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There is a great cheer as we leave the ground in Ottawa and another as our chartered First Air 737 touches down in Churchill. Impressive logistics on this junket — our bags disappeared onto a truck at Carleton before breakfast, we travelled to the Ottawa airport on two busses that drove through a gate and right up to the plane for boarding and now, in Churchill, we're met by four busses and guides who take us all on a cook's tour of this northern town, while our luggage is transported to the ship and stowed for our arrival. Somehow, between the briefings and expectations and the willingness of participants to make this work a working cooperative tone has been established — travelling with group of 110 is far less herd-like than I'd imagined. In our tour groups, no polar bears are sighted but we do see their jail, hear the stories of how they've been here longer than anyone can remember, how they're being significantly affected by climate change. As we walk along a beach outside of town checking out the border between Manitoba and Nunavut, each group has two armed guards reminding us that in this northern learning laboratory, there are no fences or barriers of any kind.  

Against the massive grain elevators and wharf designed for huge cargo ships, our vessel Polar Ambassador (aka M/V Lyubov Orlova) looks small from a distance but looms much larger as we disembark from the school busses and walk alongside. We hardly have time to start wondering about what it will be like to sleep aboard ship (boys on one deck, girls on another and never the twain shall meet except in public spaces), when an announcement is made to say that the Zodiacs are being hoisted into the water. In four groups we head into the Churchill River estuary to encounter the dozens of beluga whales that are snorkelling about. We all have time on the water with the whales until the sun sinks low in the west and it is time to set sail. As we cast off, an orange moon arises out of a quietly sparkling indigo sky. The lingering image this night is of dozens of excited silhouettes dancing back and forth across the top deck, first one side then the other, looking out into the darkened waters of Hudson Bay, with the little electronic eyes of their digital cameras looking back, watching their every move.