2018/10 Churchill trip - Churchill - Town |
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Churchill Town |
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Sunday October 21st
Our luggage was whisked away at 6am, leaving us with carry-ons. After a buffet breakfast we were bused across Winnipeg to the charter side of the airport and a Nolinor Airlines 737. We landed at Churchill after 90 minutes at an airport shared with the military.
The terrain looked to be flat, with straggly trees, flagged by the wind so that they only grow branches on their south sides. Officially, this is where the taiga (boreal forest) meets the tundra (no trees), and there are patches of healthier looking trees in protected areas.
We climbed onto a bus that was going to take us on an orientation tour of Churchill and deliver us to our hotel. But it took our driver a long time to get the bus going on the ice and then even longer to avoid taking out the airport fence. Once he got going Sandie began smelling hot brakes and it seemed likely that one of the brakes was stuck on. Then she saw flames around the back wheel. She yelled “Fire!”, and we all piled off the bus in a hurry. We were grateful we had our winter clothes on!
Fortunately the fire didn’t spread to the tyres and the bus didn’t burn. We had time to look at this 
odd mural that graced the old military buildings next to us. We were discouraged from wandering away from the group. Sandie wasn’t wandering; she thought she’d seen a bear just before the fire started. Three smaller buses came out from town and collected us.
On our way into town we passed the polar bear jail. This is where troublesome bears, those that repeatedly come into town, are incarcerated. They are starved for a month and then relocated in a helicopter net. They aren’t supposed to enjoy the experience or they’ll do it all again.
Churchill’s business district is fairly simple, with five cross streets that connect two long ones, one of which extends to the airport. In the other direction it extends to the Churchill River and the port authority, mostly closed because there’s no rail link at present. Until recently, some of Manitoba’s grain would be exported via the railway to Churchill and then by freighter out across Hudson Bay to the Atlantic.
The other long street runs along the shore of Hudson Bay and it is dominated by the massive 
town centre complex that houses the hospital, doctors, school, library, hockey rink, pool, and town administration. It also acts as a windbreak against the wind coming off the lake. It was designed in 1976 for 10000 people, but after some closures and disappointments, the current population is only about 800, so today it looks like overkill. This picture shows less than half of the building.
We passed the hotels and the Tundra Inn’s restaurant where we’d be eating breakfast, took a quick look at the town’s churches and murals, and then we got out at the giant inuksuk for a look at Hudson Bay. I think we stopped there so that we wouldn’t feel any urge to go there by ourselves. We were warned not to go there without a group as bears can lie hidden among the rocks.
Some of us were dropped off at the Ice Berg Inn. We went in and found our suitcases lined up in the lobby and a list of names and room numbers, a short list as there are only 8 rooms. The keys were in the rooms. There was no sign of the owner. We had twin beds, large TV, small table, and a good sized bathroom, clean and comfortable.
We went to shop as encouraged, beginning at the Trader’s Table where we found some 
beautiful and expensive sculptures, which we luckily didn’t need. Sandie came away with a t-shirt and that was the end of our shopping. We checked 
out the Tundra Inn restaurant for lunch, mainly to make sure we could find our way there in the dark for breakfast. The food was a bit expensive but reasonable considering the costs of flying in all the ingredients.
It took us a while to find an open door into the centre 
complex, but once we were in we could walk through most of it. The school was closed on a Sunday but the play areas and library were open and there was art everywhere, even in the form of this bear slide.
We’d hoped to visit the nearby Itsanitaq or Eskimo Museum but it is run by this stylish Catholic Church next door and it is not open on Sundays.
Unfortunately, our schedule wouldn’t allow us to visit on our two tundra days. We went on to the other museum in town, run by Parks Canada inside the impressive railway station. This was quite good, telling the story of the forts and trading posts in the area. The story began with the Danes, and alternated between British and French possession until the fur trade declined. After many years of obsolescence, interest in Churchill increased when the railway provided an export route for Manitoba’s grain.
In more modern times Churchill became a US Army Air Corps base, and then a RCAF and
NATO base, a radio base spying on the Russians, and a Rocket Research Range. It was even a contending site for the testing of nuclear weapons, but they were lucky enough to lose that competition to Australia.
The fauna section included this stuffed polar bear; the males can be 10 feet tall and weigh up to 1500 pounds, but this one looked to be on the skinny side.
We walked through town, getting a better look at the murals.
Some are funny and one is sad, a memorial to a drowned girl. The colourful bear is impressive but at first glance I thought it was a hockey 
goalie!
We found the Anglican church. It was constructed in England and sent to Churchill as a kit, an 
early form of flat pack. In those days Churchill was on the other side of the river. When the focus of the town 
moved across the river to meet the railway the church came too, disassembled and reassembled.
We’d intended eating at the Dancing Bear as it is only a couple of buildings away from our hotel, but they close early on Sundays so we had a longer walk in the dark to the Tundra Inn again. We tried to keep our eyes on both the ground, looking for icy patches, and on the shadows, watching for big furry shapes.
We’d been told that the locals left cars and front doors unlocked so that pedestrians have a refuge if threatened by a bear. We never checked this out for obvious reasons. The threat however is real. Five years ago, a girl walking home late from a party was attacked. A neighbour heard her screaming and attacked the bear with a snow shovel, saving the girl but at the cost of severe injuries to him. Another man drove a truck at the bear and frightened it off. The bear was later shot but only after another bear had been killed by mistake.
Back at the hotel I found that the toe of my Sorel boot had fractured, almost split around. And I’d forgotten to pack my duck tape! Luckily we weren’t going to be doing much walking for the next two days.