Roving on the Polar Rover

We split into two groups to board the Rover (Lianne was our guide) and we each got our own set of seats and a window.  On that first day I was a few rows back from the front and the windows were oddly aligned to the seats and awkward to open and close.

This is the Rover -- for the most part we each had our own set of 2 seat and a window. Off the back is an open steel grate deck.

Lianne, our first day guide & another Rover, roving...

There was actually just a single line of lights, but the Rover was moving when I shot this. It demonstrates how much the Rover moves -- almost impossible to use Binoculars when it was moving.

J-son, the Rover driver extraordinaire & Lianne, one of our excellent guides! Oh yeah and a Bear!

We set off for the “Halfway Point” which is their typically lunch spot.  The Rover is heated and has a flush toilet washroom on board (I never used it).  We spotted another Red Fox but again it was pretty cagey, disappearing behind a berm and reappearing for just long enough to get a look, but as far as I know, no one got photos.

Then we saw our first polar bear resting on the other side of a Tundra Pond (shallow iced over ponds that dominate the tundra) So we did not make it to the Halfway Point for lunch

We had lunch in view of the bear and then she woke up!

After lunch we consolidated on the one Rover that would be at the Tundra Lodge for the duration. At the Halfway Point, we go a Rock talk – the rock formations below are 1.8 billion years old.  That is ½ the age of the earth.  Not a lot of rocks that old are this accessible on earth.

Our first sighting of the Tundra Lodge

Me and a Bear...

Next stop the Tundra Lodge

The next morning we went out with Heather (the “other’ guide) with J-son our driver. We had an amazing morning including some bears being cooperative enough to pose with the sunrise.  Bears burrowed into kelp & visiting the Rover (our and another one too)

I was not on the last morning trip on the Rover, but they had some pretty spectacular behavior – Photos by Heather Chrystie, Guide.

On the last trip in the afternoon Lianne was the Guide & J-son the Driver - barely got out of the "parking lot" and it was a bear-palooza...

Video by Lianne Thompson, Guide

Photo credit - Lianne Thompson, Guide

Photo credit: Rachel Hardy

Photo credit: Lianne Thompson, Guide

Sunrise

Sunset

The last bear we saw, leaving before dawn on the Rover.

Could not have been happier -- so many bears!