Seal River is on the western side of Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Canada. It is the place for polar bears in the summertime, and about a zillion beluga whales. Seal River Lodge takes only about a dozen people in a family environment. The hospitality and friendliess are memorable, the food is astonishing, and the experience is life-changing. If you love wilderness and you have good camera gear and you want a rare experience, go. Tell 'em I sent you. My pix are all RAW and then processed down to small JPGs for SmugMug. Hope they don't disappoint.
Karli Reimer was watching for bear while we were taking photos of the sic sic. Can she use the shotgun? Absolutely. It's loaded with "scare 'em" pellets, not a full-on charge. Shooting "proper" pellets at a bear would only make it angry and you don't want that.....
Out on the tundra for the day. We had to go out on the low tide to a high spot, then wait for the tide to come in and go out again. It was a long day, but fun.
Sometimes we had to leave the vehicle and walk. But not far.
In the lodge, they had "dry" suits. A wet suit lets water in which is warmed by your body heat so there's a warm layer formed. A "dry" suit is thick rubber and nothing gets through or past the seals for neck,wrists and ankles. They are for extreme cold.
Louise Murray, English-born wildlife photographer who spends half her life under the Arctic Ice and the other half fighting ticks in South America, went in to see the Beluga whales. She is being towed behind our rubber duck. The noose is loose so she can kick out of it very quickly.
My wife, Karen, rugged up against the cold in the rubber duck. This was as close as she wanted to be to the cold water, even though the Beluga experience was inviting.
Belugas. Thousands come into Hudson Bay to calve. They are very curious and hundreds of them came up to our rubber duck. Louise Murray, wildnerness Phogographer and Linda Besse, wildlife artist, went in with them. The whales swam up to within inches of their face masks. Louise has some incredible photos.
Karen and I rented a helicopter for an hour to see if we could spot some bears. That's Mike Reimer, in the brown.
Leaving the lodge for bear spotting. I just like this picture. I took the picture, so it's pretend. It was another flight, not ours.
First we saw this big male. I have lots of pix -- the motordrive was smoking. We didn't stay. Two quick passes and we left him alone.