A wild day looking for Polar Bears in Churchill Manitoba

November 16, 2014

A dream of a lifetime was to see and photograph polar bears where they live. And so Linda and I risked over $4000 and

booked a polar bear trip through Frontiers North in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

We planned for over six weeks emailing our travel agent many times to inquire as of the presence of bears and the weather. Guihlem Roche was always nice and very upbeat.  We traveled to Winnipeg the day before our trip to the polar bear capitol of the world which is how Churchill describes itself. We got to Canada and could not find our instructions as to where to go and since it was a Saturday, no  one was in at the Frontiers North office  we left a message for Guihlem and of course he called us at our motel and reassured us of everything.

The next morning we arrived at the departing terminal around 6AM and Guihlem was there greeting us. He had visited our web site so he knew what we looked like and again he was friendly and very encouraging. We met the other 35 or so travelers and boarded the plane for the about two hour flight to Polar Bear land.  One of our travelers was the world renowned animal biologist, Dr.Vince Crichten. He is one of the worlds foremost moose experts and he was traveling with his young granddaughter and his wife.  We had a number of strong and interesting conversations with him on the very enjoyable flight to Churchill.

We arrived and went into the very cold terminal and onto a bus which would take us about 20 kilometers to the wild life management area where we boarded in icy , windy snowy and very cold weather a neat Tundra Buggy. The buggy was wide, warm and had a propane fireplace at the rear entrance. There was much excitement among all of us and although it was windy and snowy we were very much looking forward to an incredible day. It was to be such a day just not in any way as we had thought. About forty people who had paid around $1500 each not including their considerable expense in reaching Winnipeg were about to embark on a long, cold , depressing and very difficult search for non existent polar bears.

Two day prior we were told about twenty seven bears had been spotted all near the buggy. The day before between 7 to 15 bears were photographed. Today there would be  zero bears.

Around 1:30 we stopped and were served hot soup and a cold but tasty sandwich. The hot soup really hit the spot and the sandwich was good. I asked the driver if we were going back the same way we came and he kind of quickly answered he didn't know and then realized what he had really said and kind of joked and asked if I had a good direction to go in. I think at that point everyone knew the day was about to get very much longer.

Our guide took us everywhere he could and looked late into the day but no bears. It seems we were informed that the weather had changed overnight and the bears had left to go out on the ice of Hudson Bay.

Our guide tried to get us to drive the Tundra Buggy and had us take pictures of a sunset in the middle of blizzard like conditions but we came to see the polar bear and did not. Picture taking under these circumstances wasn't any fun! Still most of us made the effort.

 There is a polar bear jail in Churchill where we were told that about 13 bears were being held for release. A fellow passenger late in the afternoon begged the driver, Please could we go to the jail and take a single picture of just one polar bear. The driver was courteous but firm in that it wasn't possible.

And so we arrived around 5PM back at the terminal where we boarded the plane and went back to Winnipeg.  There was much unhappiness on the plane. to add to the distress, after being on the frozen tundra all day and being so disappointed, we were served a cold dinner.  Needless to say that did not help. I am almost 70 and have been married almost 50 years and frankly I was so depressed on the flight back at the thought we had wasted so much money and risked our health for what appeared to be a terrible situation, I did not know what to do. I apologized to my wife over and over until she plainly said, "Grow up! Not our fault! We will be ok!". She is right of course but wow!

The owners met us back in cold windy snowy weather in Winnipeg and many people openly expressed their displeasure. John and Linda Gunter were very nice and offered us a free trip next year which we have accepted. Dr. Crichten said he told the owners they should not have booked people after November 1st due to the changing weather and the leaving of the bears. In retrospect I am not certain what I feel. At our age and in our health this was a major undertaking and  gosh we don't regret it.

We thought, we think it would be absolutely wonderful to have a polar bear experience. If God allows us to go and the Gunters really mean what they said, we will return next year at an earlier date and see and photograph Polar Bears.
 

The people we dealt with including the tour guide and Guihlem and the owners were all nice people who did the best they could. Still for over forty people, this would be an incredibly depressing and disappointing experience.  Linda ad I will try to go back as soon as we can because we don't give up and we really think seeing the polar bear would be a lifetime wonderful experience.

The above pictures were taken by Dr. Stephen D Petersen, MSc PhD, a beautiful young Zoo Director who was with us this day. He took these pictures the week before our trip and they are exactly what we had hoped and expected to see. Next year we will see them! Dr. Stephen is the Head, Conservation and Research at Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg.