Museums, Forts and Whales (Oh my!).

We woke up to a much nicer day this morning. The sun was shining, even though it was still chilly to us northerners we ran out in shorts and t-shirts. Our travels started with a trip into town to the Eskimo Museum where we enjoyed authentic Inuit art as well as some fluffy stuffed animals.

An example of Inuit sculptures, animals are a big theme in thier art

A big fluffy cuddle buddy. (a stuffed polar bear)

Harry, after a very long night. (More Inuit sculpture) 

An arctic wolf.

An arctic fox.

 After our visit to the Eskimo Museum, we hopped onto the ferry to visit Fort Prince of Wales. The fort was set up by the Hudson Bay Company in 1731. The fort was held for many years before the second governor Samuel Hearne, who had large pet beaver living with him in his office, surrendered the fort to the French. The French disabled the fort’s cannons and destroyed the fragile parts of the fort, leaving only the large stone walls. As we ascended to the top floor of the fort, we had a magnificent view of the Hudson Bay where it met the Churchill River. From here we could see a preview of what the ferry ride back would allow us to experience, a bunch of belugas surfacing.

The Far Northers with the Fort Prince of Wales in the background.

The Fort Prince of Wales.

On our ride back to Churchill, we crossed the river via ferry, where we saw an incredible number of beluga whales. The number of whales we saw was incredible. There were tons of whales. We saw pods of 7 or 8 whales at a time circling and descending under our boat, surfacing very often. We were lucky to hear the whale songs from a microphone on the ferry. On our way to the shore, we saw what seemed like an army of hundreds of belugas of all ages and sizes around the boat. The babies were a tan-beige colour, while the cubs were grey and the adults were a bright white. We even saw a seal or two.

A few pictures of our Beluga adventures.

Sitting on the Ferry, having fun spotting whales.

After returning to the center, we had a lesson on GPS navigation. Using this knowledge, we went out to an open patch of tundra, where we had a GPS scavenger hunt. After fending off the swarms of mosquitoes, our first real encounter with the mass of bugs in Churchill, getting wet in the tundra bog, and finding clues we found using GPS co-ordinates, we raced to decipher a coded message. Liam was the first to successfully decode the message, shortly followed by the football team of Emma, Greg and Shawna. In the end we were all winners and won a prize of a thousand mosquito bites and one lollipop each.

After a long day of adventure we all headed back to the center, to get ready for another big day.

Signed Eric and Larissa.