Dundas Harbour

Our ship and the kayakers.

The Thuli archeology site, the remains of a dwelling...

and an animal trap.

This was the entrance way to an igloo type dwelling...

The beautiful barren lands.

You can almost feel the flower shivering.

Hiking across island in a little snow storm...

to this remote RCMP location at Dundas Harbour.

Can you imagine being stationed here for two years?

Walking along the beach past the seaweed above the tide water mark.

The main RCMP building.

The cemetery and graves of two officers who committed suicide here.

A beautiful piece of ice floats by...

Saturday, September 9^th.  Dundas Harbour

We had an early breakfast this morning and then we were zodiac-ed to another beach landing on the south coast of Devon Island. This time at an historical site called Dundas Harbour. It was a totally overcast day, hovering around freezing and for the first time, it was snowing. We went on a long walk around this peninsula of hilly ground to some old Thuli sites, some of which were the remnants of summer tent sites and others which were winter structures built into the ground, with rudimentary stone walls that would have had whale bone supports for a roof or an ice roof. The ground was soft, spongy and soggy with many pingoes, which are areas of the ground where water seeps in then freezes causing the ground to rise into small domes. There were many species of small plants, lichens, and a few very hardy flowers. At the end of our three-hour walk we came to the remnants of the most northerly RCMP station in Canada. It was built and manned here from the 1920’s until the 1950’s as a part of the plan to demonstrate Canadian sovereignty of the land. There were four buildings that vividly illustrated just how lonely and desolate this post must have been. It was manned by two officers on a yearly basis. One year the supply ship could not get into the bay because of the ice and just radioed that they had left their year’s supplies on the ice, didn’t pick up the officers or drop off the replacements. You can almost imagine the despair of the ones not picked up and the joy of the ones that weren’t dropped off. On a rise of land behind the beach there is a small cemetery, as two of the officers committed suicide. As it was quite damp all day, I didn’t take my camera out of the dry bag, and just used my iPhone. But, it did weird things as I put it in and took it out repeatedly. It took over 50 pictures and videos of the inside of my pocket and at one point it rang and I thought I was getting a phone call in the Arctic, but it turned out to be the timer – which I had not set. When we got back to the ship, we had lunch. In the afternoon there were several little workshops we could attend. I chose the one about photography using an iPhone and although it was pretty basic, I did learn a couple of useful tips, including making albums which will help me with gathering photos for the blog. At 4 we had a presentation by Todd Nimitz, a renowned photographer called Icebergs from a Different Point of View. He illustrated different ways to take photos of icebergs. Most people just focus on the whole berg, he suggested diving into the nooks, crannies, and smaller sections to focus on the light, colours and angles. He showed us pictures of his journey beneath the ice to photograph icebergs from beneath. Then we had a presentation by David and Laurie Pelly. They had adopted a young Inuit boy, who they raised as their own. Sadly, he died unexpectedly in his sleep at 19. In a way to assuage their grief they have set up a fund to benefit vulnerable Inuit youth. There is a very high rate of school dropouts, alcoholism, drug abuse and teenage pregnancies. They sponsor about 40 individuals each year and set them up in groups of other Inuit youths for adventures in team building and self confidence where they undertake journeys of white-water rafting, tall ship sailing, mountain climbing, etc. I had my first beer of the journey before dinner today. Today, John, Bruce and I were invited by the Adventure Canada staff to dine with some of them at a reserved table, with complimentary wine. We were joined by three of the young members of the team, including two graduate students who are doing some scientific research on board, counting birds and looking for evidence of plastics on our land excursions. One was a young woman from New Brunswick and the other was a very shy male Inuit who hails from near Churchill, Manitoba. It was interesting talking to them. At one point Scott McDonald the expedition leader joined us and commented on the fact I was wearing the ‘competitor’s’ shirt. I was wearing my GAdventure Antarctica shirt. We had a good discussion of the differences between the companies and the poles (more on that in the summary). After dinner we watched a movie called ‘Martha of the North’. It was about an Inuit woman whose family endured the relocation to Grise Fjord in the 1950’s. It was a very sad and depressing film showing just how unfeeling and uncaring even our Canadian government can be towards indigenous people. Tonight, we were told that although Grise Fjord was on our agenda and many of us wanted to go there, we will not be able to because of a large amount of ice flowing down the east side of Ellesmere Island from the north. Our captain explained that although we might be able to sail in, if we stayed for our planned visit, we might not be able to exit the fjord. They don’t make these decisions lightly as they are also guided by the Federal government and the coast guard because ships have different qualifications for ice travel and if we go into ice that we are not rated for there would be consequences for the captain and the ship’s owners. So, they are making alternate plans, which is why this is not a cruise, but an expedition…  We went to bed shortly thereafter.