Churchill – the polar bear capital of the world & arriving at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge

Churchill is known as the polar bear capital of the world.  Every October/November the polar bears gather in this remote northern town to wait for Hudson Bay to freeze.  Unfortunately, due to flight delays and weather we didn’t have much time here.  We did, however, get a very brief tour of the areas around town.

First up was the polar bear jail.  It is a holding facility built to hold troublesome polar bears before they are relocated further north.  Before this facility was built they used to shoot the problem bears!

Next up was “Miss Piggy” – the carcass of a cargo plane that crashed in 1979 shortly after takeoff (everyone on board survived).  Once covered in graffiti, it was painted in 2017 as part of the SeaWalls Churchill project.

As I said, we didn’t have much time before heading to the airstrip for our flight to the lodge.

The 1 hour flight over the barren tundra was pretty uneventful, although we did see a few polar bears from above!

Before long, we could see the grass airstrip and our remote lodge on the shore of Hudson Bay…

Once settled in we went for a walk in the boreal forest by the lodge.  We didn’t see anything that afternoon, but it didn’t matter, we had many adventures yet to come…

The next morning we were treated to a spectacular sunrise.  The light in the sky was like nothing I’ve ever seen.

You could feel the excitement in the air – it was our first full day and time to find some polar bears!