The Polar Bear Safari Bus

"What a luverly sunny day you've got, you lucky punters. First clear day in a for'night." The bus driver's Cockney accent took us by surprise. "You're a long way from home." replied Keith to let him know we were fellow Brits. It turned out that Simon, from southeast London, had given up his teaching career to come out to Churchill to follow his passion for arctic wildlife and drive the tundra buggies that take tourists out to see Polar Bears. Now in his tenth season, his experience and enthusiasm made him an excellent guide.

Churchill Wild had booked our group for a day trip on one of the tundra buggies that look like buses with ridiculously large wheels - they are taller than a man! Ours was actually a converted fire engine and could seat 40, so with only 17 in our group there was plenty of room to sit or move around. The buggy even had a flushing toilet and a gas fire, both very much appreciated on a six hour safari into the arctic wilderness. It's not as if you could easily pop out for a pee! The buggy also had an open-air viewing platform at the rear, but with temperatures hovering around -14°C, you couldn't stay outside for long.


Fortunately, the all-round view from inside was superb, allowing us to scan the huge white expanse around us for any yellowish blobs. A group of stationary tundra buggies was a more visible clue; they usually indicated the presence of a bear. Also, the drivers were able to communicate with each other by walkie-talkies, which they used to share sightings and any vehicle problems. Together this enabled us to see over a dozen bears within two hours of setting off. The highlight was definitely the pair of sparring males. Simon managed to get us into a great position for the cameras. He was a keen photographer himself so knew the other buggies were shooting directly into the sun. We watched them for well over half an hour, stood on their hind legs, wrestling and biting at each other for a few minutes, before slumping to the ground for a long rest and recover for the next bout.

Seeing sparring bears had been on everyone's wish-list, so we then started telling Simon what else we'd like to see, like he had the power to deliver. He played along and went in search of a mother and cub, as requested. About half an hour later, we were crossing a frozen lake when Simon spotted a couple of yellowish blobs walking some distance ahead. Taking an educated guess where they were headed, he drove around the lake to intercept them. Amazingly, it turned out to be a mother with her juvenile cub walking towards a snow bank. Once there, ignoring the spectators, mum settled down in the snow and her cub obediently followed, lying beside her, his head rested on top of her back. The golden hue of the sun shining on them made for a lovely photograph. 

"What's next on the list?" asked Simon. "It would be great if one of the bears came right up to the buggy." We had seen other buggies with inquisitive bears right beside them, but none had come to check us out so far. As if on command, the bears stirred, got up and the cub wandered over towards us. We dashed out to the viewing platform as he came over, looked straight up into our faces, only a few feet away, before walking right under the platform and then back to his mum. Brilliant.

A little later, we came across a pair of adolescent bears, probably brothers, near one of the two mobile tundra lodges that are positioned way out here in the arctic wilderness during the Polar Bear season. A couple of residents had seen the bears and gone out into their viewing area for a better look. This caught the attention of the bears, who ambled over and made various, often humorous, attempts to climb up into the lodge to get to them. The guys in the lodge, watching the bears through the grating beneath their feet, must have felt safe because they leaned backwards over the side to take a selfie with the bears below. At that moment, one of the bears stood up on his hind legs and reached up towards them. Oblivious of how close they were, the lads snapped away. Their photos would have been awesome.

We stayed until a much larger bear came over and scared the playful teenagers away. By then, the sun was dropping fast and Simon knew he had to get us back before dark. But that didn't prevent him from making a couple of photo stops on the way. They included one bear, playing with some seaweed, rolling around and sitting up, before doing a Baloo impression; bum in the air and sliding his chin along the ice as he walked along. It looked very funny but how else does a bear clean the fur on its chest?

Simon even found time to let Keith drive the buggy. Then, with the sun about to disappear over the horizon, he announced "Watch out for the green flash when it disappears!". Not knowing whether a Marvel comic superhero was about to make an appearance, we stared into the orange sky but saw nothing green. 

Even though we didn't get to see that particular natural phenomenon, we'd had a phenomenally good day. In total we saw around 20 bears, although that may include  some we saw more than once - they do get about and look very similar! And throughout, Simon had kept us thoroughly entertained with his anecdotes and wildlife classes. It was easy to understand why he loved his job driving the Polar Bear Safari Bus.