We were up around 07:00, and not feeling 100%.  But hey, we enjoyed ourselves yesterday and last night.  We had our bags packed by 07:30 so they could take the larger bags to the buses.  We had some Kind bars for breakfast and just chilled out for a bit.  We were on the bus at 08:15, and in the air before 09:00.  We were with Justin again, and Justin was also the co-pilot again.  We flew south to Port Nelson, then turned east right at the mouth of the Nelson River, by York Factory.  Both Port Nelson and York Factory were thriving settlements when fur trading was a big deal, but they’re basically ghost towns now.  

We landed at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge around 09:45.  We were greeted by Vern, the Lodge Manager.  He told us that it was miserable yesterday afternoon (snow and freezing rain with strong winds), so we really didn’t miss anything.  Even if we’d landed safely, we wouldn’t have gone out to see anything.  The only thing that would have been different is that we would’ve gotten a slightly earlier start on our morning excursion today.  We met one of the guides, Mike - originally from Germany - who gave us an overview of the area and what to expect on our excursions.  We were also introduced to Jason (originally from Australia) and Emri.

We got situated in our room, then picked up some boots and rain gear, and then had an abbreviated safety discussion, basically the same as before.  To our surprise, apparently wolves are not a threat.  They’ve never been hunted, and some of them have never even seen people aside from those they’ve encountered at Nanuk, so they are entirely comfortable being around humans.  Unlike Seal River, where we walked everywhere, here we’d be mostly on vehicles, including two specially-made vehicles called “rhinos” with giant tires, perfect for crossing shallow rivers (which are on either side of Nanuk).

Our first excursion we were with Jason on the third vehicle, a cart behind an ATV (UTV?), similar to what we used to get to/from the airstrip at Seal River.  It was very cold, with a biting wind, and the air was humid rather than dry, so it felt even that much colder.  To top things off (or bottom them off, we suppose), there was not much to see.  Many of the streams and puddles were frozen over on top, so there was lots of crunching every time we went over the ice.  We made a stop near the wolf meeting spot, but there were no wolves today.  Jason told us that there was a black wolf sighting the other day, the first in 5 years.  

We got back around 12:30, then had lunch.  We ate with Emri, Mike, Glo, and Shari (the other Lodge manager, or at least that was the impression we got).  We told them all about our front-row seat yesterday as Big Boy and Scarbrow went at it.  Mike told us that as big as those two boys are, they pale in comparison to Tubby, who shows up every so often at Nanuk.  He was around 850 or 900 kilograms (1800 pounds) a year or two ago.  Apparently Tubby was one of the first Polar Bears to learn how to hunt Beluga Whales, so he never went through the 4 months of fasting, and stayed enormous all year-round.  We also discussed European Christmas Markets, and Mike had several opinions, being that he was originally from Germany.  He, like us, thinks that Vienna is the apex of Christmas Markets.

Our afternoon excursion started at 14:15.  We saw diddly squat, and just froze to death.  Crystal was in one of the ATV carts with Jason again, and Justin was in one of the rhinos with Mike.  There was briefly a muskrat in the water, but it disappeared just as we grabbed our cameras.  We stopped briefly to have the equivalent of a sundowner, with cookies and a couple hot drink options, but we weren’t really into it.  We wondered why not just come back to the Lodge and have that stuff inside where we could feel our fingers.  The drive back to the Lodge was even colder, as now the wind was in our face rather than behind us.  The only real sighting we had on the drive was a half-dozen or so Blue-faced Snow Geese.  Apparently their “protection” from predators is to just sit in the open, far away from bushes and trees - they must have been freezing today.  We got back to the Lodge around 17:00, and lo and behold, there were 2 black bears there.  So we drove around in the bitter cold for hours, just to see what we could’ve watched from the dining room with a glass of wine and a fireplace.  Oh well, not every day is like yesterday.  

Back inside, Crystal took a shower to warm up.  At Happy Hour, Justin checked photos (he was several days behind), and Crystal continued to make steady progress on her books.  We had dinner with Mike, Eric, D-Nice, and Glo.  Among other topics we discussed the pros and cons and ethical dilemmas of zoos.  For example, animals like gorillas and lions and tigers bring in a ton of money, which then gets used to do incredibly helpful research on other animals, insects, etc.  We also discussed the pros and cons of Arctic tourism, and the (unknown to us) high risk of avian flu in penguins, which Mike thinks is a matter of when, not if.  It was snowing pretty good outside, and sideways again.  After dinner we did introductions to everyone at Nanuk, and received introductions from them.  We learned that Shari is apparently a daughter of the owners of Churchill Wild, and we also learned that Ken and Amy are siblings.  [This explained why they and their spouses were traveling together.]  The introductions wrapped up a little before 21:00, and we went straight to sleep.