Nanoq Qaqortoq … For Real

I’ve been teasing you with images of polar bears … in the form of a painting, a tail logo of an airplane, a wallpaper in one of the stairwells on the ship.

Not this time. This polar bear — nanoq qaqartok in Greenlandic — is for real.

We were at breakfast when the call went out over the P/A that there was a polar bear on one of the ice floes near the ship. Mui had already left; I was enjoying a cup of tea. I stood up to go outside, glanced out the window, and there it was. Right by the ship. Good … all I had with me was my phone … it would do.

I walked out the access door to the outer decks — right behind the table — where I found Mui with his video camera in hand. No more than ½-minute had passed since spotting the bear. It was gone! Where? It had jumped off the floe and was swimming towards some distant ice.

Disappointing that the bear didn’t stick around? Sure, but not nearly as disappointing for us as it was for those passengers who’ve not had close encounters already.

By the way, the consensus amongst our resident experts, is that the bear was a young female.

(Link for our bear encounters in Churchill, Manitoba … https://eenusa.smugmug.com/North-America-US-Can…)Read more