Winnipeg: where the adventure begins

 

I’m joining a team of researchers within the Earthwatch program who are investigating climate change at the Arctic’s Edge. I’ll stay in their facilities in Churchill, Manitoba for 10 days and volunteer myself to do field work during this time. I signed up for this trip quite a long while ago and was selected in last year June, and what seemed to be very far away is now getting closer and closer.

During this time I did some preparation which involved mostly getting all the necessary gear, making travel arrangements and some paper work (which even included a polar bear waiver form!).

Gathering the gear for the trip has proved to be fairly the most important till now. Well, actually what’s important is to gather the appropriate gear. Weather conditions would be quite extreme in Churchill (and they’re a bit now in Winnipeg) and I didn’t want to spoil the experience just by not having the correct clothing on. I spent some hours in specialized shops hearing what the attendant had to say about differences between types of thermal underwear, how to recognize wind proof materials or how to select the correct baklava or pair of gloves.

Was also essential to contact people who previously joined the same trip and hear what they had to say about layers and how to deal with them, quality of stuff, places to buy it and an estimate of costs. After collecting all this opinions and information I bought some stuff till the point to made me feel I was really well prepared to face 3 non-stop hours of field work on -30C.

 

The adventure begins

After a 20 hour connection flight from Amsterdam, I arrived to Winnipeg in the middle of the night. Was not so cold, though. Didn’t have to use any gloves when outside for 5 minutes looking for a cab. The day after, what I call day 1, I met two other Earthwatch colleagues and we went out for some sightseeing trying to beat up the jet lag. Winnipeg is a city of approximately 600.000 people and surprisingly lots of people were on the streets despite the cold weather. I even saw a couple of people with open jackets and with shorts and snickers instead of long trousers and winter boots.

Not many things are out there to see in Winnipeg, lots of restaurants and some shopping -not very fancy or specialized. Manitoba’s museum was closed (disadvantage of coming on a Monday) and the Art Gallery was too far away to have a walk there. I did some final shopping prior to the beginning of the adventure more because I found nice stuff than because I needed something extra: hearing from other team members what they still had to buy I realized how well prepared I am with buying of necessary stuff.

Tomorrow I’ll be flying from Winnipeg to Churchill, where the adventure begins.

 

Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet. ~Carl Sagan