This was our home for the extend of the expedition, the Lyubov Orlova (a russian vessel).

This is a dead Muskox, it was the only one most of us had seen (excepting the gunners and zodiac teams who were lucky enough to spot 4 before they took off). This was the first Zodiac landing of the expedition and the island was fog covered and erry.

This is the community centre in Kuujjuaq, where on the first day we spent the after noon being entertained by the local community, held a bbq, and then went on a tour of the community, my group was led by Eva and Larissa.

I figured it was time to start posting some of the pictures from the trip as this is the first opportunity. The above picture was the first day of the Expedition once we had arrived in Kujjuaq Airport via First Year.

August 15, 2010

Sorry for no journal yesterday, this trip has been so busy. So as a quick re-cap of yesterday we went to Kekerten to an historic whaling community. The morning was spent touring the site and looking at all of the artefacts left behind. There were also graves at the site that had been sprung open over time. The site was “dead calm”, there was no wind and the sun was shining. It was a great time to absorb and reflect on the site and what has been experienced thus far. In leaving Kerkerten we set sail to Pangirtung. We went on a tour of the town including talking with the elders in their sewing hut. We then went to the Hudson Bay Company whaling station and we looked at the art centre where multiple purchases were made. The community then had food and presentations for us, which was a good way to experience the Inuit culture.

So that was yesterday, today was the crazy day. Some of us went on a 25-kilometre hike today to the Arctic Circle. I was in group number four so we were the last to arrive and the last to leave. It was a hike in Auyuittuq National Park. It was an amazing hike. I have no idea how I am still awake but I am. I am currently hurting in the lower leg region but besides that I made it out of there blister free and injury free. It was an amazing feeling making it all the way to the Arctic Circle by foot. All the glaciers and amazing rivers (leaving us very wet but happy) cannot be described, too much for words. I really wished my friends and family could have experienced the feeling I did today.

August 13, 2010

Hi Followers,

Today was an amazing day. It started with a visit to Monumental Island, which offered so much visual stimulus. The groups were given zodiac tours of the island and of icebergs around the island. Upon touring the island the Bowhead group saw a total of seven polar bear (one mother with two cubs, and the rest were lone males). I was in the polar bear group and we were only fortunate enough to see the mother and her two cubs. It was an amazing site with them sleeping up on a ridge on a cliff on the mountain. The fact that the bears are going through a period of time where their food source will be limited to none and the fact that there will be no sea ice makes you wonder how the bears will do over the next couple of months until their habitat returns.

Besides the polar bears the iceberg that we saw was amazing. I actually got to touch the iceberg since our driver was none other than Geoff Green. We also got to go into a sea cave on the shoreline of the island. I really enjoyed today as it felt like the Arctic in the sense that it was much colder out and the seas were a little less calm.

Tomorrow should be an adventurous day with a visit to an old whaling station and then onto Pang for the afternoon.

I will keep you all updated.

Miss And Love Everyone!

August 12, 2010

Today was a full day at sea. The day started off well with a sleep in until 7:30 a.m. The morning started out with multiple iceberg sightings, presentations, and meetings. We had a workshop before lunch, of which I attended the song workshop with Remy. The group of us sang songs and eventually wrote a song about climate change to the tune of “This Land Is Your Land”. Our second Pod meeting took place after lunch where most of it was spent planning a performance for the briefing tonight. As our name is the IPODs our group decided to do an evolution of the IPOD. It was very creative and involved props and music (which was nice because I think most are music deprived). The presentation tonight of the entire pods skits were very funny.



I would also like to mention that today being a full day at sea I found myself a little home sick and would just like to let people back home know that I was thinking about them today. I can’t wait to share my adventures with you.



However I am told that there are brilliant northern Lights off the port side right now so I must leave and take a look.