2010 Far North Trip Expedition Peel Summer Academy: Good Evening World, This is Churchill Calling!

Our day started when the train finally pulled into its final stop in Churchill, the final destination of our Far North Expedition.

After collecting our luggage from the baggage car, we proceeded to our bus (provided by the Churchill Northern Studies Centre) for a quick trip to “downtown” Churchill. Considering that most of us live near large cities, it came as a surprise that the café we stopped at was a about a minutes drive from the train station. After touring a part of the town, we drove out along the coast of Hudson Bay. Regrettably we didn’t see any polar bears during our drive, but have no fear there is still plenty of time to spot some in the tundra.

On our way down the very bumpy unpaved road, we saw the equivalent of an Ontario/BC community centre. It housed the school, hospital, library, community pool, and indoor playground. A multipurpose building like this is necessary here in the Polar Bear Capital. It provides people with multiple services all in one location which is ideal in extremely cold weather.

With the town behind us we journeyed on to our new temporary home, the Study Centre. After being assigned and briefed on the rules, we quickly settled in time for lunch.

After a day of introductory lessons on atmospheric chemistry and assignment catch-up time, Doug led us on a walk of the property. As we walked, we marvelled at the sight of the old rocket launchers from when the property was run by the National Research Council.

Doug teaching about rocket launchers, and how to not get eaten by polar bears

As our first day in Churchill winds down, we have time to reflect on many new things we learned, such as Birdfish. To people not from northern Manitoba, this word sounds ridiculous. To us it is the logo and newly appointed mascot of the Study Centre. You can see it on just about everything here at the Centre from notices to patches in the gift shop.