Arctic Adventure!

Yes, it's true. We're really headed to the arctic this summer! All three of us, Marike, Karin and Elisabeth. We are leaving the animals, garden and house in the very capable hands of our very generous and splendid neighbour, Paulette Gammon.

Here's the plan: we leave Quoddy at dawn on Friday 7 August, headed for Ottawa. We should arrive sometime Saturday afternoon. We'll bunk for a night with our friend, [Major] Barry Leonard, then, before dawn on Sunday, 9 August, we'll board a flight for Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, with our ship-mates, guides and outfitters for Adventure Canada and their affiliate, Eagle Eye Tours.

Our ship, the 295 foot Clipper Adventurer, will be anchored in the ice-free Sondre Stromfjord, which is, at 168 km, one of the longest fjords in the world. From here, we'll steam northwest, above the Arctic Circle and along Greenland's coast, stopping in a series of some of the world's northernmost communities. We'll be looking at the state of the Greeenland Ice Cap, and learning about ice, northern navigation, aspects of the history and culture of Greenland, and the impacts of global warming on the flora, fauna and communities of the far north.

According to the itinerary provided by Adventure Canada and Eagle Eye Tours, we can expect to spend several days in Smith Sound, then cross to Ellesmere Island. We'll stop in Aujuittuq (Grise Ford) the "place that never thaws," a tiny community of 165 more than 1000 km above the Arctic--and the northernmost non-military permanent settlement in Canada. We'll circle about half of Devon Island to see the seabirds and marine mammals that make the world's largest uninhabited island their home, pay a visit to the Prince Leopold Bird Sanctuary on Somerset Island, and step ashore on Beechey Island, where Sir John Franklin and his crew first wintered during their ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage in 1845. We'll end this portion of the trip at Qaussuittuq (Resolute Bay), "the place with no dawn," the second most northern community in Canada.
(For a more detailed preliminary itinerary of the first half of our voyage, see http://www.eagle-eye.com/Locations/Arctic_Voyage.html.)

The second half of our trip picks up here, in Resolute Bay--so named after the HMS Resolute, one of the ships that came to search for Sir John Franklin and his lost expeditioners. (We'll write more about this infamous "last" expedition as we go, we promise. In the meantime, if you want to consult a brief illustrated version of the life of John Franklin, see http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/John_Franklin.) We'll revisit Beechey Island and Prince Leopold, then continue through the first half of the Northwest Passage, slipping through Bellot Strait and stopping at a number of Inuit settlements and famous (or infamous) trading posts and explorers' encampments from Fort Ross to Kangiryuar (Prince Albert Sound). This trip ends in Cambridge Bay or Iqaluktuuttiaq, "good fishing place," home to almost 1500 permanent residents of Nunavut. From here, we'll fly back to Ottawa, see a few friends and return home, early in September. (For a more detailed preliminary itinerary of this segment of the trip see http://www.eagle-eye.com/Locations/Northwest_Passage1.html.)

We won't always have ready internet access while we're on this voyage, but we'll do our best to keep you updated on our progress. We'll be writing and painting and taking photographs and making videos, so check back here now and then, because there will be plenty to see and explore!
We can hardly wait to get started!

Karin, Marike & Elisabeth

All maps and images in this posting come from Eagle Eye Tours--http://www.eagle-eye.com/index.html