‘Is it an Arctic Hare?’ someone asked, ‘No, it’s an Arctic Fox’ said someone else as we walked towards two white fluff-balls in the distance. Cameras in one hand and binoculars in the other, we all tried to focus on the white spots about 100 metres in front of us. Suddenly a Polar Bear Cub and Mother rose from their rocky habitat to enquire about their visitors…. Adrenaline rushed through my body instantly…. how exciting! If being in the Arctic and sailing the Northwest Passage wasn’t enough, we were now about 80-90 metres away from 2 beautiful Polar Bears!
The sheer size of the bears, the fact that we were on their land and how close we were became apparent very quickly. We had been told in one of the many informative presentations onboard that Polar Bears can run 100 metres in 7 seconds…. That’s fast and 100 metres has never seemed so close! The bears became curious, as any human would, and started to walk towards us to find out more. Jamie, our expedition guide, kept us calm and gathered us all together in a tight group, we were instructed to walk in the opposite direction to the bears, back to our base and as we did so the bears decided that we weren’t that interesting after all and sat back down to bask in the sun. Exploring this vast and remote area in the Northwest Passage will stay with me forever and coming across two of the largest land predators on earth today will always remind me how unique and fascinating our world is!
By Lauren Brewer
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