Cruising in the ice: Arctic 8

HIgh Arctic Explorer: Arctic 8


Sunday August 14, 2022

Back in Ottawa

I can feel the heat through the window. I’m glad I’m inside and have air conditioning because this is hotter than I’ve experienced for the last month. It’s actually hotter in Calgary than it is here in Ottawa although the humidity here is much higher.

It was a good decision to spend an extra day here before flying home. When we mentioned this to friends on the ship they said they could suggest all sorts of interesting things to see. The offer was very kind and we’re not here to see things. We’re here to sleep in, take long showers in a space where we don’t need to keep our elbows in, and gradually readjust to life in the south.

I first ventured into northern Canada in my late 20’s on a bus tour with a company called ‘Canadian Camping Adventures.’ They had canvas umbrella tents and we brought our own sleeping bags and mattresses. The route took us into the Yukon and Alaska and when I returned home I knew I wanted to travel there again. The various trips to the north could be the subject of a blog entry but not this one.

Now that I’ve repacked my duffle bag yet again, I can sit with a cup of tea and reflect on the fact that this time yesterday I was sitting on a rock in the sun outside the Kangerlussuaq airport. I did a rather bad job of packing the night before and squinted into the sun as I realized that both my hat and my sunglasses were in my checked luggage. Mostly you will find me seeking shade; this time the temperature was in the high teens and the warmth was pleasant, so I stayed in the sun.

Kangerlussuaq airport 

On the way to the airport we took a short bus tour and saw muskox and a lone caribou. This is the closest I’ve been to muskox, or caribou for that matter. The caribou was right in front of the bus and the muskoxen were on the tundra a couple of city blocks away. They were close enough to see clearly and far enough away that to get a decent photo you needed to use a telephoto lens. Just one more point for remembering to bring the charging cradle for the camera battery next time. When we had a short tour on our last trip we saw muskox as tiny dark dots against the green of the summer tundra. You just never know on these trips.

Blurry muskoxen

What I’ve discovered is to focus on what we did get to see and do and forget about the published itinerary. We didn’t get to Dundas Harbour, Beechey Island, or Resolute this trip. All of those places were on the itinerary. Instead, we had a wonderful walk on the land in Croker Bay, where a pair of parasitic jaegers swooped and dove overhead. I decided before going to shore that it was a day to use up some of my remaining battery. I don’t know how long I stood watching the birds swoop and dive: time stops for me when I’m photographing birds. I stayed back, judging my distance by whether or not they would settle on the ground and stay there until someone else walked over the invisible line of protected territory. Close to me, Niap was seated on the ground quietly painting.

Niap at work

I’ve downloaded my photos and had a quick look. I’ll need to spend time with them on my computer to evaluate the images I captured. I already know that, even if all the images are crap, I had a wonderful day. It’s an enjoyable challenge for me to try to find the right exposure, composition, and shutter speed to capture something of what I’m seeing as I follow the movements of the birds, first with the naked eye and then with binoculars or camera. I hear the birds call probably to warn the humans to get away from their nest and ask myself how I can convey the birds’ determination in a still photo.

I’ve spoken before about my interest in photography and the various camera equipment I’ve had over the years. Now my focus is different. I still consider composition, light, and shutter speed, all the technical things that make cameras work but I’m finding more and more I’m concerned with story. It’s no surprise to me that I have a pretty good idea of how a story works in written text and not such a good idea of what a story is and how to tell it in photographic images.

I’ve read blog posts and listened to talks about story in photography and it’s still a slippery concept. I’ll continue to read and watch videos about the topic because I enjoy that. When I have my camera in hand, I find myself asking, “How can I tell this story?” even though I’m not exactly sure what the story is. My method is to get out there with the question and the camera and see what emerges.

And, in a roundabout way, that brings me back to the experiences we had on this trip. Because it was foggy and we didn’t have a good chance to land at Douglas Harbour, Jason, our expedition leader, chose to turn the ship around and sail back to Greenland which was our closest ‘extraction point.’ I haven’t made friends with that term yet. It leaves me feeling a little like an abscessed tooth. Coming from Greenland to Canada on the first part of the trip we sailed far north to avoid the sea ice. On the way back to Greenland we came closer to the sea ice so we could tuck in behind it and take a zodiac tour amid the ice floes. It was foggy and ice bergs rose out of and disappeared into the mist. We were almost equidistant from Canada and Greenland and the water beneath our zodiacs was over 2 kilometres deep. We were, literally, in the middle of the ocean.

Ocean Endeavour emerges

On our way back to the ship I couldn’t see the lights of the ship until we could distinguish the shape of its hull. Others said they could see the lights and our zodiac drivers had GPS coordinates and radio contact with the ship. I’m willing to bet that there is only a handful of people who have been for a zodiac cruise in sea ice in the middle of Baffin Bay.

Last walk on the land

Our last walk on the land was at Hollanderblugt Greenland, another new place. We got a little way up the slopes of the hills and enjoyed the vista of a calm brilliantly-blue sea. We passed quietly by a burial site that Lisa, the archeologist, judged to be a child's grave given the length of the pile of stones. She told us that the Inuit often buried their dead in places that had a spectacular view and this spot was no exception. We saw many goose tracks, the tracks of foxes, and a beach of sparkling black sand. The tundra was spongy under our feet and made for comfortable walking. I will return again and again in my imagination to that beach as we stay close to home during the winter.

Another opportunity because of our altered plans was the visit to Sisimiut. We’ve been to Sisimiut on previous trips in sunny and overcast conditions. This time it was sunny and warm and after a tour of the town where we saw new things, Richard and I opted to walk out beyond the lake where we watched ravens and black backed gulls and where I noticed a corral for horses I hadn’t seen before. I will always remember the snowmobile races on the water that we came across on our last visit. There were no snowmobile races this time and that allowed us to explore an area we had wondered about before.

I’ve often heard the expression, ‘life is what happens while you’re making other plans.’ The same can be said for expedition travel. We didn’t get to some places on the itinerary but we had unique experiences every step of the way and that’s what keeps me coming back.