Polar Bears

Yesterday was polar bear day. We went off before light at 7.00 am for our tundra-buggy tour. Vehicles with tyres five feet high and do a top speed of about 10 km/h. Have been on the tundra before but it was covered in ice and snow and indistinguishable from the Bering Sea which was also frozen. Here, it was beautiful with different coloured plants and lichen and hundreds of small frozen lakes with ice in different patterns. Lots of multi coloured rocks near the shore of Hudson Bay. We saw ptarmigan (like grouse), snow owls and assorted other birds. But the main attraction was polar bears. Took us a while to see our first bear and he was asleep. Apart from lifting his head a couple of times and rolling over once, that was it. We moved positions and then saw several others, all about 100 metres away. Then two, who were sparring on the ice, came over and walked right up to the tundra-buggy. One tried to get up into the tundra-buggy in front of us. It was a lot taller than the wheels when it stood on its hind legs. Everyone was very happy with their day and their photos. Certainly a wonderful experience. We may hire a car tomorrow and drive to near where we saw the bears yesterday. Today we're just in town – caught up with John's friend Greg, went to the Eskimo museum – John, of course, bought a shirt. He'll be opening a shirt shop anytime now. Will go to the station tonight to say goodbye to all our new friends we've met on the train and in town. Most are leaving on tonight's train but we don't go until Saturday. I love Churchill – Impossible to describe the friendly spirit of isolated places like this if you haven't experienced it. Have had lots of invitations to visit people from Minnesota, North Dakota and Boston as well as other places.