Remeber, Remember, The Time I Was A Bear Chaser (Part Two)

"Good luck, hopefully you guys will find some polar bears today." Said Mr. Gould, who was my bed and breakfast host in Churchill. 

I still couldn't believe that only the day before, I was alone in the polar bear country without any protections. I was sure glad that no polar bears decided to pop up in the middle of the road to check out a helpless human being on a bicycle he borrowed from his bed and breakfast. 

The town of Churchill in early morning

After having a very delicious breakfast at a local Portuguese restaurant called "The Gypsies", I headed to the gathering point for the Tundra Buggy tour. The purpose of the tour? Seeing wild, arctic animals like the polar bears in a relatively safe setting. Tundra Buggies were those monstrous vehicles built by the locals just for the purpose of seeing polar bears. We were able to stand on the platform of the Buggy which was high enough to take a look at whatever things in the arctic tundra just outside of Churchill, including polar bears if by any chance. 

The Tundra Buggy

On our way to the Tundra Buggy station, we passed by an eerie looking building. Our guide Neil, a man from British Columbia who worked in Churchill during the travel season told us that those buildings were radar stations under the control of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) during the Cold War. Because Churchill is a town that's north enough to detect possible Soviet nuclear missiles before they hit the heavily populated areas down south, the United States and Canada together built the radar station to monitor potential threats coming from the extreme north. As the Soviet Union collapsed, the radar station has been dismantled ever since.

The NORAD Radar station

Once we boarded the Tundra Buggy, Neil began to explain to us the regulations set by the Canadian environmental protection authorities, and how a man from Alberta didn't listen and was fined $20,000 for pouring coke on the ground in a polar bear resting area. He also told us some facts about polar bears, such as the size and the weight of adult and cubs, and the fact that they can run 40 kilometer an hour.

The tundra and the Hudson Bay

40 kilometers and hour?! My body just froze upon hearing it. Only the day before I was riding a bicycle alone in the polar bear country, and there was no way I could ride 40 kilometers an hour! Neil then pointed to a  a facility which is used to lock up polar bears that have hurt humans before near the Buggy Station. Humans are not polar bears' natural hunting targets. However for bears that had attacked humans before, they will be more likely to target and assault humans again. It made me feel fortunate that I didn't end up giving some random polar bears that kind of lousy habit. 

The Buggy Trail on the arctic tundra

Neil started the engine, the Tundra buggy began to move forward. It was very slow but very steady. The Buggy could go through all types of terrains on the Arctic permafrost, regardless if it was grassland, rocky hills, or even seasonal lakes. Arctic swan was the most abundant form of wildlife I saw while on the Buggy - if there were lakes, there would be swans. If the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Andersen had been to Churchill no found out that swans there are just common birds so easy to spot, they would probably chose some other creatures as the centerpiece of their fairy tales.

An arctic swan colony on the tundra

"You see that bird? You could only see them in an arctic climate zone". Neil pointed to a chicken looking creature. "They are called Ptarmigans".

A Ptarmigan

But after the Ptarmigans we didn't really get any chances to see any other animals. I knew everyone else coming to Churchill and doing the Tundra Buggy tours for probably one fairly obvious reason: seeing the polar bears. Yet there were still no polar bears appearing in front of our eyes anywhere on the flat and vast tundra land.

"The most stunning roads trips happened on roads that are less traveled"

Around noon time, we stopped by a polar bear resting area for lunch, hoping to see some polar bears. Neil told us that he hadn't seen any bears for the past one week or so. However, there were several reports of polar bear activities in the Cape Merry area only two day before (one day before my lone adventure there).  Uldo brought along a bottle of Scotch Whiskey he got at London Heathrow on his way to Canada. We ended up drinking and eating lunch while waiting for bears to show up, which they never did. Uldo suggested that we should all get drunk so that we could all hallucinate seeing polar bears.

The polar bear resting area where we had lunch

We were out of luck.  There were no presence of any polar bears during the 30 minute stay near the polar bear resting area. The Tundra Buggy started moving again. I could feel that half of the people on the Buggy somewhat had the feeling that they were not going to see any polar bears on this trip. Well, that's disappointing. However if there was one thing worth seeing on the Tundra Buggy other than the polar bears, I'd say it's the beautiful sceneries of the tundra. 

An empty polar bear resting area

"Hold on a sec, I think we are in luck". Neil told us as he pointed at a white dot in a bush that was about 800 yards away from us. He quickly grabbed his binoculars and at the same time drove the Buggy towards the dot. It turned out that it was a Caribou's antelope. Neil asked us to watch out polar bears for him. He jumped all the way from the Tundra Buggy to the ground below and went straight to the antelope. After retrieving it, he ran all the way back without wandering around.

The tundra. All the red colored plants are tundra berries, which pretty much make up much of polar bears' diet in the summer season

"That would be interesting if a polar bear actually showed up. Then we could all go home happily". Uldo joked. 

The antelope Neil found on the tundra

During our half day out in the arctic tundra, we never ended up seeing a single polar bear. Neil was gracious enough to teach everybody how to drive a Tundra Buggy, and we really had fun playing with that monstrous machine. Eventually we reached the Buggy station, and everyone seemed to be a little bit disappointed for not spotting any polar bears.

The seasonal lakes on the tundra

On our way back to Churchill on the shuttle. We were sitting there very quietly. Neil furthermore told us about the history of the region and showed us some really interesting sights. We saw a ship that was once owned by Mussolini somehow disappeared in Europe 50 years ago, but managed to show up on the shore of Hudson Bay as a shipwreck many years later. There was even a crashed airplane called Miss Piggy which was taken care by nobody, right in front of the road .  Suddenly Neil steered the shuttle bus to the road right next to Miss Piggy towards the Hudson Bay. "Let's gamble one more time, probably we could see some polar bears".

Birds playing in one of the seasonal lakes

As the shuttle bus roaring in the middle of nowhere, the bus remained silent.  To break the stiff air, Uldo, Liz, and I began to talk about our own experiences in Berlin. Liz shared with us the story of her job as a tour guide for the American soldiers to East Berlin during the cold war era. I was listening very attentively, too attentive that I didn't realize the bus stopped. 

The tundra near Hudson Bay

"What is going on?" Liz asked.

Neil simply said:

"Polar Bears"

Outside of the window, there were three polar bears slowly moving behind a giant chunk of boulder. One never ended up showing its face to us and it quickly withdrew itself from our sights. The two remaining bears, one an adult and another an older cub, were playing with each other. 

"The Kiss"

A while later the adult bear noticed us. The younger one quickly retreated to the back of the boulder but the adult bear remained at its spot. Then the adult bear began to patrol the area and would occasionally looking at the direction where we were. We did not make any noises that could draw the bear's attention, as we were instructed by Neil. Eventually the adult polar bear retreated as well. 

As we disembarked the shuttle bus, we all thanked Neil for his dedication and professionalism on hunting for the footsteps of polar bears on the seemingly endless arctic tundra. I found my bicycle on the same spot I left in the early morning, and raced around the town with excitement. Eventually I was taken to the waterfront square, where all the signs had been telling me do not walk around as there might be polar bears.

I couldn't wait to see another one.

(Continued on Part Three)

The Hudson Bay