Northern Lights and Arctic Sights in Manitoba from March 23 – 30, 2010
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Canada, Jan. 2, 2010 – Travelers can experience the northern lights by night and the land and people of the Arctic frontier by day on a late-winter tour in the central Canadian province of Manitoba.
Frontiers North Adventures’ eight-day, seven-night “Northern Lights & Winter Nights” program March 23-30 begins with arctic-orientation activities in the provincial capital of Winnipeg followed by a flight to the remote sub-Arctic seaport of Churchill for a sojourn on the western shore of the frozen Hudson Bay.
In preparation for the trip north, the group will take a private guided tour of the award-winning Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg – top-rated by the Michelin Green Guide – with a special focus on the province’s far north and its Inuit (Eskimo) heritage. They’ll view a sky show at the museum’s planetarium and learn tips for photographing the aurora borealis.
Churchill’s Eskimo Museum, included on the tour, has a collection of Inuit carvings and artifacts said to be among the finest and oldest in the world, dating from Pre-Dorset (1700 B.C.) to modern Inuit times. The museum shop offers regional books, Canadian Inuit art, postcards, art cards, stationery, and locally made wild berry preserves.
In Churchill, guests will take nightly trips out on the tundra to view the northern lights on one of Frontier North’s custom-built, all-terrain vehicles called a Tundra Buggy В®, which resembles a bus with high-rise tires. Designed for safe and ecologically sound viewing of Churchill’s famous fall polar bear migrations, the heated, enclosed vehicle with an open-air observation deck provides access to superb viewing locations well away from any artificial light, the tour company says. With the bears hunting seals way out on the Hudson Bay sea ice this time of year, it’s safe for aurora-stalking photographers to disembark from the Tundra Buggy and set up their tripods on the frozen ground.
What surprises first-time visitors is the brightness and intensity of the aurora borealis and the variety of colors – a luminous green being most common – emitted by the rapidly dancing waves and gyrating ribbons of light, says Jaime Lee Dzikowski, a Frontiers North representative. “They don’t expect the reds and purples,” she says.
The celestial light show is the result of solar particles colliding with Earth’s atmosphere. The effect is most visible and dramatic in the polar regions.
On a daylight snowshoe excursion, visitors will learn to maneuver on traditional wood snowshoes strung with gut or animal hide. The outing, which ranges from three to four hours depending on the fortitude of the tour group, includes a rest stop in a cabin and hot food and drink. Conditions permitting, trek leader Mike Macri of Churchill’s Sea North Tours will prepare “bush tea” by steeping tea bags in sparkling clean snow that’s been boiled over a wood campfire. A few wayward ashes and burning twigs give it a “smoky” flavor, Macri says.
“We try to cover as many ecosystems as possible on our snowshoe walk,” Macri says. These can include the boreal forest, thick with tamarack and black and white spruce trees; ancient Precambrian rock ridges; the taiga, a transitional zone with few trees; the treeless tundra where the only visible winter plant life is wheat-like lyme grass poking up through the snow and lichen attached to the rocks; and icy seacoast. En route, snowshoers might spot ptarmigan, a puffy, white arctic bird; arctic hare; snowshoe hare; arctic fox; spruce grouse; wolf tracks (but not the shy wolves); and on rare occasions, a moose. Although it’s highly unlikely to encounter a polar bear this time of year, “there are no months when it’s impossible to find bears,” Macri says. For safety, trail guides carry firearms.
The tour program coincides with the start of the Hudson Bay Quest, a 248-mile (400- kilometer) dog sled race from Churchill north to Arviat, Nunavut, involving some 20 mushers (dog sled drivers) and their teams of huskies. Many of the mushers are Inuit and race in sealskin outerwear. Tour guests attend the official pre-race dinner banquet, where mushers draw their starting positions, and also get to observe the start of the race on March 27.
Dave Daley, co-owner of dog sled operation Wapusk Adventures in Churchill and a founder of the Hudson Bay Quest, gives tour-goers their own hands-on dog sledding experience. Guests have the opportunity to drive a team of seven or eight huskies – with a skilled musher on board – over a mile-long course through a boreal forest. “The hoarfrost on the trees makes it very picturesque,” Daley says. The outing includes a visit to the kennels where Daley and his colleagues explain the care, feeding, and training of sled dogs and how they match the skills and temperament of a dog to a position on a team. For refreshments, Daley serves hot chocolate and freshly made bannock – traditional pan-fried flat bread from the European fur trade era – with tundra berry jam, if available.
The “Northern Lights & Winter Nights” package costs $3,099 Canadian per person – about $2,925 (U.S.) at current exchange rates – plus tax, based on double occupancy. The price includes hotel rooms in Winnipeg and Churchill, round-trip air fare between Winnipeg and Churchill, meals in Churchill, and all scheduled outings and other activities.
The price doesn’t include transportation between home and Winnipeg.
For information and reservations, call Frontiers North Adventures toll-free at 800-663-9832 or visit www.frontiersnorth.com
Other sub-Arctic adventures and northern lights programs in Manitoba are described on Travel Manitoba’s website: www.travelmanitoba.com
Information is also available by calling Travel Manitoba toll-free at (800) 665-0040.
January 2, 2010
Posted in: Canada