Polar Bears Churchill

We arrived in Churchill, a town of 700 permanent residents, just as the Olympic Torch relay was happening. We jumped off the bus with our cameras and followed it to the town sqaure. Watched the last of the 3 runners light the cauldron and we all sang O Canada. Then the school kids sang it in French and Iniut. A couple of people spoke, we got our picture taken holding someone's torch and had a free hotdog.
Excellent intro to our 3 night stay here.
Back to the hotel to checkin. Grace then went off dog-sledding. Since dogs and I do not get along, I went out for a walk with camera in hand and shot a few rolls. The town is perched between the river and Hudson's Bay and so the ice forms here quite quickly due the heavy mix of fresh water.
Dinner and then down to the Park Office for a lecture about the Northern Lights.
Finally getting into bed about 9:30 after having been up since 4 am and Grace comes racing into the room for her camera. The Lights are out she says. I jump up, pull on the warm pants and jacket over my pjs and rush outside. Fantastic swirls of green light.
Next 2 days were spent in the converted school buses roaming the tundra and we are very lucky - we saw about 30 bears each day. A few had cubs that the guide told us would probably me almost 2 years old. They are born in December January time, stay in the maternity den until about March when Mum brings them out to play and teach them survival.
The bears are getting anxious to eat as they have not done so for 5 or 6 months. They are at the shore waiting for the ice to solidfy so they can catch the next seal meal. Bears cannot see that well but they can smell and they smelled the fresh meat on our buses so they would come right up to investigate who we were. It was awesome.

Fantastic trip - a privilege to be able to see the bears - highly recommend it.

border patrol

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I remember an incident from my trip through the Sudan in 1984. We did not give thanks right away but I reckon the locals saved us from possible danger. We arrived too late at the border to be processed that night so we pulled off the main road about one km. into the desert to set up camp. A couple of locals followed us and started gesticulating and chatting. As the one who spoke the most French, I was called over by Mark. The chap wanted us to camp closer to the village and river. We preferred to be off on our own as we were less likely to have people staring at us. I told them this. They were very insistent.
After a few minutes of back and forth I was finally able to understand their comments and it became clear why they were being so adamant. To say that hippos are territorial can be an understatement; so, although not carnivores, they are the most dangerous animals in Africa. And just the night before, a rampaging hippo had killed a village woman who was walking in the "wrong" area - which happened to be where we were setting up camp. We quickly moved closer to the village.

So, although the group may have not said it at the time or shown our appreciation for their advice, I now say thank you!

georgian bay

Sun has been dodging clouds all day and now it has been out for an hour or so.
I am away from the wind so the heat is glorious as the waves race to the rocks.
The rocks here are so Canadian.
Imagine being in Japan or India and never being able to see a place like this?
It's not as scary as the desert because you can see other places, islands, cottages, but you feel removed.

Glittering green and red leaves rest on the ponds.
Dips and doodles and pockets of water and marsh face up to the wind.
There are curves and dips and shallows in the rocks.
There are gouges and gaps and hollows ... .
The striations in the rocks are so beautiful.
These variances entice me to engage in a relationship with them.
They tempt me to find patterns and outlines, possibly stories in their midst.
Can rocks talk? Well, not talk; they don' talk; but do they speak?

Continuity is instinctive here on the rocks: the sun bakes you on the rocks during the day and continues to permeate your back as you lie watching the stars at night.

day one

A friend told me she had started a blog so I thought I would do the same.

Here we go!

My idea is to convert some of the ramblings from my travel diaries into some compelling stories. I have lots of material as I now have been to over 100 countries. On going semi-challenge with a co-worker who is managing to stay 2 or 3 countries ahead of me. Bummer! Helps to keep me sharp!