Dreamtime / The Canadian Leg, Part I

Circumnavigation series                            Next in the series

Today Elder G and I continue our 16,000 mile journey, recreating the transfer of a Cessna Citation to assist Australia during their summer wildfire season. We began our journey in yesterday’s blott. We will be leaving from Edmonton, Alberta to our first stop at Churchill, Manitoba.

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Edmonton (YEG)

Cumulative Miles/Kilometers: 0

Interestingly, Elder G suggested this image of Edmonton, a tall icy stairway, from a website for personal injury lawyers.

A few fun facts

Edmonton is the northernmost major city in North America. It has the largest stretch of urban parkland in Canada, the North Saskatchewan River Valley, a green ribbon that snakes right through the city.

YEG has long been a gateway for northern operations, medevac flights, and fire suppression logistics. Planes leaving here often have real jobs waiting.

YEG

In temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius with blinding snowstorms, howling winds, freezing rain and snow-covered landscapes as far as the eye can see, passengers at Edmonton International Airport (YEG) continue to arrive safely and take off.

As Canada’s most northern-based major airport, YEG’s winter operations crew is dedicated to keeping planes and passengers moving. They are ready to tackle any extreme weather condition during Edmonton’s long snow season, usually lasting from October to April, with about 140 days per year with snow on the ground.

Surrounded by prairie landscapes with lots of open space for winds to blow snow in from the fields, the airport is situated on roughly 7,000 acres outside the urban sprawl. Temperatures are known to plunge below -40 degrees Celsius in this rural area during the coldest months of the year.

International Airport Review

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Elder G describes the cuisine of Edmonton:

A typical meal before departure

Before a transcontinental, hemispheric leap, the food leans hearty and grounding:

• Breakfast:
  • Eggs, toast, thick bacon or sausage
  • Hash browns with reckless confidence
  • Coffee strong enough to double as aviation fuel
• Lunch or dinner:
  • Roast beef or steak
  • Potatoes in some form that involves butter
  • A nod to prairie comfort food like perogies or meat pie

This is not cuisine designed to impress. It is cuisine designed to stick with you through cold mornings, pre-flight checks, and the realization that Churchill is next.

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Churchill (YYQ) Manitoba

Edmonton (YEG) → Churchill (YYQ): ~620 miles
Cumulative Miles/Kilometers: 620 / 998

Churchill Airport (IATA: YYQ, ICAO: CYYQ) is located 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) east-southeast of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The airport serves the town of Churchill and the surrounding region. Although it is a small domestic airport, it handles a relatively high number of passengers throughout the year as Churchill is a major destination for ecotourism and scientific research.

Wikipedia

Churchill is a subarctic port town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly 140 km (87 mi) from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1685 to 1691. It is well known for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname “Polar Bear Capital of the World” and to the benefit of its burgeoning tourism industry.

Wikipedia

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Café YYQ

We stopped in to Café YYQ for a cup of coffee while we refueled the Citation. We also wanted to figure out how to turn on the dome light in the cockpit.

We invited the interns to join us at Café YYQ (they must pay their travel, but we will provide one (1) cup of coffee, no refills). Sadly, there are no flights from WLBOTT HQ.

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What’s On the Menu at the Churchill Café YYQ?

A Typical Meal in Churchill

Mainstays you’d actually see

• Arctic char – pan-fried or smoked, mild and clean, often the pride of the table
• Caribou stew – slow-cooked, hearty, built for cold days and long conversations
• Pickerel (walleye) – lightly battered or grilled, very common
• Moose meat – when available, often as stew or meatballs
• Bannock – dense, comforting bread, sometimes fried, sometimes baked
• Potatoes & root vegetables – dependable, filling, unpretentious
• Pea soup – thick enough to stand a spoon at attention
• Berry desserts – cloudberries, blueberries, cranberries, often as pies or preserves

Café / diner classics (YYQ realism)

• Bacon, eggs, hash browns
• Toast with butter and jam
• Fish cakes with potatoes
• Soup of the day (almost always a good idea)
• Strong coffee, refilled without asking

What a coincidence! Remember Bev, from Café YEG? Turns out her cousin (also named Bev) works at Café YYQ.

Bev compt’ed us with all the favorites of Churchill cuisine!