Another Frequent Flyer Travelling to North America

[Albion]

After our first night in The Tundra Inn, where we also had buffet breakfast we on a bus out to the Tundra Buggy Launch site. The site was protected by a friendly guard with shotgun on the look out for bears. Once we were all on board the Tundra Buggy we were given a safety briefing,-Don't feed the bears if you do your off the buggy!!.There was plenty of room on the buggy which was like a school bus except with a aisle about 3 metres wide which made getting around the bus to take photos very easy, there was also the open air back platform but that was only to be used when the buggy was stopped. A basic lunch was also included on the buggy of sandwiches, cookies & soup along with coffee.

The roads, sorry the tracks, the buggies use range from smooth to rather ruff so you have to hang on at times. The maximum speed of the buggies is only about 25km/hr and took us about 45 minutes before we saw our first bear. As it was a warm 2c most of the bears we saw were sleeping to conserve energy although we were lucky enough to see a couple on the move including mum and babies. The ended back in Churchill with dinner at the Seaport Hotel.

 

[Albion]

Last day in Churchill. Bags outside your door then off to see bears again in -15c wind. (The next time we would see our bags was in the Four Points Hotel at Winnipeg Airport.

After another successful day on the tundra where we 23 bears our polar bear experience was drawing to a close. On return to the buggy launch site we were transferred to a bus for the short trip to Churchill Airport to await our flight home. This gave us time to reduce the layers of clothing we were wearing fir the flight and also grab a coffee and Cinnamon Bun as I was getting peckish and we had been warned we wouldn't get much in the way of food on the flight to Winnipeg. We also found out we would not be flying in a 737-300 but instead a Convair 580, well that made for a great trip back to Winnipeg. The plane owned by Norlinor was virtually in original condition including a drop toilet. So the flight was a little slower than planned but after arriving in Winnipeg and being buses to our hotel we were in our rooms by 2100 then back at the bar by 2130 for farewell drinks. We didn't stay long as our flight the next morning left at 0600. Luckily Four Points by Sheraton is right at the airport so we only had a short walk to check in for our Westjet flight to Calgary, automated checkin went smoothly but Canadian security was a farce, at 0430 the que was not only extremely long but extremely slow, it would have been the worst of all our security experiences on the trip. Grabbed some breakfast before boarding as we weren't buying anything on the flight. Boarding was quick and easy and we had a 3 seat for the two of us on the 737. The crew were good and the flight passed quickly. Arrival at Calgary was early and then it seemed like we walked and walked and asked and asked people on how to get to our next departure, we found signage in the airport poor. USA departures was seperate from other countries departures and due to lack of signage we went to wrong way ended up shopping in the wrong duty free, then gad to retrace our steps and go through USA security loosing our duty duty free purchases but at least security and immigration was quick. We then walked into the duty free area to look for what we had just lost at security and the lady the served us remembered us from the other duty free area and said she had tried to catch us before we found the USA security but missed us, so on showing her our receipt she replaced our purchases, we were very lucky. Pretty soon it was time to board our next Westjet flight this time to Las Vegas. Boarding was quick with a friendly crew even though the plan was full and we were on our way to Vegas.
Recap on the Frontiers North trip. Would I do it again? YES. It's not cheap but it's a wonderful experience from Winnipeg to Winnipeg. The train was great, all accomodation was great and all the meals (taking into account where you had them) were also great. You won't find 5 star meals and accomodation on this trip but what you get allowing for the fact of where you you get very well looked after. IMO 10/10 for the trip.