On our first Tundra Buggy Adventure of the summer we saw a very curious bear at Halfway Point. She checked us out for about half an hour. Everyone enjoyed taking tons of pictures of her! She seemed to be a bit on the small side. Usually at this time of the year they (polar bears) are quite well fed, but this bear did not seem to be that way. With the early break-up of the ice, feeding season for the bears was once again a bit short this year. Read more about the early ice-breakup from our friends at Polar Bears International.
Where the heck is Halfway Point you ask?
Halfway Point is generally considered by locals as the mid-way point between Churchill and Cape Churchill. The thin peninsula reaches out into the Hudson Bay and is a popular spot with the polar bears both in summer and winter months.
Also on our tour we saw Sandhill Cranes and many Canada Geese with their wee goslings. We actually saw two bears on the tour, thought the other one was far in the distance sleeping.
Submitted by: Dave Allcorn, Frontiers North Adventures
For those of you who have already had an Authentic Arctic Experience with Frontiers North Adventures, we’re sure you’ll be able to relate to some of these. Here are our top ten favourite things about Polar Bear Season.
- Bears!!
- Seeing our guests faces light up at their first glimpse of a bear
- Bears lumbering across the tundra, backlit by a Manitoba sunset
- Reconnecting with old friends as staff (and bears!) arrive in town for the season
- Northern Lights
- The clicking of cameras
- The people of Churchill
- The sense of adventure
- Nicest sunrises/sunsets you will ever experience
- Meeting people from all over the world
Aside from our top ten favourites, here is a sample polar bear season through the eyes of our staff:
- mother love (mother & cub)
- seeing our seasonal staff back in town and catching up
- A packed gift shop – this year there will be more room – hurray!
- the sound of the plane/train arriving into Churchill – sort of like “OK, everyone. All hands on deck”!
- bears sparring!
- Hallowe’en in Churchill, there’s nothing like it!
- softly falling snow
- howling winds
- helping our guests smell, taste and feel this environment
- empowering vastness, wilderness
- majestic animals living trough climatic changes
- exposure to a totally different environment
- anticipation
- Gypsy’s Bakery
- crisp air and snow crunching under your boots
- when a guest takes the time to stop by the office and say thanks for a great trip
- excited guests
- the smell of cold air
- the “whooshing” sound of the propane furnace firing up in the morning
- camaraderie and joking around while getting the buggies ready in the morning
- ruddy cheeks
- sun dogs
- exhilaration
- peace
- solitude
- driving a buggy through a storm and seeing the sun breaking through the clouds showing the way
In 2009, long-time WWF volunteer Wanda Hall won the Earth Hour contest and traveled to Churchill with Frontiers North Adventures to see polar bears and other wildlife.
Wanda has travelled far and wide to see animals in the wild, but she said that this trip in particular, getting to see polar bears in their natural environment, made her realize how important it is that we decrease our footprint on the earth.
Wanda also happens to be the gal behind WWF’s panda mascot. Read all about Wanda’s adventure as the WWF panda mascot meeting Frontiers North polar bear. http://blog.wwf.ca/blog/2010/07/20/why-i-volunteer-wanda-hall/
We’re thrilled to know that Wanda had such a great experience with us in Churchill.
Yesterday we showed you some great street-level imagery used by the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) in New York City to promote Canada, including polar bears in Churchill. Here is another example of how the CTC has worked towards accomplishing their goal of increased awareness of Canada in Germany. The image below shows a billboard that was displayed in the Spring of 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany. The billboard was located in very high traffic area on the “Zeil“, right in the heart of Frankfurt. The area is home to high-end fashion boutiques and department stores with many pedestrians and tourists in the area each day.
According to Global Tourism Watch (2008), with one in five mentions, “Canada” ranks third among the long-haul destination brands identified by Germans on an unaided basis. “Australia” and “the US” are the two top brands, with each mentioned by just under a third of German travellers. The CTC has done a tremendous job promoting Canada in Germany, especially our Tundra Buggy Adventures in Churchill. We look forward to seeing their next big advertising campaign.
We have a great working relationship with the Canadian Tourism Commission. A couple years ago, we hosted one of their film and photography crews up in Churchill to capture some great promotional images and video. One particular image of a polar bear leaning on our Tundra Buggy has been utilized by the CTC in major billboard and magazine campaigns all over the world. The latest is a great campaign in Manhattan to grab New Yorkers attention about Canada as a vacation destination.
The fronts of three Manhattan stores were wrapped with huge vinyl wallpapers covered by engaging imagery illustrations of unique Canadian experiences – one of which was the large polar bear and Tundra Buggy image with the following question as a headline: Does polar bear breath smell like fish?
Check out the image below of the wallpaper and this article that further explains the campaign!
FNA Polar Bears in Churchill guest, Amanda Bunyan, is now a bit of a celebrity in the United Kingdom. She shared with us a photo she took on our adventure that was featured in the March issue of Lonely Planet Magazine. The photo was in an article called ‘Postcards’, where the magazine features reader-captured photographs with a short story about where the image was taken and what’s happening. Amanda and her mother travelled with us this past autumn on our Tundra Buggy Lodge Enthusiast-level adventure.
To help CBS celebrate Earth Day 2010, we teamed up with The Price is Right to offer one lucky contestant an opportunity to win a trip to Churchill, Manitoba (not quite the Arctic Circle) to experience wild polar bears on a Tundra Buggy Adventure!
Watch Edward from Minnesota exhibit more energy than an atom bomb attempt to solve ‘Pick a Pair’ and join us this autumn!
Our 2010 Northern Lights & Winter Nights adventure has officially come to an end. We first would like to extend a big thank you to Travel Manitoba and the Canadian Tourism Commission for supporting and helping coordinate our fantastic media guests on our adventure. The trip was definitely a huge success!
We had a great week. We made many new friends and had a blast. The stars aligned for our evening Tundra Buggy excursions across the frozen Churchill River, where we experienced amazing northern lights viewing. Also, our snowshoeing adventure with our friend Mike Macri, our experience at the start line of the Hudson Bay Quest and dogsledding excursion with Blue Sky Mush were all excellent.
A key message we sent home with our Northern Lights & Winter Nights guests is that the community of Churchill and tour operators know tourism and are successful at delivering world-class service when thousands of guests visit during October and November for polar bears. The cool part about visiting Churchill in March for northern lights, dog-sledding and snow shoeing — essentially the “off-season” — is that our group alone were able to benefit from the knowledge and experience of Churchill’s tourism professionals on a more intimate level.
Here are some images that we took of the adventure!
This past Autumn we had the pleasure of hosting some of our Winnipeg industry partners up in Churchill to experience a full-day Tundra Buggy Adventure, and to also help us honour Debby the Polar Bear by Gordon Point. Justin Gagnon and Carly Thompson of Anvil Digital (the agency that created our amazing 3D rendering of Tundra Buggy One featured on our Tundra Buggy website) joined us and put together this great video blog of their experience with us. Check it out!
First Bear Sighting of Summer 2011
