Dundas Harbour on Devon Island

This morning we went ashore at two different sites on Morin Point at Dundas Harbour.  We saw remains of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police outpost that was established in 1924.  We landed the zodiacs on a rocky shore and walked to the site.




It includes two graves up on the hillside.


The shoreline was covered with kelp and some ice.


The tundra plants and lichen were neat.  This is a willow.

And this is related to blueberry.




Then we took the zodiacs to an ancient Thule dwelling site and walked among the home sites.  This would have been a home dug into the earth with walls of sod and a sod roof supported by whale bones.


This is the entrance tunnel.



The weather was predicted to deteriorate, so in the afternoon we went out into open water to get to eastern Ellesmere island by morning.  The water was very rough and I ended up taking Bonine.

Devon Island

After failing to get us ashore this morning, the ship headed off to find a protected spot so we could take a hike.  They found it in that little bay at the top of the map just right of center.


We landed there and the zodiacs took us ashore for a nice hike of over three miles.  We hiked up into a valley carved by a small river.




Looking back at the ship during the hike.

We saw lots of musk ox droppings and some hoof prints, but no animals.  They are hunted in this area so disappear at the first sight of man.  These droppings are from the summer.

























And these are from the winter time.  They are very dry because the oxen do not get much liquid over the winter.  They do not eat the snow because it is so cold.


We saw small tundra vegetation and lots of lichen.

A Failed Attempt

We were supposed to take the zodiacs to Beechey Island today to visit the graves of some of the men from the failed 1845 John Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage.  But the winds are too strong to make the trip.  Plus, it is about 34 degrees and raining.  Not ideal conditions.


So we will have some interesting lectures that were aborted yesterday while we were all outside watching polar bears.

More Ice and Polar Bears

We saw two more polar bears out on the ice this evening.  And this is just a pretty view of the ice and sky.  It is late enough in the season that it does get dark overnight at some point, but it is quite light when we finally shut the drapes to go to sleep.

Ice and Polar Bears

I was surprised the ship kept approaching this bear, though it was still quite a way away.  But once the bear noticed us, it came to check us out.






Once it tired of our company, it walked away and laid down on the ice.  There was also an adult with a cub farther away that we watched for a while.

Maps

This map shows where we have been.  Pond Inlet is on the northern part of Baffin Island.


Over night we headed west from Pond Inlet, marked with the pink tab below, going around Bylot Island and up into Lancaster Sound.
We are now headed west in the Sound, searching for ice and the animals who should be near it.


This map is hard to see but gives a reference if one wants to look at an atlas to see where we are.

Looking for Ice

Last evening our leader announced that today we would again be at sea.  The weather prediction was not great for on land explorations and they are anxious to cover ground to find some ice.  Given the foggy then snowy weather, it seemed like a good decision.  It is hard to see in the photo, but it was snowing here and not long after, the windows in the chart room were covered with snow.

Pond Inlet

Today we reached Pond Inlet, Nunavut where the staff took care of the necessary immigration essentials to allow us to land in various places in Canada.  This is a scene along the way.


After the immigration formalities were taken care of, we took zodiacs to land in Pond Inlet and tour the settlement.


The experience was rather depressing.  We learned that during the 1960's Canada wanted to make its presence in the region known so Inuit children were forcibly removed from their homes and shipped off to be "educated" at a school in Pond Inlet.  Families gradually moved off the land and into the town to be with their children.  At some point the working dogs that allowed the Inuit to hunt and continue their traditional lifestyle were slaughtered to be sure the people could not leave the towns where they were placed.
The Inuit language was originally only oral.  The written language on these signs was created by Catholic missionaries so they could translate the Bible.

Crossing Baffin Bay

In the wee hours of this morning we were wakened by an announcement that they were seeing the Aurora from the bridge.  We threw on some clothes and rushed outside.  We saw it but it wasn't very spectacular.  It just looked like a cloud with a bit of a greenish tinge.  But at least we can say we saw it once.  No idea if we will get another opportunity.

We spent today "at sea" crossing Baffin Bay to the relatively new Canadian territory of Nunavut.  We started seeing icebergs


and had a close up view of a couple of Northern Bottlenose Whales.  Even the whale expert was excited since such sightings are rare, especially in this area.

Sisimiut, Greenland

We traveled overnight and into the morning up the west coast of Greenland to Sisimiut.  It is a town of 6,000 inhabitants that was founded in 1756 and is Greenland's second largest municipality.  It's main industry is fishing.  We had a nice walk around the small town with buildings perched on the surrounding hills.

Approaching the dock.




Walking tour of the town.




Including the second oldest church in Greenland, dating from 1775.


The "qajaq" or "kayak" club where they make kayaks using traditional methods.

Off to Greenland

Today's weather was not nearly as good as yesterday's, but was apparently much more typical of Iceland.  It rained with 25-35 mph winds.  So we were happy to spend the morning in the bus.  We toured the city and got a much better view of the Lutheran Church.


We also stopped at the national museum.  Then we drove to the airport for the two hour flight to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.  Given the Reykjavik weather, it wasn't surprising to quickly rise above the clouds.  But it cleared over Greenland and we got some views of the glacier complete with melted spots.


I was surprised how quickly the snow disappeared as we flew west over Greenland.




There was not much to see at the airport.  And even less at the "dock" we went from to get to the ship.  This is a view from the ship.


The water is too shallow for the ship to come to shore, so we got there via zodiacs.






Getting the luggage to the ship was another interesting endeavor.  It was placed in an old shipping container which was loaded onto a barge and a tug pushed it to the ship.  Welcome to Greenland.


This was the view from our balcony.

Iceland, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic

We are on a trip with Linblad Expeditions.  We left NJ for JFK Friday afternoon and boarded an overnight flight to Reykjavik, Iceland.  We headed for the hotel upon arrival and caught up on our sleep.  In the afternoon we took a bus to various sights.  We started out with lunch on the top floor of the Perlan, a neat domed building with exhibits about Iceland.

And great views of the city, including that amazing church.

Then we drove out into the countryside scattered with lava and dotted with steam vents.  We went to a geothermal power plant which provides the city with hot water and electricity.

Then we drove to the little town of Hverageroi which uses the local steam to heat greenhouses where they grow beautiful flowers.  Then off to a small horse stable to see pretty little Iceland horses perform.