Arriving in Winnipeg on Friday 18^th July we found ourselves finally half way across this vast country. It feels incredible to think we have been travelling for 6 weeks and only just made it half way. We had thought to maybe be in the States by now but that still seems a long way away. We’re thinking it may be September or even into October before we finally cross the border.

Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba with a population of 778,400 – Manitoba itself has a population of 1,265,00 over an area of 250,116 sq miles so not one of the bigger provinces.

One of the things we had read about Manitoba was the polar bears. In the town of Churchill the human population of just under 1000 people are joined each October and November by approximately 900 polar bears who wait there for the ice to form on the Hudson Bay. It sounds truly incredible with humans and this huge carnivores living so close together for a short period each year. The small town is surrounded by bear traps but apparently it’s not uncommon for the bears to wander into town.

Wrong time of year and a bit too far south to witness this first hand we headed instead to Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. I know I know it doesn’t sound at all similar! However they have recently invested several million dollars in a new research and Conservation Centre – Journey To Churchill, which actually is kind of amazing. They have 5 Polar Bears there; 3 were rescued as they were orphaned, 1 named Storm was rescued as he was posing a threat to humans and the last Hudson was born there.

The Zoo had only just opened this new part and there had been much excitement earlier on in the week when they found the wolves had burrowed through into the polar bear enclosure. The newspapers were speculating as to who was going to survive that encounter! By the time we got there everyone was back in their proper place and we spent a really lovely afternoon watching Hudson swim.

Not quite the same Bear Encounter as we have had with the Black Bears but still nice to see these incredible animals up close.

One other thing that we loved here was finally an explanation of the Inuksuik. These are rock sculptures for want of a better word which we keep seeing on road sides. Piles of rocks in different shapes. We now know they were used for 1000’s of years as a type of road sign. They were used for navigation, a point of reference, a marker for fishing places or camps. Now we know!!