After a week relaxing lakeside with family we hopped on a plane to the charming, unique, and isolated town of Churchill.
The town is tiny (870 people) and very isolated – a very long train trip or a flight on a small plane. It’s right on the Hudson Bay and is famous as a congregation point for polar bears and beluga whales. The isolation, the nature, and the vibes were really special and we fell in love with the place.
Northern Lights
We were also hoping to see the Northern Lights and that was the first win for us. The first full day was exceptionally clear so we signed up for the call list (they call and then pick you up if the lights are out). And sure enough, we were chatting in bed when we got the call.
Off we went and we were treated to an incredible show. The lights slowly morphed and moved all over the sky.Eventually, at about 00:30 a real substorm hit and the entire sky began dancing rapidly in multiple colors. It was absolutely incredible. But freezing!
Polar Bears
The polar bears typically arrive a little later in the year, but we were hoping to see the first ones arriving in town and we got very lucky! We ended up seeing bears every day, and plenty of them.
The bears are hungry and when they can, they grab the geese. We saw two bears succeed, although in this case the geese were wise to the danger.The bears LOVE water and will very happily undertake long swims. These two swam across a bay instead of walking around it. The cub would often hang onto mom’s back.They were clearly accustomed to humans and very aware of our presence. Even the guides (or perhaps especially) were very, very nervous about any that got close.That evening we popped back to the beach to watch another sunset, now knowing that the bears move through the area.And sure enough, we saw the mom and her cub turning up over the rise!Bears are enough of a danger that the town has a reaction team on standby at all times and they turned up within minutes of being called.They allowed her to make her way past and then fired off fireworks to hurry her along. Some bears become problematic, hanging around town and refusing to be chased off. Those are captured (huge bear traps) and put in the polar bear jail for 28 days!
Beluga Whales
The other reason for our visit was beluga whales. They arrive a little earlier in the season but there were still hundreds of them in the river and the bay. Basically any time you looked at the water you would see their white backs popping up.
We went on a zodiac tour which was great because the guide (shout out Mercedes) had tons of excellent information. Belugas are super inquisitive and they came right up to us which was magical.And then we also did an incredible kayaking tour. Here again the whales kept coming up to us and interacting with us which was incredible. We could clearly hear them whistling and chirping to each other.It's obviously very important not to touch the whales. But they are so curious that they'll try to touch you and we had to pull our hands back several times.
The town itself
The town itself is very interesting. It’s kinda barren, and very small. One of the most awesome things about the town is all the excellent murals. There is an interesting documentary about how it all started (Known I Am Here). We loved finding them all over the place.
This is a plane, known as Miss Piggy that crashed decades ago. We were actually quite sad to leave Churchill when the time came. It's such a unique and magical place.
