Port Leopold and Prince Leopold

The barren lands.

Port Leopold coast.

An abandoned Hudson Bay trading post.

Thule archeological site.

Brits abroad.

Life is tenacious and little flowers grow even here.

A vertebrae of something. 

The view of the trading post from the walk.

The cliffs of Prince Leopold that provide haven for thousands of birds.

Northern fulmar with nostril on top of bill which helps them find food.

   A guillemot with chick.

Wednesday, September 6^th. Port Leopold and Prince Leopold, south shore of Devon Island

After breakfast, this morning there was a briefing for the plans for the day, which included a long walk and some cultural artifacts of both Inuit and European significance. Then there were two talks, one about one of our guides who lived with Inuit for a period of time and was telling ‘Arctic as a Landscape of Stories’ in the oral tradition about his experiences and the other ‘Climate Change and Cultural Heritage: Arctic Archeology’. After that we had lunch. As our ship was approaching Port Leopold Bay the scenery changed to high cliffs and low mountains. Then there was an announcement that we had to change our plans as there were three polar bears in the area we wanted to go, so kayaking, the long hike, and landing in that area were off. The team scrambled to make new plans to land in the same area, so now instead of a three-hour landing we will load off two groups for 90 minutes in order to control numbers and possible evacuation needs. I worked on updating my photos and trying to sort out a SD card that has malfunctioned. Finally, it was our turn to head out to the beach. The ride to the shore was about five minutes and the temperature was 5 degrees with a sun and cloud mix, lovely day for a walk. We walked over a broken rock area to several ancient Thule sites. They were the ancestors of the Inuit who arrived here about 8 thousand years ago from Asia. What we saw was the remnants of some of their houses. They were dug partly into the ground and then rocks were piled in a circle and bowhead whale bones were used for the supports for the roof which would have been made of animal hides and mosses and maybe snow in the winter. Now they are just circular areas of rock. Then Bruce and I went for a longish walk there and back again along the coast before returning to walk the shore towards the still standing Hudson Bay Company trading post. Long since disused, it looked pretty desolate and forlorn, hard to imagine anyone posted here. We were ashore for about two hours before boarding the zodiacs back to the ship. After dinner we cruised by Prince Leopold Island where 1.5 million seabirds, nest on huge cliffs where they are protected from most predators. However, it was late in the season, most of the young are reared and most of the birds had already begun the migration south. There were some birds around, but the bulk had gone. We watched the activity and admired the awesome cliffs from the top deck. When the light failed, we headed inside and watched a film by John Houston about his parent’s relationship with the Inuit in the 1960’s. Really a great story about how his parents were instrumental in helping the Inuit market their carvings and other art, which put their culture on the map. Then off to bed.