On to Churchill

I arrived in Churchill on Thursday, October 20 after spending two days on the train from Winnipeg.

I had to overnight in Winnipeg Monday night and stayed at The Fort Garry Hotel. It was absolutely posh considering that I'm use to staying in youth hostels when I travel. I didn't do any sightseeing since I was trying to get caught up on my blog. I think I will try to do some visiting on my way back.

The hotel had a wonderful breakfast brunch the morning I left. They even had their chefs cook your breakfast right in front of you. All in all
It was pretty spectacular.

When we left Winnipeg, the train was much smaller in size. There were two regular passenger cars, a baggage car, a dining car and two sleeper cars. In addition to two engineers, there were only 3 other staff members including the cook.

All told there were probably less than 20 passengers that left Winnipeg on the train. Only three were regular passengers, the rest were in the sleeping car. Most were older couples or friends traveling together to see the polar bears. They were all so excited! One 70 year old man came from Tasmania and another couple were biochemists that lived at the research station at the South Pole.

We had great conversations long into the evening everyday. Everyone fell in love with my iPad and I did a bunch of impromptu presentations on polar bears and PBI.

This train was really different than the previous one. The only younger person was a father- daughter combo that got on in Thompson. He was a science teacher from Minnesota that was checking out the trip to see if he could bring his environmental science high school kids on a field trip to the Northern Canadian Research Center next year.

Most everyone was on an Elderhostel program through the research center. It was quite a contrast to the engaged young people I had met on the last train. I was very pleasantly surprised however to find so many of these folks engaged in sustainable behavior on their own. Many had been on working Eco-tours throughout their lives and found them very satisfying.

As we got to Thompson, more of the locals got on the train for the final leg of the journey. They had been shopping and visiting in Thompson. So this leg of the journey was more on the roudy side.

Upon reaching Churchill, I was met at the station by Sarah from PBI. It was cold and snowy. Unfortunately it looks like the temperature is going to climb again tomorrow. I'll be staying in the PBI house In town until Sunday when we go out onto the Tundra Buggies. We are going sightseeing tomorrow.