Another frosty morning begins as we finish breakfast. Today is the day we go out on the Tundra Buggy. Tonight we will be sleeping with Polar Bears! We board the bus with anticipation of seeing more bears. Bill greets each one of us with his warm smile and upbeat personality.
It doesn’t take long before we are boarded on to the Tundra Buggies. They are amazing vehicles that seem like a hybrid of a monster truck and a school bus except the body is a lot wider. Fortunately, they do NOT launch themselves up in the air to get a better view of the bears…..they leave that for the helicopter tours. This is where we meet Kevin Burke, our buggy driver/tundra guide. He introduces himself to each one of us. After we are all seated, he gives us a little of his background and describes the safety expectations while aboard.
We get underway and set out to see the bears. Our pace is slow and our eyes are peeled to the terrain in front of us. Most of our four wheelers in the group are right at home as we inch along over the water logged tundra, going over some rocks that make the buggy sway like a ship on rough seas. As we roll along, Kevin mentions that this is a sub-artic climate. It is the 60 parallel that determines this as well as looking over the terrain and seeing small trees and shrubs.
We stop for a bit of coco and coffee, and have a delicious meal provided by Gypsy’s. Who knew that soup and a sandwich could be so good! After wrapping up lunch, we set forth for more exploration. In the distance Kevin pointed out the lodge where will be staying overnight. As we get closer and circle around the other side. Low and behold, there (among 2 other buggies) nestled in the brush and snow is a polar bear. He is sleeping, and moves occasionally to get more comfortable. Most of the comments made from our group was that the bear was an animotric bear shipped direct from Disneyland. They joked with our driver where he was hiding the controller! After a few moments, Kevin suggests that we move out so we can let the buggies out for the day to get their photo opportunity.
We roam around until it was just about time to get into the lodge for the day. No other buggies are there as we roll up to our friend again. This time, Kevin is able to engage the bear and spark his interest in our group. Wow, were we ever treated to a show! The bear investigates us, probably wondering which one would be a tasty snack, and walks around the entire buggy. He’s a well trained bear, giving us all great photos to share with the folks back home. The bear would even sit down on his rump, picking out clods of snow from between his feet. Kevin gets the bears attention again, and this time the bear puts both enormous paws on the buggy for a closer look inside. At this point, windows were down and camera shutters were in all in multi frame mode getting every close up imaginable! Everybody understood how important it was to keep hands, heads, hats and gloves inside. That being said, our group leader Don, lost his hat when a big gust of wind caught the bill of his hat and it flew to the ground a few feet away. All of the sudden, the bear was up and pounced on that hat with lightening speed! We all watched as he tore into the hat. The bear was trying to determine if it was eatable. It is a memorable moment indeed, but the bear soon tires of all the attention and retires back to the snow for another nap.
After settling in to the lodge, and getting to know where our bunks will be for the overnight stay, we head into the lounge car for hors d’oeuvres and wine. Conversations were lively and some shared their photos with one another. The dinner bell rang (figuratively) and we all made our way to the dinning car. On the menu for dinner was salad and homemade buffalo meat lasagna. After our filling meal, we headed back to the lounge car where we had a presentation from Kevin about Polar Bears.
To begin our presentation, Kevin discussed how Tundra Buggy Tours began. Len Smith started the company. The tours actually began as photo safaris if you will, and Kevin told us how Len created the vehicles and described how they evolved into the buggies used today. Len wanted to have something that he could drive, sleep/live out on the tundra. This really fascinated some of the rv / four wheelers in our group! Kevin also mentioned that he was a field technician for biologists that would study polar bears. In addition National Geographic hired Len Smith for their documentary Polar Bear Alert.
As the evening came to a close, we all retired to our bunks exhausted. Sleep came quickly for some and we all looked forward to another tomorrow. Another day of wondering what will we find next.
See all photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/mimpolarbears/PolarBearCaravan#
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