I do not even know where to begin with this blog. I sit here in a hotel room in Winnipeg, Canada, resting after a couple of long flying days, trying to gather my thoughts on what to write today. It has been one hell of a journey this summer, and it is far from over.
I just returned from a successful, yet unsuccessful Scotland trip, searching for basking sharks. Scotland was amazing, the place is a land of dreams; The castles, the landscape, the people. All of it is just magical.
The wildlife is epic as well… well that is if we had seen any. Sadly the basking sharks and the puffins were a no-show. We saw some Scottish red deer, and otters, and highland cows (that was pretty cool), But sadly, we missed the puffins by a couple of days, and the basking sharks were down deep.
The waters temperatures are changing and the places where we would normally find basking sharks were too cold. We needed the surface temperatures to warm up a bit so that the plankton would rise to the surface, attracting the sharks up.
So sadly we saw zero sharks. It happens. Nature can be cruel that way. All it means is we need to go back and try it again.
So here I sit, anxious to kick off the next adventure, which is to find beluga whales and polar bears in Churchill. My flight to Churchill is tomorrow morning and man I can’t wait. I have not been to Churchill since 2018. That was the last season they allowed snorkeling with the beluga whales. In 2019 they decided to ban all swimming with the whales, so we took a year off from visiting here to let the powers that be figure things out.
They did… they came up with beluga boarding. Which is, we are allowed to lay down on a floating mat, that gets towed behind the boat, and we can stick our faces and cameras in the water to see the approaching whales. We wanted to return in 2020, but covid hit and well, you know the rest of that.
Normally belugas are shy, and when we would jump in the water with them the whales would keep a healthy distance from us. However with this approach, the belugas are extremely curious and come right up to the cameras for a closer look. I am super excited about giving it a try to see how it works out.
Well, the waiting game and a new adventure to share with you all begins.
I am really excited to tell this tale, because Churchill is also a magical place. I am hoping the wifi will allow me to update you guys while I am out there. We will see, either way, I will be able to post thing on our social media pages. I just hope I can share stories on our website, which is where I prefer sharing things.
Until then thanks for reading.