Tanquary Fjord - and an Extra Hour of Sleep
Tanquary Fjord - and an Extra Hour of Sleep
By Blog.Admin
(August 10, 2010, 18:00) - Tanquary Fjord, Nunavut, Canada - Hamish Fothergill reporting - An extra hour was given for sleep today, a rarity onboard the KK. Following breakfast, a mandatory briefing was arranged to introduce us to the wardends of Quttinirpaaq National Park. (No, I can't pronounce it either.) The aforementioned park is the most northerly in the world and one of the largest in Canada, the size of Holland.
Zodiacs were the morning's vessel of choice, conveying us to the Wardens' base camp. From there we split into four groups of physical fitness: fast walkers, medium, the slow and those who wished to stay at camp. Medium was then divided into three further groups. Fast, who would cover all the sites with a local warden providing information on them; medium who would do the same, but with more time to take photographs and catch one's breath; and the group lead by Bob Headland, who needless to say, spent more time listening than walking.
I fell into the first of the three subcategories. Two very different civilisations were present in the ruins, the Thules, hunting acquatic animals, leaving behind fox traps and meat caches, and Independence One, a group who focused on musk-oxen, using miniscule weaponry. Their past existence was signified by the remains of simple houses, consisting of two circular living spaces and a small hearth.
The skeletal corpse of a musk-ox and wolf tracks gave evidence for much more recent life forms. Much of the fauna knew so little about humans to instinctively shy away. Several Arctic hares and snow buntings carried on their daily activities undisturbed by our presence.
A rough ocean greeted us as we returned to the KK, making a damp voyage inevitable. In the afternoon strong winds ruled out any chance of a long sight-seeing flight. However, the option remained to return to the Wardens' camp for an hour or so, which I declined on the grounds of being slightly tired.
Another really interesting day.
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