tundra and wolves!

 Another very early morning, so that we could catch a pre-dawn fight to Churchill.  That made it possible to enjoy a beautiful sunrise from the plane.  The flight from Winnipeg to Churchill takes about 2 1/2 hours (in a twin propeller plane) flying almost the entire time over a vastness of nothingness dotted by many lakes that shimmered in the sunlight.  It’s pretty in an extremely desolate kind of way.

 

Churchill (which we will visit on our way back) has a tiny airport, where we switched to and even tinier plane for the last leg of our trip to Nanuk lodge. 

 

 The flight takes about 1 hour, and, since it flies much lower than a commercial plane, gave us better views of the surreal landscape.  We even saw our first polar bears (I saw 5 - could not take pictures though) and a moose1

  It’s hard to convey how far from civilization we are.  Only reachable by plane, no TV, no cellular. (They have satellite WIFI- which is not great, but explains why I can blog at all.  The lodge itself is all wood, cozy and grand at the same time, with lots of huge windows to enjoy the view and (hopefully) see much wild life.

 After a very nice lunch of soup, stuffed bread and cranberry cake (Forget dieting for a few days), we went for our first ride on the Hudson Bay low land:  a part of the sub boreal forest that keeps growing thanks to isostatic rebound  (google it! it's fascinating!). We go out on these "tundra rhinos" - specially deigned vehicles that can ride through the bogs, steams, rocks and vegetation of the area.

Speaking of vegetation:  it is spectacular!  Fall is setting in and the colors are just beautiful

We had an amazing encounter we a pair of young wolves.  They were born in May, part of a litter of 6 puppies.  We first saw 2 of them and got off our vehicles to get closer.  They were just as interested in us as we were in them and kept coming closer to us.  Then one of them howled several times to call the pack!  I have a wonderful video of it, but not enough bandwidth to share it right now.  We followed them for a bit until they met with 2 other pups and spent time playing together - and then again just came to hang out around us - it was really magical!

Our guides, Emri and Adam carry guns with them - but have never used them on the wildlife other than, on very few occasions to make noise to scare them away.

This is bird migration season.  There are A LOT of birds!  I will try to identify them as we go:  for now, there are 5 type of geese:  Canada, Snow, Blue morphe, Asoss and one that I don,t know....  I'll work on it....

 While we were having dinner, a black bear came to see if we would share....  we did not...  (the gate is electrified to keep wild life away.  Black bears are not particularly dangerous....  but polar bears are.

The sunset was magnificent.