Nothing was planned for Sunday, and the town sort of closes down... except for the tourists. A few words about them. They come in several interesting varieties.
Most people come up to Churchill on very expensive tours. The average age of most of these travellers seems to be over 60, many of them with canes and/or walking problems. Their tour company provides them with parkas, arctic boots, backpacks, hats, scarves, some of which they keep and some on loan. It seems that there are a disproportionate number of Americans travelling this way. These tours are over five thousand dollars for three days, the average length of time most people spend here.
Then there are the one day trippers, flying in on the morning flight, taking a tundra buggy tour, and flying back at night.
There are also the people who come up on the train, expecting it to be on time in the morning, arrange for a tour, and plan to take the train back 8 hours later. Since the train always leaves 8 hours after it arrives, you may find yourself in Churchill in the middle of the night for eight hours, and then have to return in the morning. The train can be 22 hours late, a day late, or in summer not arrive at all.
The independent travellers, who make their own arrangements, seem to be in a minority. Since accommodations are at a premium, tour groups book the three or four hotels up years in advance, leaving B&Bs the choice for the rest of us. These too, book up quickly, especially the good ones. We booked last Feb., and got the last room available at our place. A few travellers get up here at the last minute, but they are taking a chance, both on accommodations and the availability of tours and usually end up in unregistered B&B's.
The last kind of traveller is the young'uns... mainly Europeans doing their travel year, working in the service industries. They come up for the season and then move on. During the bear season anyone in town who wants to work has at least one job, and service personell for the hotels and restaraunts is in short supply. Churchill is SMALL... I think there are only about four or five restaraunts, and you have to make reservations for dinner early in the day, as they quickly fill up with large groups
Sunday it was zero degrees, and very windy. I was reluctant to go out, but i piled on the clothes and went for a walk down to the port where the massive grain elevators were. There is one main style of housing here, three story painted wooden townhouses, with sloped roofs. They have been painted at one time, but the older ones are greying, and beginning to fade into their environment. There seems to be a dog chained to a doghouse at every house. Not many people are walking, most drive around town in cars or these small four wheeled tundra things with fat wheels... they are often being driven by 8 year olds with another kid on the back. They whiz around on and off the roads at will. Parked and waiting for snow are strange looking snow machines that are on skis and carry several people inside sort of a covered cockpit. The skidoos are not out yet. Car and house doors are never locked. If a bear comes to town, you run for the nearest door!
It was just too damned cold, the library too far, the museum closed, so i returned to the B&B, where there was a fire going in the wood heater, and i sat around and painted a picture of the warm and inviting room, nibbling on the sticky buns that Jolene had left out.
Thanks much for the report, it's sounds like an interesting place to see.
The only part I'm having trouble getting my head around is the "massive
grain elevators" you describe. That seems totally out of place as I picture
Churchill in my mind.
The grain elevators were Churchill's 'raison d'etre' from the beginning, and why they went to all the trouble to put the rail through. Unfortunately competition from the Great Lakes, and the limited shipping season has led to the demise of churchill as a major grain port. when we were there, there was a Russian ship in port, the first one ever, delivering a shipment of fertilizer.....
So it's warm enough up there for them to be growing grain in the summer? Must be a short growing season. My relatives in northern Sask barely get a crop in and out these days - and not always. Do you know what kind of grain they are growing?
The grain elevators at Churchill (and also at Thunder Bay) are for storing and loading grain from points south and west prior to shipping -- it is way too far north for cereal crops.
LOL living.....fresco is right. the railroad was built to accommodate shipping out prairie grain...
Any type of agricultural land seemed to fade before we got to Thompson! and after Thompson, it the only crops were rocks, lichens and mosses and lakes, puddles, more lakes and more puddles....
Grain growing ran out far south of churchill, the last farming community I saw on the road north was st martin. After tat to Thompson it was mainly first nation land and trees and lakes. The train brings the grain to Churchill from saskatchewan, maintoba and alberta. That is the main reason for the line and the via rail train is an extra really. If the grain closed down I doubt the via rail passenger train would continue.......it is barely hanging on now due to the lack of maintenance by the american company that owns it now. At one stage they were going to pull out together. Something I can't understand is why both Australia and Canada both continue to sell things to american companies and then are suprised when the are not maintained. We both need to wake up to ourselves and keep things in our own country.
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