Arctic Trip Day One:
This page is a photo journal of our trip to Northern Baffin Island
in the Canadian Arctic, in September 2003, in search of Platysiphon
and Platyarcticus, two brown algae endemic to the Arctic |
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| We landed in Pond Inlet, situated at the northern
end of Baffin Island, and took a boat to our final destination,
Z Inlet. (An Arctic Map can be found here). The picture above
is Pond from the air. |
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| Pond has a population of around 1100 people and
has a typical look of many villages in the eastern high Arctic. |
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| After spending the night in the town's only hotel,
we got suited up and began out trip to Z Inlet. |
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| Icebergs were lodged in several places along
the way, having run aground in the shallow coastal water, until
the spring thaw frees them once again. |
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| The ride was longer than expected due to heavy
fog and a GPS unit that wasn't working well. None of us were
very happy about the 6 hour ride, especially the dog. He was
so unhappy that he jumped ship while we picked through pack
ice. That was not the last time the dog would make it clear
he was not interested in hanging out with us. Its hard to blame
him since he was brought to be our polar bear warning system
(it was never clear whether he was supposed to warn us by barking
or being eaten, luckily we never had to find out). |
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| When we finally made it to Z Inlet we had to
set up camp. The dog quickly made his second exit of the day
by bolting as soon as we hit the beach. No polar bear guard
tonight! There were a few signs that we were not the first
to camp at this location, including a rusted snowmobile frame. |
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| The landscape made it easy to feel very insignificant
among the treeless hills. You can just make out the camp by
the water in this picture. |
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