Day 9 - Churchill

The night on the train was like as a night on a train usually is. I slept in all kind of positions on my double seats. I am sure there were moments where I slept head down and legs up. But I survived, so the day was on. The train arrived 3,5 hours late so I was a bit worried if I am going to make something of my day at all, and the same time I felt angry at ViaRail because the 9am arrival is nothing more than an aspiration. The departure time from Thompson was moved to 4 hours later a month ago after I bought the tickets, but the arrival time remained the same. I thought that the train will be able to catch up that 4 hours and ViaRail thought the passengers will be stupid enough to believe that. ViaRail was right. At Churchill station they told me that the train is 4 hours late since the schedule change. I somehow figured this out on the middle of the way that the arrival time has not been changed to not loose out on clueless passengers hoping to arrive in the morning. Approaching Churchill the whole train was looking out the windows to see a glimpse of what is awaiting them here at the end of the rail road, the end of the world, the beluga and polar bear capital of the world.

The whale tour operator was only 200m away from the station. Upon arrival they told me I can't do snorkeling with the whales on the afternoon boat tour (I booked for the morning tour) because the low tide brings in all the mud from the shore and I won't see anything. I couldn't feel more devastated. All the way up here and now this? Of course I couldn't accept this and persuaded the lady as long as she said: OK, let's try it. Yes! We had some time to pick up our rental 4x4 before the whale tour and check out the Eskimo museum.

Then we drove down to the port where I got my wetsuit. Getting on one of these is already half the fun. Frictious as it couldn't be more. Jamie, our boat driver navigated us to open water where the whales were. Occasionally there was a seal sticking his head out to check us out. And then you could see them, the majestic white bodies diving out and back again. And then you could see the white humps everywhere, they were so many. It took some time to see some of them close, as - naturally - they try to avoid the boat. But once you see a white blur right next to the edge of the boat, you know they came to make contact. Who are we? It was time to get into the water. Jamie explained me how the drill goes, and hush I was in the arctic waters of the Hudson Bay. My gentle entry into their kingdom made the whales swim away. It took some time until they dared to come back again. And then the moment came. I saw one of these white giants swim away under me.

He was about 3 meters below me. I got exited. And then another came, swimming along with me, with his belly up. I could see his eyes looking at me. And then I could hear their voices. It was unbelievable, there I was in their very home of these 5 meter long beasts and they said: Hello, who are you?. Indescribable...I winked them back and made some friendly laughter voices trying to communicate back. In the meantime more of them came and I could see 5 belugas at once. Time stopped for me there and I was a 6 year old child again. I could have stayed there forever but we had to go back because of the low tide. We were out 1.5 hours then, but I just wanted to stay more. No chance, Jamie was determined. I could understand her when we almost grounded on the way back, as the water was 2 meters lower than when we left. But it was totally worth it, even with the limited visibility...I was so happy I could do the snorkeling with them. Unfortunately the picture quality of my underwater camera didn't turned out too good because of all the mud in the water, but I could piece together what is on the video with what I have seen with my eyes.

After the whale tour we had 2 hours to check out the vicinity around Churchill. There is a gravel road leading out of Churchill, that one is called the highway. And then you have dirt roads branching off that will lead you to all the interesting things to see. These roads are only for terrain vehicles as you drive over big rocks and through deep pools of water and sometimes through high grass. So that's why we got the 20 year old Nissan Pathfinder. Rugged as it is I had no problem with it, you just have to get used to the fact that once you are off-road, don't expect a smooth ride. We went to the MV Ithaca shipwreck that stands out on the shore for 50 years now.

It was low tide so you could have walked there if you have time. It's about a 1-2 km away from the furthest point you can get with the car. The other discouraging factor was that they spotted a polar bear near to it, that day morning. Although I had bear spray and a hunting knife with me, I knew that once I was on that open ground (huge plain shore area) there is no easy escape from a polar bear. I didn't expect the bear spray to work on the polar bear. The bear spray is designed against that berry-eating sometimes camper's sausage hunting black bears (much smaller than a polar bear). This beast slays walrus and muskox so I didn't expect some pepper spray to deter him. People are using guns here as polar bear protection (Douglas, the teacher of the school kids carried also one for this reason). On the way back we checked out the research center (a former rocket site), the golf ball style radars, the polar bear jail and Miss Piggy, the downed aircraft near the airport.

Then it was to reach the train back to Thompson. Churchill had it's charm, and I have a feeling I will be back here again some time, especially to snorkel with the whales...unforgettable. Only I will take the plane next time.