Our March 2020 trip to Egypt was canceled at the last minute along with every other flight out of the country. Who would have thought, then, that it would be a whole year before we could make the trip? Here we are, one year later, waiting at LAX for our flight to Istanbul and on to Cairo. It will be interesting to see how much different things are one year into the pandemic.
Christmas on Bora Bora is hard to top, but Rangiroa managed to do it. We had never been here before but included it in our holiday plans because I heard that the diving was good. I really didn’t look much farther into it, just figured we would check it out. Rangiroa is a large atoll (the largest in the world), which means it is low-lying coral islets without a spectacular volcanic island like Bora Bora. We stayed at the Hotel Kia Ora which was quite nice. We chose to dive with The Six Passengers, and I would highly recommend them. They are a very professional dive operator offering spectacular diving.
Rangiroa diving is all about big animals. We dove the Tiputa pass every dive and were never disappointed. Every dive was different, depending on the direction and strength of the current. We saw a lot of big animals, but the real attraction is the dolphins. Wild dolphins will occasionally decide to interact with divers. Just seeing groups of dolphins swim by is exciting, but when they approach and play with you–UNBELIEVABLE!
After the first close encounter with wild dolphins, that became the standard by which all other dives were judged. During our time in Rangiroa, we saw mantas, eagle rays, grey sharks, reef sharks, schools of jacks and barracuda . . . Always something exciting to see, but you are always glancing out into the blue, hoping the dolphins will return. It sounds ridiculous to surface after a dive and say, “no dolphins, only a hammerhead shark” with a degree of disappointment in your voice. Rangiroa is THAT GOOD!
Especially after being stranded close to home for the last nine months, it was great to get out of town and enjoy something close to normalcy. I think this photo sums up Christmas in Bora Bora: fantastic! Thanks, Stephan, for the great family photo.
We thought 2020 would end on a high note. With plenty of time for a leisurely drive to Las Vegas, we set off for our only international departure of the year. 2020 was not done with us yet, unfortunately. Not long after passing the Black Rock exit on I-15—the last possible turnout before entering the Virgin River Gorge—we could see a rapidly growing plume of black smoke just beyond the first bend in the Gorge. With an impending sense of doom, I began looking for a way out of the line of traffic forming in the distance. If we would have been driving my Landcruiser I might have attempted to cross the median, 100 yards of desert scrub separating us from the north-bound lanes that were still moving. Fairly certain that our rental car would not make it, I slowed to a stop as south-bound I-15 became a parking lot. It was now just after 3 pm in Las Vegas; our flight was scheduled to leave at 7 pm.
South-bound I-15
The plume of black smoke grew, and we were close enough that we could smell it. For two hours we waited, making room for several fire trucks and emergency vehicles rushing to fight the fire. We had given up any hope of making our flight when traffic finally started to inch forward. Before long, we slowly passed the burned-out wreck of the truck that had closed the freeway.
We raced through the Gorge, hoping for a miracle. Our original plan had us arriving in Las Vegas at 5 pm to drop off our car, allowing two hours to check-in for our flight. Instead, at 5 o’clock we were just leaving the Gorge. Luckily, traffic was light after the closure and it appeared that we were not the only ones running late. With the flow of traffic exceeding 90 mph, we avoided a speeding ticket and rolled into McCarran 45 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave. The gate agent was kind enough to accept our bags and I was back on the road in minutes, heading to the rental car return. With a little luck, the shuttle bus got me back to the airport in enough time that a sprint through the airport allowed me to slide through the closing door of our flight and into my seat, gasping for air through my mask. Unbelievably, we were on our way to Los Angeles and on to Tahiti!
Churchill, Canada had been on my list for over two decades, ever since friends of mine from Hawaii made the trip in the mid-’90s. Through them, I learned that polar bears congregate here in October, waiting for the Hudson Bay to freeze. Our kids had two days off for fall break, and that was just enough time to make it work. As it happens, Frontiers North had a package that perfectly matched the time we had available. After school on Wednesday, we flew to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Early Thursday morning we (12 of us!) were on a chartered 737 heading to Churchill, a small town in northern Manitoba on the Hudson Bay. There aren’t any roads leading here; only a rail link that primarily transports grain to Canada’s only Arctic harbor.
Churchill is an interesting place. Less than 900 people call it home, and there is only one paved road connecting the airport to the train station and harbor. According to the locals, the only reason the road is paved is because of a visit by Queen Elizabeth in the ’70s (She never did use the road, choosing to helicopter from the airport to town). Our bus driver chose not to take this road either, preferring a dirt track along the coast which afforded us the opportunity to see a plane crash and a red fox on our way into town. Following the Queen’s lead, the kids and I took a scenic helicopter flight, giving us our first look at more than 20 bears and 4 moose from the air.
Tundra Buggy
Churchill considers itself the polar bear capital of the world. Occasionally the bears wander through town and end up in Polar Bear Jail near the airport. Most, however, are found outside of town in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. To get there, specially designed Tundra Buggies have the ability to navigate the tracks and tundra ponds while keeping you safely above the reach of the bears.
The Buggies are quite spacious and have an open viewing deck in back. We spent Friday in the Tundra Buggie and had a great day! We saw two Cariboo (rare in this area, according to our driver, Luke) and 10 bears.
At the Tundra Buggie dock
Some of the bears were lazing in the distance, others were on the move, and Luke was skillfully able to anticipate their path and park our Buggie right on their intended path. None of the bears tried to reach up to our windows as you see in brochures, but a few of them came close enough to touch our tires. You could watch the bears from the comfort of the Buggie–at least it was comfortable until the windows opened–or outside on the back deck. The view was great, but the frigid wind blowing off of the Hudson Bay discouraged you from staying outside after the bears moved along.
