Arctic Journey: Pond Inlet, Eclipse Sound, and Bylot Island

August 2nd began with a "face check" -- a face for every passport and a passport for every face -- by Canadian immigration officials, required before landing at Pond Inlet, or, in Inuktitut, Mittimatalik, which means "the place where Mitima is buried." Pond Inlet is on northern Baffin Island, at 72.7° N.

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There was one other boat in the harbor when we arrived.

The dry lander gave us an elegant disembarkation.

Nearby, these sleds were stacked neatly for the summer.

Every photographer took a picture of the stop sign in Inuktitut lettering.

There were two guided options for the morning, a natural history/hiking option and a cultural tour. Joan and I joined the natural history group. As we started out of town I took this photo looking back, which reveals one cultural difference -- the buildings are much less colorful than the ones in Greenland.

Soon after leaving town our route descended onto the beach.

Just off the beach was a group of sled dogs, furloughed for the summer.

Summertime is pretty boring, and even we were as long as we didn't get too close.

Our group began to spread out almost immediately.

At one point we passed some whale vertebrae.

Our guide, Rebecca, was cheerful and knowledgeable about life in Pond Inlet, but not an archaeologist. She is from Pond Inlet but now spends only summers there; the rest of the year she lives in Ottawa.

We reached Salmon Creek, and the remains of Thule culture dwellings.

Just upstream on the creek there was camping going on, for hunting/fishing/just getting away.

A small bus arrived to take us back into Pond Inlet, after a brief wait that allowed me to photograph some arctic wildflowers.

On arrival in Pond Inlet we first stopped at the library/cultural center, named Nattinnak from the Inuit word for the tabular icebergs of Eclipse Sound. The building was constructed to resemble these icebergs.

Nattinnak offers computer access, a library, a small performance space, and a modest but well-executed museum. Unfortunately, I have no photos from the inside.

On our way back to the landing, we passed by a building of the Nunavut Arctic College. Founded in 1968 as a vocational training school, it's a Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise) funded by the Government of Nunavut, with three campuses and 24 learning centers.

Then our morning in Pond Inlet was over, and we sailed into Eclipse Sound.

We passed several nattinnak,

and the boat from early this morning.

Afternoon tea was served on the back deck instead of in the dining room. A special halibut-based snack was on offer.

Behind us several glaciers were flowing into the sea.

On the starboard side, a dry land.

At 7:00 pm, on this desiccated, rocky shore, we saw our first polar bear of the trip, fifteen days in. Binoculars were necessary. This photo was taken with maximum zoom and cropped.

Given that polar bears prefer to hunt on sea ice, a bear on land is a hungry bear. Later on we thought we were seeing a small herd of musk ox near the shore, but when we drew closer we saw that they were "polar barrels" -- abandoned 55-gallon drums. Oops.

After dinner we reached Bylot Island, Canada's 17th largest island, and part of the Sirmilik National Park. Much of the island is also a migratory bird sanctuary, and Cape Hay, at the northwestern tip, is one of its three IBAs (Important Bird Areas), hosting large populations of thick-billed murres and black-legged kittiwakes. We approach Cape Hay.

The murres and kittiwakes nest on the cliffs, avoiding predators. Here is a cluster of murres (click on the photo to enlarge).

My pictures of swarms of birds in flight are almost invariably out of focus. The sun was low and there was a high haze. The next photo has one kittiwake in the lower right.

In this shot, birds are both on the cliffs and flying in front of them. Note one of many small waterfalls on the cape, embedded in the dark area.

The camera, with the lighter sky background, was able to freeze the birds in this picture.

This is my best closeup of the murres.

By now it was almost 10:30, and although the sun refused to set, it was time for me to retire for the night.