Manitoba - August 2022

Link to more photos (and one video). View the photos individually to see the captions.

Polar bears, beluga whales, and aurora borealis!

With Victor's love of bears (see here and here and here), we certainly had to go to Churchill, Manitoba to see polar bears some day. When I found this warm weather tour, I signed up. And despite some rain in the forecast ahead of time, the weather was very good.

First, we flew to Winnipeg. I was annoyed that they booked us at a hotel away from the airport that didn't offer airport pick-up.

At breakfast the next day, we met two people going on our tour. I figured there would be a handful of people joining us, but when we first gathered together, I was surprised to find more than fifty people in our tour group!

We had a charter flight just for our group (!) from Winnipeg to Churchill — no security checks! — followed by a tour of the area.

The next day, we went on a boat tour to see beluga whales. They were easy to find.

The following day was open for pricey extras (kayaking, aqua-gliding) which we didn't buy. So we wandered the town, although it's not very big and there's not a lot to do or see.

Next came polar bears! We did get good views of swimming polar bears and more distant views of them on land. Here's a 13-second video of one coming ashore and shaking off water:

We saw aurora borealis briefly one night (see the photos). On a tundra tour the next morning, we saw a distant caribou, one even more distant pair of polar bears, and birds including a golden eagle.

We left Churchill on another charter flight to Winnipeg, this time staying at an airport hotel. But the next day, our first flight to return home left too early to use the included breakfast.