Dog "sledding" with Northern Huskies

Huskies ready to go

Dave is a musher, a 3^rd generation Churchillian and a member of the Metis people.  His children are, obviously, 4^th generation Churchillians.  He has 11 grandchildren living in Churchill.  The entire family is engaged in the dog sledding business. 

Dave has 40 dogs, about 1/3 of which are rescue dogs, retrieved sometimes at considerable cost from people, he said, “who don’t understand dogs”.  He loves his dogs, all Northern Huskies, talks to them, pets them, cooks just the right mix of protein and fat for their meals, grooms them and, most important, trains them to love to run.  And his dogs do love to run.  They are lean and muscular and do not look like a typical Husky except for their bright blue eyes.

Huskies in their pen

We arrived for our dog sledding adventure—actually, dog carting since there was no snow and we rode in 2-person wheeled carts behind 8-dog teams—on a cold, windy morning to see 4 teams of dogs howling and yapping and tugging in their excitement over their upcoming run.  The dogs were dismayed that we were so slow getting into our carts.  Once aboard, the musher let the teams loose and off we went on a wild, fast, exhilarating ride, all of us laughing at the dogs and the speed.

Huskies and handlers by cart

Dog mushing isn’t just a smooth flow.  One of the dogs made a brief stop to poop, causing a moment of chaos in the pack and requiring our musher to stop the team, leap off the back of the cart, lift the offending dog off the ground as he untangled her from her harness and promptly move on, all in less than 60 seconds.  Several times, the dogs tangled themselves as one dog or another nipped a neighbor or leaped in too much enthusiasm, leading to more lifting and sorting out of dogs.  Then they were off again, dogs yelping in pleasure at being able to run. 

In a team of 8 dogs, harnessed in pairs, the first 2 dogs are the lead dogs, trained to be in the lead and guide the pack.  The next 4 dogs are the pullers and the final 2 are the wheel dogs who do the Herculean work of keeping the sled or cart stable and pulling above their weight.  Each dog has a predisposition for a particular type of pulling, so Dave works with them to find the place they like best.  Then it is a labor of love and effort to mold them into a team that likes running and pulling together.

wishful Husky

The dogs live in a large compound, each on a long tether attached to its own dog house and far enough from the other dogs to avoid fights.  The dog houses are not insulated, but do have fresh straw on the dirt floors.  But, the dogs are usually hot and often pull out the straw so they can sleep on the ground, even on very cold nights.  Their fur has 2 layers, a short layer of fur and a long outer layer that overlays the short layer.

These are racing dogs who love pulling a sled and competing in long, cold races over a frozen land.

 

 

 

 

 

Churchill and its landscape

lakes near Churchill with Hudson Bay beyond

The town of Churchill has about 800 permanent residents, many of whom are members of one of the 3 indigenous tribes.  Some are proudly 4^th or 5^th generation Churchillians, as they call themselves.  About 60% live in government-subsidized housing, a necessity in this harsh environment where tourism has replaced hunting and trapping as the main source of income for the local families, but still doesn’t provide adequate incomes for most people.

Churchll's mostly abandoned port

The town is a bit dilapidated, but proud of its heritage and culture.  The modern school building houses all the community services, including indoor and outdoor playgrounds, the health clinic, hospital, gym and social services, a very smart way to make living in Churchill convenient for families.

There are several shops selling local crafts and art, a very expensive grocery store, a small and interesting museum displaying finely carved sculptures from bone, ivory and even human teeth (the artist’s own) and stuffed animals of the region.  One highlight of the town is the murals, painted by local artists on garages and abandoned buildings, that beautifully reflect local culture and love of wild  animals and places.

carvings from the artist's teeth

Tourism has grown hugely over the last 20 years.  Now, tourists come to see the polar bears in the fall as they migrate through the area to the pack ice on Hudson Bay, the Beluga whales in the spring and summer and the Northern lights in the winter.  The tourist infrastructure is small, with some fairly basic hotels and a few restaurants, all geared to groups of tourists and all quite nice, with exceptionally thoughtful staff.

walrus whiskers, Churchill museum

There are no roads to Churchill.  There are a railroad and an airport, built by the US military.  The airport is also a potential landing area (no. 18 in the lineup) for the space shuttles in case landing areas 1 – 17 are not available.  At one point, the railroad was flooded and badly damaged.  The Canadian government refused to repair it for a year and a half, leaving Churchillians stranded with only air service to provide essential supplies.  The railroad is operating again, but the thawing of the permafrost is making the tracks humpy, putting trains at big risk of derailment.  Only one airline, Calm Air, has regularly scheduled flights to Churchill right now.  It also provides charter service as does at least one other airline.

The town once had a large port that primarily exported grain from the farmlands of central and western Canada.  At its peak, 4 ships a day would load up with grain and head out into the Hudson Bay.  Now only a few ships a year dock here, but the huge grain elevators, crumbling docks and abandoned administration building remain.  About half of the grain elevators are used now.  The railroad was built to Churchill to carry the grain to the port.  A year-round ice-free Hudson Bay might restore the port, but, without ice, the fate of the polar bears will be grim.

abandoned port administration building

Churchill is on a point of land between the broad Churchill River and the Hudson Bay.  The prevailing winds blow from north to south and push the pack ice from the frozen North into the bay inside the hook of the peninsula, making Churchill an ideal place for the polar bears to find the pack ice they need to hunt the seals they survive on.  Once the pack ice has filled the bay, the bears take off, often traveling more than 100 miles in search of seals.  They won’t return until the ice begins to break up in the spring, which signals the beginning of their long fast. 

polar bear mural

On both sides of the Churchill River, at Cape Merry, the British set up fortresses to protect their fur hunting grounds from French invaders.  The French weren’t such a big threat, but the fur hunters and traders were, essentially wiping out the huge beaver, fox, seal, bear and otter populations to provide hats and coats for Europeans.  This disaster, of course, was catastrophic for the indigenous people who relied on these animals for food, clothing and shelter, and who killed what they needed and nothing more (until the fur trade arrived).

The tundra is flat and wet.  The province of Manitoba, from Winnipeg to Churchill, is covered 50% by water.  There are shallow ponds everywhere.  When you go out on the tundra in the spacious tundra buggies with their enormous tires, you rumble clumsily along the tracks built decades ago by the army and splash through shallow fresh water ponds and lakes, now freezing over at night and melting a bit during a                                                                       sunny day.

sunset over Hudson Bay

 

 

Moving problem bears

tranquilized cubs awaiting transfer to helicopter

                                        

A decade ago, polar bears that wandered into Churchill would be shot.  A horrible outcome for a hungry bear seeking food after months of fasting on the tundra during the summer when there is no pack ice for hunting seals, the polar bears’ food.

preparing mother bear for transfer

To make things worse, Churchill had a town dump where bears congregated to search for food.  When the town finally decided to close the dump and bury or haul out the trash by rail, it took several generations of bears before the memory of food at the dump faded.  Meanwhile, over the last 10 years, the bear population around Churchill, now 852 bears, declined from 1000 bears, a disastrous drop in population brought on by starvation and shooting wayward bears.  Because of global warming, polar bears now fast for 6 weeks longer than they used to, leaving them weakened and very hungry by late fall.  They live off the fat they accumulate during the winter hunting seals.

hauling cub to helicopter

Now, bears that venture into town are captured in a trap and taken to the “bear jail” just outside of town.  There they are not fed (they aren’t eating anyway), but are given a little water, and “trained” to think they would be better off on the tundra instead of in town.  Other bears, particularly repeat offenders, are tranquilized and carried off by helicopter 40 or 50 miles away, but still in their territory.

We got lucky and were able to watch one of these transfers of a mother polar bear and her 2 cubs.  All were tranquilized with a dart that injects a sedative lasting one hour, so everyone has to work fast.  The mother bear was wrapped up carefully in a net that would be securely fastened to a tether hanging down from the helicopter.  The babies (quite large) were carried by attendants like giant pandas and placed in the seats inside the helicopter.  Cubs are always moved with their mothers, never separated.

loading cub in helicopter

Once the cubs were inside, the pilot lifted the helicopter about 10 feet off the ground so the mother could be attached.  Then, off they went with cubs inside and mother swinging gently below.  Despite the tranquilizer, this is a traumatic experience for the bears, so they cover their eyes to keep them from being even more frightened.

attaching mother bear in sling

A second helicopter accompanies the one with the bears to make sure all goes well at the drop off site.  The rangers land and stay with the bears until they wake up and run off, protecting them from any predators and making sure they have no ill effects from the tranquilizer.

The transfer costs $10,000 per event, paid for by a combination of private and public funds.  Both Natural Habitat, our tour company, and their partner, the World Wildlife Federation, provide funds for these transfers, along with the Canadian government.

transfer of bears underway

 

The magnificent polar bears of Churchill, Manitoba

 

 
            mother polar bear and cub on tundra                                  mother polar bear

For my entire life, I’ve wanted to see polar bears in the wild.  Our trip to Churchill, postponed last year because of Covid, finally happened, and was all I could have wished for.  Over 3 days in this remote area of northern Canada, we enjoyed 19 polar bear sightings, with 17 different bears.  What a thrill!

mother with her 2 cubs

Polar bears live on pack ice during the winter, hunting their primary food, seals, through breathing holes the seals scratch through the layer of ice.  Because the seals know the habits of the bears and the bears know those of the seals, this is a deadly cat and mouse game, with the seal becoming bear food if it isn’t alert and the bear starving if it can’t catch seals.

Seals must come up for air, so they use their claws to pull off chunks of ice to create a hole wide enough for their bodies to poke up for a breath of air.  The ice is a good conductor of sound, which the polar bear knows, so the bear has to be very patient and quiet in order to snag the seal coming up for air.  It will sit for hours without moving, watching the air hole, hoping for a seal to pop up.  Since seals can swim much faster than bears, surprise provides the only opportunity for the polar bear to be quicker than the seal.

male bear by the willows

Polar bears look a bit like giant white torpedoes, with smallish heads compared to their huge bodies, billowing into very large hind quarters.  This must help them when they dive into the air hole after a seal because their heavy butts on the ice help them stay on the ice as they pull the struggling seal out of its air hole.  When a seal pops up through the hole, the bear pounces, splashing its head with jaws wide open into the hole to grab the seal.  Then it pulls the seal back onto the ice to have its meal.

Polar bears feast while they’re out on the ice.  They can put on 60% of their body weight during the winter months of seal hunting, much needed during their 6 or 7 months of fasting when the ice melts and they must survive on land, using up their winter fat.  A large seal will last a polar bear 6 to 7 days. 

young bear sniffing at our tundra buggy

Polar bears don’t hibernate, but a pregnant female will scoop out a den under the snow, often with a separate chamber for her cubs, where she gives birth.  The den will have an air hole for each chamber, quite an ingenious design.  She will stay in her den with her cubs until they are 8 weeks old and can go out onto the ice with her.  Usually, she will stay with her cubs for 18 months to 2 years, teaching them to hunt seals and survive the lean times.  When her cubs start to wander off to check out their surroundings, she will begin to search for a male to breed again.

We watched a female polar bear and her cub lolling on the tundra, enjoying a rest.  Suddenly, their noses pointed straight up and they leaped off the ground and took off running, not something they usually do.  Soon, we saw a large male bear following their scent.  He was a threat to the cub, so the mother and baby did not stop until they were far off on the opposite shore of the bay.

curious cub 

Male polar bears will kill a cub in order to get the female to produce eggs again.  Polar bears are cannibals, so a male that kills a cub will probably eat it, another addition to its diet.  Females don’t produce eggs on a regular cycle, but will ovulate when they begin to mate.  The eggs will only attach to her uterus if she is fat enough to survive and incubate the embryos.  Given the polar bears’ shorter time on the pack ice for hunting now, the inability to become pregnant due to insufficient body fat is another big threat to polar bears.  Our guide told us that most sows are producing 1 or 2 cubs today while a few decades ago, they routinely produced 3.

mother bear and tundra buggies

When the pack ice begins to break up, the bears may be a hundred miles from land.  They must swim to land, sometimes scrambling up on an ice floe, then heading back into the water.  The longest recorded swim was a female who swam 9 days to reach land.  Bears do drown if they become too exhausted while swimming to land, so it is always a judgment call on the part of the bear as to when to give up hunting and head for land, and the inevitable summer without food.  Mothers must escort their cubs during these swims, so may start for land earlier to reduce the swimming distance for their cubs.  But, the consequences of leaving the ice before they have eaten enough to last them for the summer are dire. 

male bear sleeping by water

Polar bears are considered aquatic animals because of their lives in and dependence on the water.  Their huge front paws are well-adapted to swimming with strong strokes.  Until they get close to land, they do not use their hind feet to propel themselves forward.  As they near land, they paddle their rear feet much like humans do for the extra acceleration.  Reserving that action until the end of their swim saves much-needed energy.

The polar bears do everything they can to conserve energy so their fat lasts throughout the fasting months.  They move slowly and carefully.  They don’t swim until they’re ready to move to feeding grounds or back to land.  This is an essential survival method during their months of fasting.  Occasionally, bears will find food, carrion or a bird’s egg or a bird, during the summer months, but this is not common.  There is a lot of thinking about how bears could adapt to changing ice conditions, but there aren’t enough birds or small animals to sustain the bear population even if the bears decided to alter their diet and eat something besides seals.

mother and cub resting at twilight

cub playing with driftwood

Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, and around

Rila Monastery's Orthodox church

                             

exterior church frescoes 

The pride of Bulgaria, for good reason, is the stunning Rila Monastery, high in the mountains about 2 hours south of Sofia.  It was started in the 10^th century by a hermit monk who lived in a cave nearby.  The Orthodox church is covered in gorgeously colored frescoes, recently cleaned, but never restored.  Surrounding the church are 400 rooms where monks used to live in surprising comfort.  Their rooms were quite large, with a separate kitchen area.  The stove provided heat for cooking and warmth to both the kitchen and the sleeping/living room.  Turkish carpets covered the hard wooden beds, walls and floor, adding color and comfort.

monks' rooms surrounding Rila church

Today, only 9 monks remain, mostly old men, but the monastery operates guest rooms in the former monks’ rooms, some even with bathrooms.   Religious Bulgarians like to stay at the monastery for major religious holidays. 

Rila monastery church

The mountains are all beginning to show their fall foliage in beautiful color, so the setting of the monastery is quite spectacular.  Its mountain home is the highest mountain in Bulgaria, rising to rocky points above the buildings.  The oldest building is the fortified tower, built, as always, to keep out marauding armies, notably the Turks.  When in danger, the monks climbed into the tower and pulled up the stairs.  Eventually, the Turks won, but they did not destroy the monastery and, in fact, allowed it to continue to function during their 500 year rule.

Rila tower--oldest part of monastery

Bulgarians are equally as proud of the tiny, magnificent Boyana Church, on the outskirts of Sofia.  It is now a museum, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The first section of the church, very small, was built in the 10^th or 11^th century, and covered with murals and icons in tempura paints.  In the 13^th century, a second section was built and the original paintings were mostly covered over, though a few remain.  These were also done in tempura and are quite remarkable.  Most figures from the pre-Renaissance era are flat and very similar in facial structure.  These figures have depth.  Each face is different, showing cheekbones, vivid eyes, wrinkles and strong features.  Their garments are gorgeous, with intricate detail of lace and embroidery.  No photos allowed, unfortunately.  You’ll have to visit. 

             

Boyana redwood

oldest part of Boyana Church

The last Bulgarian queen received several Giant Sequoias from California, as a gift, and planted them in the garden around the Boyana Church.  They are now 115 years old and huge.

Sofia, itself, is mostly a modern city.  The many large apartment blocks and concrete buildings from Communist days are pretty dominant, but there are some newer and much more imaginative buildings filling the skyline.  After Bulgaria was liberated from the Turks in 1877, there was an effort to turn Sofia from a Turkish city into a European city.  So, the downtown area has some lovely baroque buildings as well.  Our guide told us that the Communist era apartment buildings have some very nice apartments now that local families have renovated them, but that the poor construction quality of the buildings themselves causes problems for the residents with heat, air conditioning, water and elevators.  He told us that families much prefer to own their homes and apartments and that renting is not common except among students here for only a couple of years.

 

Sofia's cathedral, largest in Bulgaria

Driving through Bulgaria

 

 

Tsarevets Fortress, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaris

We crossed into Bulgaria several days ago with quite a bit of confusion about how to actually get across the border.  There were hundreds of trucks parked on each side of the border, waiting to cross.  This is what the EU was supposed to eliminate, the endless delays that are so costly to trade and the free flow of goods.  But, Romania and Bulgaria are not part of the Schengen Agreement which allows people and goods to move easily across borders, so there are taxes to pay, documents to process and lots of time to wait in line.  We made it through in about 45 minutes, but could have sailed through much faster if we'd known where to go and what to do.

Lady and goat at Tsarevets Fortress

Lady and goat at Tsarevets Fortress

Bulgarians, like so many Central and Eastern Europeans, have spread out over Europe since joining the EU.  Bulgarians drive a large percentage of the trucks that crisscross Europe.  I read that the UK, after Brexit, is short 100,000 truck drivers now that Bulgarians and others can’t move there freely.  Our guides have told us that their lives are noticeably better since Bulgaria joined the EU.  You can see it in the motorways, built with EU money, the restored public buildings, the businesses that have opened offices here and the new jobs all this has created.

roses for rose oil--and beauty

Our first stop was at the isolated Sveshtari Thracian Tombs about 2 hours southeast of the border.  We were the only visitors today.  The only tomb that is open is small with beautifully carved stone figures of women, presumably dancing or maybe worshipping.  No photos are allowed, sadly, but these are exquisite, though probably representative of women who didn’t want to be there.  These are ancient Greek tombs, from the 3^rd century BC.  They are found all over north central Bulgaria, in large mounds of earth, but most have been robbed over the centuries.  Here is the UNESCO website showing you some of the lovely figures at Sveshtari, a UNESCO World Heritage Site:  https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/359/.  

Ethnographic Museum in Ottoman house, Plovdiv

We ended the day in Veliko Tarnovo to visit the fortress which was the capitol of Bulgaria for 400 years from the mid 12^th century to the 16^th century when the Turks finally annihilated the city.  The fortress has huge walls and contained over 400 houses, at least one large palace, 23 churches and several monasteries.  The Bulgarian government has been rebuilding the fortress, very poorly, but the site is wonderful to explore on foot.  You can wander around the walls and through the remains of the village that thrived here for so long.

We came upon a small herd of goats cropping the grass.  Later, their owner came to call them home and they all trotted rapidly after her.  One goat did not cooperate, so she grabbed him by the horns and dragged him off to wherever he was supposed to go.

Roman theater, Plovdiv

After a night in the old Bulgarian capital of Veliko Tarnovo, we drove south the ancient city of Plovdiv.  It’s the oldest continuously occupied city in Europe, first inhabited 8000 years ago, and has a charming, cobblestoned, hilly section that is the oldest part of the city, with Greek, Roman and Byzantine fortifications on top of the hill.  In decay a decade ago, the city and private owners are restoring the buildings from the Ottoman era that ramble up the steep hillside.  We particularly enjoyed the Ethnographic Museum, located in one of the large merchant houses from Ottoman days.

Turkish house, restored

Plovdiv has lots of activity in the center of its old city, with thousands of people gathering there in bars and restaurants and shopping on their long pedestrian mall.  It’s also the second largest city in Bulgaria, after Sofia, the capital, and is heavily industrialized.  But, the center of the city lies atop Roman ruins, including a very long Roman stadium and 2 Roman theaters, parts of which you can see today.  Two mosques serve the 10% of the population that is Muslim.

model of Roman stadium under Plovdiv

On the way to Plovdiv, we drove through the Rose Valley, filled with greenhouses growing roses and lavender, and stopped to visit the Rose Museum.  Instead of shipping fresh roses all over the world for Valentine’s Day and couple’s anniversaries, Bulgaria has been one of the leading exporters of rose oil for nearly 200 years.  The family that first grew roses for their oil had offices in Istanbul, where the Ottoman Sultan greatly valued this essence, London and, later, New York.  Young women used to harvest the roses and pluck off the petals to make the oil.  The distillation process takes 2 steps, first soaking the petals in water and distilling the water and then separating the oil from the water.  Both rose oil (very expensive) and rose water continue to be sold around the world.

 

A brief note about Bucharest

Parliament building in Bucharest

                         

 Bucharest is the largest city in and the capital of Romania, full of beautiful baroque buildings in desperate need of restoration and covered with graffiti on virtually every building in its downtown area.  Unlike the rest of Romania, which is extremely clean, there is trash on the streets and around vacant doorways.  But, it is a lively city where Romanians like to live.

enormous ballroom used once a year

We had very little time here, so visited the Parliament for a tour.  Ceaucescu built this enormous building in the 1980’s as a monument to himself and his wife, with a large balcony where the two of them could stand and wave and receive the cheers and accolades of the Romanian people.  Who actually didn’t want billions of dollars spent for such a building when they did not have running water, electricity, good roads, jobs or transportation.

Ceaucescu at least was a nationalist, whatever that means, who used only Romanian materials and artisans for the building.  The craftsmanship is beautiful.  There is a huge amount of meticulously carved plaster, beautifully carved wood, enormous chandeliers, marble “carpets”.  It is quite spectacular.  And also mostly unused because the spaces are too big and the need too small.

view from the unused balcony

Now, the Romanian Senate and House of Delegates meet in the Parliament building, but only in a small part of it.  The rest is used for an occasional meeting or exhibit or event.  The gigantic ballroom hosts the Vienna Ball once a year for charity.  Otherwise, it rarely sees any activity except for gawking tourists like us.  What a tragedy that so much money was spent for so little benefit.  The Ceaucescus were executed before the building was finished, so they never got to experience the drama of huge crowds cheering them on, feeding their limitless egos.  But, Michael Jackson did get to perform there and to enjoy the crowd filling the square below the balcony.