pushing the Visitor Center Churchill, museums, gift shops and restaurants, and the next morning, separated from dusk yesterday, only four hours darkness It was already time for the all-too-early return trip to Winnipeg. Performs air were obtained in two-aa-half hours turboprop aircraft.
Winnipeg, hardly comparable to his native Manhattan, is still the skyscraper metropolis with population growth and congestion, But my thoughts quickly returned to a clear and clean air Churchill, a small town, warm people who probably know all who live there, his barren surroundings, but somehow beautiful sub-arctic tundra and its rich wild animals that lived in harmony with nature, the laws, not men. I should have somehow missed.
I go back there some time ...
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