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JOURNAL ENTRY (Posted 9:50 am EST)
June 22, 2004 Geoff
Good morning. Coffee is brewing. It's Tuesday I think? We've just woken to blue skies and brilliant sunshine, and strong westerly winds, which is exactly what we've been wishing for!! Yesterday afternoon when we went to the floe edge it was completely chock-a-block with ice having blown in with the easterly winds. But this morning at approximately 5:00am the winds shifted and we can now see a huge expanse of open ocean right from our camp! So the excitement level is already high this morning. It is amazing to see the change in just a few short hours. The mountains across the inlet are clear, soft and surreal. It's almost a different world and everyone has been just staring out at the floe edge in the distance. It's great to see our elder Inuit guide just staring out, reading the ice and weather. I would love to know what goes through his mind.
You really come to appreciate and be in touch with the weather in this environment. Now that the kids have been living outside 24/7, without TV and all the other media-saturation of our "modern" world their senses are becoming heightened and alive even after just a few days. This is a powerful land. This is the "real" world. It allows you to think and gain clear perspective. With the ocean below us, clouds above us, and mountains and vast landscape all around us, we are in connection with nature and it is a beautiful thing. The food tastes better, conversation abounds, we feel healthy and nothing else but present really matters…
Our plan of attack today is to spend the day out at the floe edge in search of whales, seals and bears. Fingers crossed… We also put together the Feathercraft Kayaks last night, so if the winds die down this afternoon we'll hit the water for some paddling!
Yesterday we had several very special moments. The first was when our three Inuk students went out to hunt a seal the traditional way with one of our Inuk guides. This was a very exciting experience for Lily, Belinda and Jenny, and it also raised some great conversation between the group about the importance of traditional ecological knowledge and culture, and respect for the land. It was a poignant few moments for all. They didn't catch a seal but they had fun trying. Then last night after dinner we had a very special question and answer session with our Inuit elder guide Thomas. It was a chance for the students to ask questions about his traditional knowledge and Inuit culture. Lily acted as the translator. One of the questions was about what changes he had seen in the environment during his lifetime. He said that the ice is not the same as it used to be. It can't be trusted like before and it is not as hard as it once was. You could feel his passion for the land and his desire to go back to the old ways. He said that he used to navigate on the land by reading the snowdrifts and other traditional ways, where now the younger guys use GPS. He also said that he preferred using his dog teams in the old days over the snowmobiles today, because sometimes he could fall asleep on his sled and the dogs would just take him home! There were lots of great questions and dialogue. I think his respect and understanding for mother nature was his most powerful message to us. We wrapped up the day with a group hug with Thomas in the middle!
Well, we're off to the floe edge so we'll try and blast this off to the website before we go…
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JOURNAL ENTRIES June 22nd (Posted Wed June 23, 9:45 am EST)
Sarah Burns
Today we were awaken by a cacophony of banging pots and pans. Kelsi, our early riser, thought it would be a hoot to wake up her fellow students at 7:00 in the morning in this manner. I was unamused at first. But I soon got over myself and had a wonderful breakfast consisting of hash brown, bacon and eggs. We left the camp quickly (sans lecture) because all of us were eager to get out to the floe edge. I forgot to mention the wind. It was howling constantly during the night. They were westerly winds, which cleared out the loose ice at the floe, which completely covered the sea yesterday. When we arrived at the ice floe, we saw a gutted seal on the ground. Yesterday when we went to the ice floe we saw some Inuit hunter camping in that exact same place. I can only conclude that the seal, and the Narwhal we saw further down the beach, were the hunter's success. The carcass of the Narwhal was very interesting. We saw the intestines (which had the consistency of sausage) heart and gall bladder. The skin was really interesting too because it was so thick, tough, and felt like leather. On our way back in the Komatik, we spotted some whales. But they weren't just whales. They were Narwhals! There were about 20, and the site was glorious. They were huge, graceful creatures. Their mottled bodies arched up through the cold waves, and then would dive down again. The most awe-inspiring was when two put their heads out of the water, making their huge ivory tusks more visible. Not every narwhal has a tusk, so it was a very interesting to see two. The Karma, which Geoff speaks about so reverently must be working hard.
This afternoon, after Ingrid talked to us about the properties of water and ice, we went on a hike. All of us got kind of hot after a while, but the hike was work it. We saw the semi frozen bay, which was gorgeous as usual, and we even spotted some wild life. We all worked hard for the climax of our hike, where we knew we would get another point of view of the expanse of frozen ocean, which we have been living on for the past 3 days. All together it was a great day, even the cold and brutal winds didn't dampen our spirits, ambition, and above all curiosity. Unuaku!
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Belinda and Jenny
Hi, today was a great day. We went to the floe edge and it was kind of windy. We saw lots of narwhals and they were big. We woke up at 7:00 and we ate breakfast then we got dressed up and went to the floe edge. After the floe edge we went to our camp and ate our lunch it was good, we had salami and grilled cheese. After lunch we went to our favourite hill and it was pretty fun. Eric, Dan, David, Sara, Teddy went to a big mountain then Maria came here and talked to a lot of us. Then we came back here to our camp then we had dinner, we ate a deer stew and we had dessert. It was a greatest day ever and we had a really great day and we were really happy today. Then Jenny and I were helping Lee with dishes and cooking. It was really, really fun, the most fun I ever had. So I can't wait to go to Igloolik and Jenny misses Kimmirut. So it's time to go to sleep,
Bye everyone
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Stephanie
What a day. It's amazing up here. I keep on thinking that I am dreaming and that I will wake up in my bed in Keene. Today had to be the most incredible day so far. We woke up a half hour early to a big surprise. The ice around our base camp and around our tents had melted during the night. We had high winds and cold rainy snow during the night that had melted away our camp. Some of our tents had water inside due to the ice being melted. But when we arrived to the Floe Edge we had noticed as well during the 24-hour period over 1km of the Ice Floe had gone away due to the high winds. The winds were actually so strong that it had broken off some of the ice and had drifted away down the Arctic Ocean. I was a little apprehensive about going near the weak ice. It was also really cool to see that the ice had cracked down the middle, and one side of the crack would go up, while the other side of the crack moved down. It felt like a teeter-totter. Which was a really cool feeling! We decided that it would be a good idea to go back to camp since the winds were so high. I was enjoying my ride on the back of the snowmobile when all of a sudden I heard yelling from the Komitick behind me. The people in the back of the komitick were pointing to the ocean.
 There in the Ocean were Narwhal whales about 2 meters away from the shore. We raced out of the sleds and ran over to the edge. There were about 30 whales passing by us. That was the best moment ever. That was what we had wanted to see since the day we came here. I love whales and seeing them in the wild and so free was amazing. We spent about an hour or so watching the whales come up out of the water for a breath and back down again.
We came back to camp and walked up Bylot Island, and watched the sea life from up on the hill. We then were able to go kayaking, which was amazing because we were able to see the birds and wildlife more close up and more "free" in way. We came back to camp at around 9:00pm and ate dinner and had another briefing, and before we knew it, it was time for bed. Tomorrow should be an amazing day as well.
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To read more about the Narwhale: Visit www.nwtwildlife.com/NWTwildlife/Whales/Narwhal.htm |
