Arrival at Churchill Northern Studies Centre

On Sunday, the train finally left the station at 4 o'clock. Noon was the scheduled time! It was a very pleasant and interesting journey. This is an older train on very wobbly, uneven tracks. The train jostles from side to side, and heaves up and down at times. Fortunately I had invested in some motion sickness tablets that worked wonders for my sense of equilibrium.

At one point, the train was stopped for an hour because of a frozen switch. The train personnel had to get off the train, and manually operate the switch on the tracks. For quite a large part of the ride, the train ran into snow drifts over the tracks, which would make the train jolt a bit as it pushed through. We were assured all of this was normal. But the next time the train took on a passenger, it could not get going to push through the drift. Not sure how they solved that, but I was glad it was not my job!

Our very own polar express!

All in all, it was an enjoyable journey. They tell us that these things happen all the time. Nothing to be overly concerned about. Perhaps they were right.

Churchill Northern Studies Center

 After two nights on the train, we pulled in to Churchill at 11am on Tuesday morning, where we received a warm welcome on such a chilly day.

For the past two days, we have been seeing this beautiful halo around the sun. The photo does not really show the upper part, but you get the idea. I was impressed that my little camera did so well.

Notice the trees leaning in one direction from the prevailing winds.

In Churchill, they have had blizzard conditions for quite a few days. They get very little snow, but the wind is so severe that it looks like a sand storm on a dessert, only white. The trees had a dense coating of snow from the harsh winds of the last few days. The last photo is of the observation deck on the side of CNSC. This is one of my favorite aurora viewing sites, as it is very close to a door where you can get warm. I believe it was built to ensure  a safe viewing area during polar bear season. There should be no bears around at this time of year. Let's hope we can count on that to be true.