Arctic Voice - blog

Glenn and Simon successfully complete the journey

Simon and I made Iglulik late on Friday night after successfully crossing the Fury and Hecla Straight. We saw fresh polar bear tracks as we came near to town and when in town we heard that yet another bear had been into town. There was a dramatic change in the weather to mark the end of what was, for me at least, a cold trip; the temperature rose to about -20 and there was no wind, so very comfortable indeed!

Since arrival In Iglulik I have met with Vince and his staff at the Ataguttaaluk High School where I have been warmly welcomed and he is keen to make a link with St.Francis of Assisi School in Liverpool. (I am sure it has nothing to do with his interest in football!) It was good to meet Shontel at the elementary school and hear all about the link up with Glaitness in Orkney. Thankyou all for making this work and I am sure this will be the beginning of a great friendship.

I will be leaving for Iqaluit next week and am looking forward to meeting Carol and her team at the elementary school and Jimmy at the Nunavut Teachers Association.

I must also thank Simon and Eunice Qamanirq; Simon for his help and guidance throughout the long journey and both of them for putting me up at their house in Iglulik. Thankyou both.

Glenn

Returning to Iglulik

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Hi it’s Glenn here. Here’s an update. We’ve reached a fish camp on the way back to Iglulik and going very well now. Last night we camped on the ice very late and it was pitch black when we set up the tent.

It was absolutely astounding because I’d never seen a sight like it. The Northern Lights were just stunning like green inverted curtains shimmering over the entire sky. It was very cold and it was absolutely stunning and as well as that the stars were just numerous in this great black expanse of the Arctic winter. So it was really quite entertaining watching the Northern Lights. We should reach Iglulik all being well sometime on Saturday.

Late night travel in the Arctic

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Hi it’s Glenn. It’s very late up in the Arctic. We’ve just set up camp. We left quite late today as last night was extremely windy and there was a ground blizzard. We left it until about 2 o’clock and packed up and set off. Nevertheless we were still travelling in what was in effect a ground blizzard — not very pleasant! It blows fine snow all over you and you get covered. Nevertheless we were vigilant and careful which is what is needed to make sure you don’t get too wet, or damp or too cold. We got on fine and made good mileage on our way to Iglulik.

Our position is North 73 degrees, 50 minutes, 36 seconds, West 84 degrees 46 minutes 59 seconds. We’ve just come out of the Berlinguet Inlet and we’re now on land. Simon and I both realise now we can sleep now. This is because when we were on the sea ice both of us have a fitful nights sleep as you cant’ really commit yourself to sleep as polar bears are around and we have to have one ear open all night just in case a bear wanders into camp! I’m sure the dogs would let us know but nevertheless it could still be too late if we can’t get out of the tent quickly to sort it out. Anyway things are going well and I imagine we will be somewhere near Iglulik in about 4 or 5 days’ time.

Glenn cooking Walrus

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Hi it’s Glenn here. We’ve been making good progress since leaving Arctic Bay. After 3 days we’ve come up the Admiralty Inlet and we’ve crossed the Steensby Peninsula. So we’re getting up now and getting ready to go. You may even hear the dogs barking in the background – they’re just being fed at the moment. On the way over the night before last one of the dogs gave birth to five tiny puppies. This was just as we stopped. This was unexpected. And instinctively she tried to get them into the tent to get them out of the cold. So Simon put up a shelter for her but it seemed pretty clear that these tiny things weren’t going to survive the night. While we were sleeping we heard the plaintive calls diminishing and eventually in the morning there was just one puppy left. Simon put the puppy into his anorak to try and keep him going through the day as we were travelling, but by the end of the day he had died. So all the puppies died.

We’re going to head off now towards a seal hunting area near Polynya. The weather is pretty good here at the moment. Travelling has been easier because instead of having the nylon runners on the sledge, we’ve taken those off and made a runners out of soil mixed with sea water and it freezes rock hard. Every day sometimes twice or three times a day we have to turn the sledge over and remelt the water and retreat the runners so re-ice them. This is the old Inuit traditional way and it works very well in this very cold dry snow that we’re getting. So progress is better. I think it’s probably still in the region of 8-9 days back to Iglulik. But the travelling is easier because the temperatures have warmed up a bit now — it’s about minus 27 now which is a considerable difference from minus 35. It makes life easier especially when the sun is out and the sun is shining longer in the day now. Anyway love to everybody and I’ll report in soon.

David Kalluk, his son Levi and I left Pond Inlet by snowmobile at midday on the 16th. After a long and very arduous 12 hour journey we arrived back in Arctic Bay. We travelled through deep ravines where the snowmobile would only just fit with towering cliffs above us and across rough broken sea ice. As the day wore on the sky turned a vivid blue-pink and looked astounding with the snow covered mountains set against it.

Whilst in Pond Inlet I met the staff at the elementary school and Ros and her staff were enthusiastic about the link with Chiddingstone and Edenbridge schools in the UK. I managed to give a presentation to the upper and lower year groups and the students all enjoyed opening the parcels sent to them from Chiddingstone and Edenbridge. We are hoping the friendship will work out for the students and we welcome them all on board!

I would like to mention a word of thanks to Don Kranz who kindly put me up whilst I was in Pond Inlet and also Ern, Eileen, Donna and Ros and her team for all the help and support..thank you all.

Whilst in town I spoke to Jake, a hunter, and he explained to me how a polar bear is hunted. When he sees a bear he cuts free his lead dog who runs to the bear and nips it on the hind quarters and back legs. When the bear is then confused he releases more dogs which also run to the bear and surround it. Then, on his order, they drop down, allowing the bear to be shot. I have no doubt that it is a very dangerous undertaking but hunting is part of life up here in the north and the hunter takes these things in his stride as a necessary occurence.

Simon and I hope to begin the long dogsledge trip back to Iglulik tomorrow. The temperatures are still in the -30’s but the strong breeze from the north freezes exposed skin within a few minutes so we are hoping it will drop by then. Hello to all back in the UK.

Leah and David Kalluk

I explained in my last message that because the dogs were tired and in need of rest I decided to join two families that were making the journey by snowmobile to Pond Inlet. I left Arctic Bay with David Kanuk, his wife Leah and there family. We were advised that the journey would take one long day or maybe two easy days. In fact the journey was an arduous five day trip. After the first two hours out David`s machine broke down due to a sheared bolt. We tried to fix it but were unable to. David ended up returning to Arctic Bay with Moses Tuniaq for another machine. When they got back we camped as it was late.

The next four days brought many more problems including one broken ski, an oil leak, snapped suspension spring and two wheels from the track runners falling off! To add to the difficulties the machines got stuck many times in very deep snow. A number of things occured to me during the countless episodes of digging, pushing and lifting the sledges and snowmobiles from the rocks and snow; firstly how cheerful my companions were throughout these times, always meeting every problem with a laugh or joke at a time when most people, I am sure, would have long since lost their tempers (and maybe even their lives). Also the sheer skill and ingenuity they displayed in fixing, with the most rudimentary tools and bits of rope, mechanical problems that to me seemed insurmountable at the best of times let alone in such low temperatures when steel spanners stick to bare skin with a burning cold.

David and Leah on a snowmobile

We arrived in Pond Inlet last night at 10…30pm cold, tired and hungry. Ros Parsons from the Ulaajuk School had arranged for me to stay with Don, a teacher from the high school…welcome rest and warmth!

Today I met Ros and have arranged to give a presentation to the school tomorrow where I will show pictures of the trip and we will all open the package sent by the children of Chiddingstone and Edenbridge Primary Schools together. Hello to everyone at Chiddingstone and Edenbridge… hope you are all OK!

The scenery at Pond Inlet is stunning, particularly the view over to Bylot Island with it`s steep mountains rising straight from the edge of the ocean. We hope to begin the journey back in a few days. David thinks it will be easier now the trail has been made; I hope so…..

It was interesting to experience both travel by dogsledge and by snow mobile. The snow mobile is now pretty ubiquitous in most areas of the Artic although they have not quite reached some more northern areas, such as Qaanaaq in Greenland. The experience is quite different; the dogsledge is slow enough, most of the time, to allow one to jump off and warm up, although great care has to be taken to avoid breaking out into a sweat as freezing and hypothermia can follow quickly. The snow mobile is smokey, noisey and cold not to mention very bumpy as one hits the uneven ice. I was told that the journey from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet would take 5 days by dogsledge, in the circumstances it took the same time by snow mobile although without the breakdowns of course it would have been quicker.

Puppies

Other thoughts that bear mention are the facts that if a snow mobile breaks down and it cannot be fixed the driver is stuck; whereas if one or two dogs fail the hunter can still travel. In extreme situations the dogs can even be eaten. On the route to Pond Inlet I saw three long abandoned snowmobiles. On the other hand the hunter does not need to feed his snow mobile when it it not working! In some ways I was reminded of the difference between the large Shire horses of years ago in the UK in the days when things were not done in such a rush… Oh for those days again. I better stop there, I can feel a rant coming on……!

( For more information on Pond Inlet please visit http://www.pondinlet.ca/)

On route for Pond Inlet

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Hi! This is Glenn,. Our position is North 72 degrees, 35 minutes, 28 seconds and West 79 degrees, 39 minutes, 26 seconds. I should have pointed out earlier in the last blog there was a change of plan. One of Simon’s dogs has a bad mouth infection and one of the other ones was pregnant. So we rather than get them to make this long journey we decided to let them rest further. So what I did was join David Kanuk and Moses Tuniaq and their families and decided to joint them as they were travelling to Pond Inlet by snow mobile. The only problem we’ve had is extremely deep snow and lots of rock. I was told the journey would be a very long day or perhaps two straight forward days but we’re now in our fifth day and we’re still about 50 or 60 miles short of Pond Inlet. And we’ve run out of gas completely so David has called a friend and we’re hoping to meet him out here on the ice. We arrived late on the ice last night and it was very heavy thick snow and broken sea ice looked like ghostly shapes all around us.

The landscape near Pond Inlet itself is quite beautiful there’s lots of mountains and I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’ve spoken to Ros Parsons at the school in Pond Inlet and she’s looking forward to seeing us arrive. So hopefully — this is a message to Chiddingstone and Edenbridge — we should be able to get the link up and running when I get into town. We’re hoping to make it today all being well. I’ll give a big update when I get to Pond Inlet.

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Hi, it’s Glenn. We’re on our way to Pond Inlet, but I’ll be brief as we’re in a very mountainous region and the signal is very erratic here. Our position is 72 degrees 42 minutes North, 83 degrees, 36 minutes West. The last few days have been described in the local paper as homicidally cold. We’re in a beautiful region though, it’s a mountainous region and we’re travelling through incredibly deep valleys. But the progress has been incredibly slow because of rocks and incredibly deep drifting snow. So some days it’s been a matter of 2 or 3 miles a day. So it’s very very slow going at the moment but we’re on route to Pond Inlet and hopefully we’ll get there soon.

I’m sitting in the tent at the moment and we’ve had to hacksaw open some tins of stew. And that’s been melted and ready to eat and I can see a leg of caribou sticking out of the snow and we’re going to do something with that as well. Love to all and the weather is beautiful here but cold.

Simon fishing

Weather preventing travel.

Today is the 6th of March and it has warmed up dramatically; the temperature now is -20 a 15 degree rise from two days ago except that the wind is strong and from the north so the wind chill is still -35!

We have had some great news in the last few days, firstly the BBC World Class Project has featured our link schools in Orkney and Iglulik on their site, this is their first Arctic Link and we are really excited about it. Check out the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/your_stories/20090216_canada_orkney.shtml

Also today Simon and I were interviewed by the BBC for the Go4it programme which is on Sunday nights at 7.15 pm I think. More good news and I hope all of you at Glaitness get the chance to listen.. hello to you all from both of us up here in cold Arctic Bay.

A few days ago I heard that 600 narwhals had died due to being trapped in an area of open water surrounded by ice. This was in Pond Inlet where I hope to get to in the next few days if the weather gets better, at the moment we cannot travel as the visibility is low and it is snowing. The struggling narwhals were harvested and where possible the meat will be used. The tusks will be sold or kept for carving. Some of the bones will be made into a memorial in memory of the tragedy. More information on this if you are interested can be found on CBC.CA and type in Pond Inlet.

On our way here it was very difficult for the dogs to pull the sledge over the dry snow. Simon has now rebuilt his sledge and replaced the plastic runners with ones made out of earth mixed with water which then freezes. He seems to think that this will be better, I hope it is. we will just have to wait and see.

I’m signing off now as it is time for lunch…..today we are having boiled polar bear…I wonder if it is the one we saw.

Love to all back home

Sledge stuck in ice

Puppies hitch a ride

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Hi, this is Glenn; it’s very early Sunday morning here in the Arctic. We’re about twenty kilometres short of Arctic Bay now, and we’re just going to get some food ready for the dogs and get them fed up and then we’re going to set off. Twenty kilometres is not too bad for us; we should make that I only a few hours I think.

Yesterday we had a very long day; sixteen hours on the trail, and Simon and I were pretty tired at the end of it, and so indeed were the dogs. We had a lot of rough ice and a lot of zig-zagging. So we covered about eighty kilometres, but I think that was by a GPS reading so, in real terms, I think we covered considerably more than that; most of it was zig-zagging through extremely rough ice.

It was quite an exciting and a sad day yesterday; the exciting bit was that had our first and possibly only, polar bear encounter; we were travelling along and Simon spotted some tracks on our left so we were eagerly looking to the left to see if we could see it; we turned to the right and there it was. We hadn’t realised, or I hadn’t realised, that it had crossed the tracks further back. It was about a hundred and fifty metres away; perhaps something like that, and Simon though it was a big female without any cubs and it wandered around and we had the guns but we didn’t want to use them but, they were at the ready.

Eventually it caught our smell and disappeared of into the distance; I think it was probably a bit nervous of the smell of two men and the dogs; especially two men after a few weeks on the trail!

Later in the evening, the dogs were getting very tired and one of the little puppies that was along with us was struggling a bit and tended to be lagging behind a bit which, for a little dog like that can be quite dangerous. So we chivvied it on a bit and then within a few minutes it got caught up in the traces and lost its footing and went under one of the runners; and for a few minutes it valiantly tried to sort of walk on and then it literally just fell over and lay on its side and we stopped the sledge and put it on the sledge and basically it gave a few last gasps and it was dead.

It was very sad, I wanted to sort of stroke its head in the last few minutes of its life, and I couldn’t quite reach it and I began to wonder; I remember putting the harness on that little puppy in the mornings and it was eager to go and ready for action and; it had quite a short life but I think that for a sledge-dog that is a risk.

Later that evening, we saw the Northern Lights flashing up into the sky; we travelled ‘til late into the night, and I watched the Northern Lights and thought, “Well, some people might say that’s that little puppy’s spirit going up into heaven.” And I think if any little puppy deserved to be in heaven, that one did; it worked really hard for us.

Anyway, the dogs have had a good rest tonight, and as I say we’re going to get them fed and away and we’ll report in when we get to Arctic Bay. Love to everyone.

(If you want to trace Glenn’s progress take a look at the map on the Expedition page, under Phase 3 of the expedition.)

On route from Iglulik

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Hi, it’s Glenn here. We just camped; the stars are all out now, it’s a very cold night. Most days are sort of long, cold and hard, and we’re coming down Admiralty Strait — Admiralty Inlet, Simon’s just told me. We’re making good progress; we’re probably about eighty kilometres from Arctic Bay, so we’re not sure whether we’re going to get there tomorrow or not – tomorrow being Saturday. Our position at the moment is 72degrees, 18 minutes North and 84 degrees, 59 minutes West.

We’re not too bad; I think we’ll either get to Arctic Bay late tomorrow night or early Sunday sometime. We’re running low on food ; for the dogs that is, not for us, and one of Simon’s friends came by today on a skidoo and loaded us up with a load of seal so we’ve just had some of that for our meal as well. So the dogs are well fed and they’re content. That’s pretty good because, yesterday, or the day before yesterday, Simon said “Oh they’re getting dangerous, because they’re not being fed enough.” So, they’re happy now.

A short while back, we passed by the polynya and it was a beautiful, clear day, we could see for miles, but in the distance you could see what looked like a sort of thunder cloud, just hanging over the ice, and when we got nearer and nearer, we actually entered the cloud which, of course, is a sort of vapour that hangs above the polynya.

A polynya, incidentally, is an area of constantly open water – and Simon was keen to get to the polynya, because it’s a good place to hunt seals, so we sort of took the dog- sledge in, but the current was going the wrong way. Apparently it has to go a certain way so the seals gather at one corner of the polynya and then they can be harpooned easily.

We waited a while and Simon was wondering the current would change, but of course we could have waited six hours maximum or one or two hours; we didn’t really know. So Simon pointed out some enormous polar bear tracks and said do I want to camp there. I said “Well, not really, if it means meeting a polar bear.” So he sort of, laughed and we moved on and so we didn’t really hunt any seals at the polynya, but I suspect we may well on the way back, because it seems to me that we’re probably going to re-trace our tracks on the way back from Pond Inlet.

Anyway, one more interesting thing about the polynya; when you’re in there, it feels like you’re suddenly sort of, under a cloud, and it’s actually quite eerie because you can’t and you don’t know where there are polar bears around, and of course if there were, you don’t really know where they are. And, of course, that is one place they are going to gather.

All’s well, otherwise and I think I’ll give another update when we get to Arctic Bay, so goodbye!

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Hi its Glenn. We’ve just arrived at the Steensby Peninsula. We’ve been crossing sea ice today. It’s very very cold and it’s been pretty hard work as we’ve headed along and have been watching the dogs sitting on the sledge. As you sit on the sledge you kind of get almost hypnotised and it makes all sorts of noises – sometimes it sounds like a flock of ducks, other times it sounds like a train screeching to a halt and sometimes it sounds like all these tormented souls in hell screaming and screaming.

But I watch as Simon controls the dogs and calls to them softly most of the time, occasionally he’ll shout if they’re getting into a bit of a scarp or doing something but he’s very good. He hardly ever uses the whip I’ve noticed – occasionally he might flick it to one side to keep them in check but we’re making steady progress. We’re probably doing about 25-30 miles a day with the dogs — which is pretty good because the ice is very rough where we are at the moment – we have to lift the sledge up over lots of broken sea ice. Most of the time when you are crossing it you are jumping off the sledge and pushing it to one side or manhauling it over, so it’s quite a lot of work for us and the dogs.

Sometimes when we’re travelling along you see a sharp piece of ice stick up and one of the dogs will run the wrong side of it and as the sledge moves off it drags the dog backwards which can be quite dangerous so you have to be aware of it and jump off and yank the dog up and unhitch it from under the ice otherwise it will get dragged under the sledge and be injured.

It’s actually pitch black, I’m standing now looking at the starlit sky – it must be about -40 now. I’m outside a little cabin near the Steensby Peninsula. Simon and I turned up there and three caribou hunters have just arrived. So we’re cooking up some caribou stew at the moment. We started the day with a meal of raw Walrus liver and raw Walrus fat which I wasn’t sure I would like – but in actual fact it’s really nice. If you went along to Ben and Jerry’s and asked for a tub of Brazil nut and fish flavoured ice cream you’d be pretty much there. That’s what it tastes like.

We reckon on being in Arctic Bay in about two day’s time, weather permitting. We’re going to cross the Steensby Peninsula and then head up on the sea ice and reach Arctic Bay when we can.

The days’ are usually broken up into hectic routines. We arrived today about 4 o’ clock and we unhitch the dogs – that’s the first thing that we have to do. We can’t look after ourselves – they have to come first. We stop the sledge and the dogs have to be tethered so you have to grab each one – some of the big ones are very strong and then you untie their harnesses that are made of seal skin and then you tether them to the chains. Then as you undo the harnesses you have to turn them inside out to get them ready for the morning because they instantly freeze.

It’s quite touching really because you see their harnesses and the marks of their day’s work – their little body shape – especially the little puppies. They have little tassles and one will have little bells – they all have their own little harnesses. I feel quite sorry for them really because they’re covered in bits of blood where they’ve cut themselves on a bit of ice or bits of hair and fluff and stuff. So it’s quite touching really. But then they go and have their food – which they get very excited about. It’s all chopped up and given to them and then the whole routine starts again in the morning. Once the dogs are fed we go in and have something for ourselves.

So all in all pretty good — I hope to report in at Arctic Bay and I’m going to call in and see Tim Hoyt at the school in Arctic Bay. Hello to all the schools in the UK and hope things are shaping up well.

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Hi it’s Glenn – I’m just calling in with our position and an update. Our position is North 71°, 16 minutes, 0 seconds, West 84°, 46 minutes, 44 seconds. We’ve come off land today – we’re crossing the northern part of Baffin Island and we’ve dropped down into a little place called Bell Bay. Tomorrow we’re heading north towards the Steensby Peninsula. We’ll be staying just below the Steensby Peninsula, camping and we’re heading across it tomorrrow and go through Moffat Inlet the following day. It’s cold as usual – although that’s pretty obvious I would imagine. We’re travelling well – the sledge is getting lighter. Simon is doing a great job with the dogs and we’re making good progress. You have to get used to the cold and pay constant attention to your exposed skin and everything like that. Simon’s cooked up a big meal of seal tonight so we’re well fed and sitting in the tent at the moment warm and relaxed ready for the next day.

So all’s well and we hope to be in Arctic Bay in 3 or 4 days’ time, possibly Saturday but I’ll be calling in before that. Love to everybody.

Feeding the dogs

Hi this is Glenn – this is the winter journey update. Our position is North 70°, 21 minutes, 12 seconds, West 83°, 11 minutes, 54 seconds. We came into camp very late last night. We’d had a long day. The snow by the end of the trip was very, very deep. It had warmed up yesterday to about -25° C but the southerly wind which we had chilled us quite a bit even though it was southerly it chilled us a bit when we stopped. By the end of the day the dogs were very, very tired indeed. We arrived at a fish camp with 6 or 7 other Inuit people here and they’re all fishing in a frozen lake for Char. So we’re spending the day resting the dogs and resting ourselves.

Arrival at fish camp

We took a route out of Iglulik and we crossed the Fury and Hecla Strait and we’re now travelling up the Gifford Fjord. In fact we’ve reached ahead of the Gifford Fjord and we’re now ready to cross part of the northern tip of Baffin and move on up towards Arctic Bay. This area is very interesting historically – this was where one of the first English explorers, William Edward Parry, had his base for one of the big first expeditions that over wintered in the area. It’s only when you are here that you realise how barren it is – and you wonder what when through those early explorers’ minds.

Simon’s original plan was 7 days from Iglulik to Arctic Bay but it’s taken us three heavy days to get here. I’ve looked at the map and my feeling is that it’s a good seven days to go if we’re lucky. So we’re a little bit behind schedule but we’re going well and living off the land to a large degree at the moment. We’re just having bannock and fish to eat and the other night I had a meal of Walrus liver so it’s country food to say the least.

I haven’t been able to take any video because the temperatures are low -40C making it very hard – the batteries are absolutely dead. I’ll try to warm things up a bit when I get into town. Nothing else to report – it’s cold but what would you expect up here! The only other thing I might mention is the scenery. At the moment it’s hilly scenery around, fairly low gravelly looking hills. Lots of snow obviously on the land and that’ll be here for some months yet. But low lying hills really.

The dogs are going very well. We’ve got about 19 dogs. Of those 9 are puppies. They’re tiny little things but they seem to be going really well. In the morning they’re all huddled up in one cohesive sort of lump and they look round at you as if they’re saying please don’t pick me when it comes to harnessing them up in the morning. But basically you grab hold of one put its harness on and before we know it we’re away.

Anyway love to everyone at home. And I’ll get in touch in about 3 days’ time.

(To see Glenn’s current location go to the Expedition Page, Phase 3 and take a look at the map here is the link. )

Shontell, our link teacher at Ataguttaaluk Elementary school, Iglulik

The wind has died down here in Iglulik but it still feels pretty cold with an ambient temperature of about -35 degrees. A slight movement of air across any exposed skin stings like a knife.
Yesterday I visited the Ataguttaaluk school here in Iglulik and was made welcome by Don MacAskill and his colleagues who are all looking forward to working with their partner school, the Glaitness School in Orkney. Hello to all of you in Orkney! I hear it is pretty wet over there… I’m looking forward to seeing you all when we return.

Iglulik is a small Island, like Orkney, and I wonder whether sea level rises and erosion are of concern to people here. I have not had the chance to talk to anyone about this yet but I do remember that this is a real issue in Orkney.

Yesterday when I went to the school the children were all out in the play area just like any other children, the only difference was the cold, but they did not seem to notice it!
We are taking 20 dogs on the journey; ten are puppies, only 7 months old, but already they sleep out in the open and look tough and sturdy. They will learn from the bigger dogs as we travel. This is their first big trip. I don’t know who is more worried, them or me.

A few days ago and only yards from where I am staying, a polar bear came into town and killed 8 dogs that were tethered on the ice. He had eaten some of them before he was discovered. He was thin, hungry and therefore very dangerous. The people were unable to scare him away. Simon told me that this is unprecedented and he has never heard of this happening before. He says that the loss of ice means that the bears are finding it ever more difficult to find food and are therefore will take more chances. He said we will have to be very careful on the trip.

BBC World Class, the BBC initiative bringing the benefits of international school linking to schools across the UK, have featured the Iglulik twinning on their website — take a look at: BBC World Class

Glenn and his travelling companion, Inuit hunter Simon Qamanirq

14th Feb.

It seemed unlikely that the plane would be able to land in Iqaluit as the winds were strong and visibility poor. The pilot said we may need to turn back but as luck would have it the weather improved and we touched down in swirling snow driven by a 35knot wind.

The wind combined with the ambient temperature of -27 sucks the warmth from you within minutes and I was glad that I had fought with various obstacles since leaving Heathrow to cling onto my down jacket.

In the short space of time I have been here I have found the town to be welcoming and friendly. Carol, the principle of Iqaluit’s elementary school has expressed a keen interest in the project and we are already beginning to plan a link with a partner school. Thanks Carol and we welcome you on board!

I have also been asked by Martine at the visitors centre to give a presentation about the Arctic Voice project and I hope to do this on my way back through in early April.

Glenn

(To find out more about Iqaluit, visit www.city.iqaluit.nu.ca )

It’s the 13th of February and in a short while I will be leaving for Iqaluit near the southern end of Baffin Island. From there I will be heading on north to Iglulik where I shall begin Phase 3 of the Arctic Voice Expedition.I am looking forward to meeting Simon who will be my travelling partner for the next two months.

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that a few days of snow and low temperatures almost brought the uk to a standstill, whereas up north hunting and indeed existence itself relies on snow and ice. Without it travel accross the land would be virtually impossible, hunters and trappers could not find their prey and in past years even houses were made from it.

As the snow fell in the UK, yes, it stopped buses, trains and flights; schools and shops closed but in the open spaces all over the country strangers collected in groups to build snowmen… city bankers,single mums, plumbers and shopkeepers laughed and played in the snow, the day to day stresses of ‘normal’ life gone for a brief period as if freed from prison.

Perhaps we need some more snow to help us realize that there is more to life than what has recently been labelled ‘aggressive selfishness’ and the ‘I want’ culture. We just need to stop for a bit, take a breath and reflect on where we are going.

The photo below shows husky dogs eating their dinner

I will be beginning Phase Three of the Arctic Voice expedition, the Winter Journey very soon. I shall be travelling around 1,000 miles by dog sledge with an Inuit hunter and guide, Simon Qamanirq. We begin our journey from Iglulik and will visit Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet and Hall Beach.

You can follow our trip through this blog and I hope to provide regular updates. You can view my blog entries from the prevoius two phases by clicking in the right-hand menu.

Glenn Morris - expedition team leader

The team on arrival at Cambridge Bay

The 2008 section of the Arctic Voice Expedition (Phase 2) was completed as the expedition team, Alison Sigethy, Julie Urquhart, Stephen Doughty and Glenn Morris arrived safely in Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island’s southern coast at the beginning of September. The team had been stormbound in their tents on the portage at the eastern end of the Elu Inlet for many days, pinned down by high winds and rain so it was with considerable satisfaction that they set foot on the shore and were welcomed by the Arctic community.

It took a considerable time to sort out all the expedition equipment ready to be freighted back to the UK. Thanks are due to the tolerant staff Inns North who happily made the conference room available for the mountain of gear and kayaks.

The team were very happy to meet many of the people that had provided help, shelter and food on the long journey from Kugluktuk via Bathurst Inlet. As always in the Arctic towns the hospitality was overwhelming. The team would like thank the following residents of Cambridge Bay for all their help and hospitality.

- Henry and Susie for interpreting and bannock and lifts to the airport; Rob and Sophie Harmer for providing Glenn and Alison with accommodation; Inns North for use of conference centre; Eddie and Martina for hot food and shelter; Cathie Rowan and Roni Onokannoak for agreeing to participate in the schools links with the UK; Neville Crabbe CBC radio; Michelle Gillis, Mayor of Cambridge Bay, for support of the Arctic Voice Project; Jerry and Julia for all their help with moving kit and for enthusiasm for the project.

The team said goodbye to Julie who sadly had to return to the UK. She had proved to be a steady and determined member of the team bringing clear thinking and humour to the expedition at all times. Next to leave was Stephen. Stephen and Glenn completed the first phase of the expedition, kayaking from Inuvik to Kugluktuk in 2007. Stephen travelled on from Cambridge Bay to Gjoa Haven to carry out work in the town forging links between the schools in Gjoa Haven and Scotland. Fiona Doughty has been working hard to pave the way between the two schools and the expedition is pleased to report that an exchange has been successfully arranged for 2009.

Stephen oversaw the expedition provisions (as well as most of the cooking!) and was also the expedition’s navigator – a responsible job indeed given the topography.

(I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the home team – in the form of Pippa Rose and Louise Rose-Morris. Pippa has worked hard over the past two years to raise the profile of the project and ensure the school twinning initiative runs well. She and Louise Rose-Morris have given up their time during two summer holidays to run the blog for the expedition – for which we are very grateful. )

Alison and Glenn took advantage of their remaining days in town to undertake interviews with elders and give a presentation to the local schools Al the team will take home happy memories of their time in the Arctic and send their best wishes to everyone in Kugluktuk, Umingmaktok, Bathurst Inlet and Cambridge Bay.

Below are a few memories of Cambridge Bay.

Glenn Morris 11/08

Alison and Glenn with schoolchildren in Cambridge Bay

The team at Melville Sound

Inukshuk Cambridge Bay

Hi this is Glenn on the 7th of September. I’m looking out at the sea in Cambridge Bay. Ever since we’ve arrived– we’ve been here for for 6 or 7 days now – the weather has been continuously very windy and overcast. It was snowing earlier today and the temperatures have plummeted. So autumn seems to be very short-lived here in the Arctic and winter is already upon us.

We’ve had a couple of unusual things happen. One is that a cruise ship came in - well that in itself is not unusual – but what is unusual is that for the first time ever in history a boat from Montreal has arrived delivering supplies.We’ve talked to locals and this has never happened before and it is because of the retreating ice that it was considered economically viable to bring in the ship. So that was quite a bit of history in the making. As I mentioned a cruise ship came in and people got off and you wondered with these people all pouring off the ship what they expected when they arrived here in the Arctic — you wondered if they expected people coming out in kayaks to welcome them. But they turned up at the town and they came and went very quickly it was a nice sunny day yesterday and they looked around the town and disappeared during last night. We woke up and the big Russian ship that apparently was an ex-spy ship had long since gone.

We’ve had some great meetings here in Cambridge Bay. We’ve met Michelle Gillis the mayor, and we’ve talked to a number of people and have been carrying out interviews and talking to them about their lives up here in the north and we’re looking forward to seeing how those interviews work out. We’ve also had some media coverage – Nunavut News North interviewed us for the newspaper up here – it covers all of Nunavut and they’re very interested to hear about the expedition. And Canada News North interviewed me on the radio so we’ll be the radio up here as well. So that is good news for us as it means that the message for our project is getting a wider audience. One of the things we’ve been thinking about and talking to locals about is perhaps bringing some children out from the UK to study up here as part of a youth elder camp so they can learn some of the skills that the elders and the people up in the north use. This is in an embryonic phase but it has received a huge amount of enthusiasm from the locals up here, so we’re going to look at that when we get back as well.

Anyway all is well. Yesterday Rob, who is a wildlife officer with whom I’m staying with at the moment, and I went out to his cabin on the coast here and on the way back in the middle of the road were three huge Grizzly bears – a huge mother and two pretty large cubs. This is unusual – even Rob himself said it was quite unusual and basically they are getting more and more plentiful on Victoria Island. A few years ago there weren’t any bears on Victoria Island but now as things are changing, warming up and they’re moving north and their territories are spreading. It can actually be a problem for the community here because bears start coming into town or near town they present a threat in a number of ways not only to people but also they start breaking up people’s cabins and causing damage and by doing that they themselves become threatened because obviously people don’t want that to happen and they become what is known as nuisance bears and they end up getting shot. So once again climate change seems to be responsible for another problem. Anyway love to all. We will be back shortly and give a new blog update so everybody knows the conclusion of this year’s work.

Hi this is Glenn with the Arctic Voice update on 1st September. I’m calling at the moment on a cold and windy beach in Cambridge Bay. We reached our destination successfully after well over a week of very bad weather. In fact it’s very windy now. We’ve had a fantastic welcome -we’ve only been in Cambridge Bay just over day and we’ve been really welcomed. The residents of Cambridge Bay without exception are wonderful. It’s a beautiful town – all the houses are different colours. I’m looking down seeing reds and blues greens and ochre. It really is a very attractive town. It’s sited on very flat tundra and very often around the town you can see herds of musk ox and a friend of ours who does some interpreting work for us took us out yesterday evening and we saw lots of musk ox and I managed to get a few pictures not too close!

The people we’ve met so far have been really great – We’ve met Henry and Susie – Jerry and Julia – I met Jerry last year at Kugluktuk and he very kindly got some of our equipment from Kugluktuk to Cambridge Bay and that was really helpful of him. And Eddie and Martina whom we met in Bay Chimo we also met here – they were the people who gave us the caribou when we turned up very cold one evening after paddling.

We’ve spoken to quite a few people here in a very short space of time and there are lots of reports of changes, particularly birds and insects that people haven’t seen before are starting to turn up here. This is really very interesting – but perhaps the bigger thing that wasn’t on Victoria Island before was the Grizzly Bear and now the people’s cabins are being damaged by the bears – they think the population is about 200 hundred Grizzly bears. They are starting to move North. We presume with the onset of climate change. There are a lot of Grizzly Bears here now; they’ve actually become a danger.

Ironically there was a hunter who came from the USA who had come into town and he was out hunting - I don’t’ know what animals he was hunting but he’d gone for an evening stroll by the beach and a bear came running up and chased him and he went into the water up to his chest and apparently the guy was in tears and the bear was about twenty feet away and he really thought his end had come. One of the guides just happened to catch sight of it – he was out for a stroll and shot the bear. It seems a bit of a cruel irony that he was here hunting the animal and he came very near to his own end by that animal.

We’re visiting the local school tomorrow. We’re not meeting the children but we’re trying to establish some links with the school here. Possibly both. We’ll try to make that link with St Francis of Assisi (Secondary School Liverpool) while we’re here. We’ve also met the president of the kayak club and Alison sent a clinic in rolling. And I’m gong to get in touch with Neville from News North and have a chat with him and hope he has some good things to report. All is going well but we still have some work to do here.

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Hello this is Glenn and it’s the 26th of August and it’s the Arctic Voice blog. Our position is 68 degrees, 39 minutes 09 seconds North, 105 degrees, 34 minutes 03 seconds West. We’ve done pretty well and we’ve been having a lot of bad weather. We’ve managed to get up to the portage at the eastern end of the Elu Inlet. We’re about half way across at the moment, we’ve made camp half way across. We were forecast a storm that hit last night and the temperature has plummeted, we had frost the night before last and last night and we have been experiencing very cold winds at the moment. Probably about 25 knot winds, we’re holed up and can’t move.

We’ve spoken to hunters in Cambridge Bay and it would seem that the storm has set in for 4 or 5 days. The effect of this is to put us behind schedule. We’ve got about 7 days food left and we are now trying to negotiate how we are going to make the last few miles across the sea to Cambridge Bay which is notoriously rough after a storm and takes a long, long time to settle down. We will probably try and get a boat pick up for the short distance. But of course the boats don’t go out in weather like this.

The landscape where we are is absolutely astounding, in fact for the entire trip it has been wonderful, changing all the time. We came into the portage area yesterday and the landscape around here is just white and we realized when we got out onto the shore that it was just shells and it was acres and acres and acres of crushed shells from the days when it was sea level. Of course, it’s no longer at sea level but it’s really quite beautiful and the orange lichens and the tundra looks stunning in the evening light. So quite a wonderful place to be.

Nothing else to report. It looks like were going to be pinned down for a while here, its quite serious weather at the moment very, very cold too.

Glenn paddling on calmer waters!

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Hi, this is Glenn with the Arctic Voice blog on the 21st August. Our position is on the south side of Melville Sound 68 degrees 7 minutes 32 seconds North; 106 degrees 49 minutes 55 seconds West. We’re just near the entrance to Hope Bay and it looks like we’re going to be here for a few days. We’ve been here 3 days already. We’ve got exceedingly cold northerly winds, very rough sea we can’t move at all at the moment we’re pretty much penned down. We’ve spoken to the coastguard and the prediction is that this weather is going to stay with us for probably two or three days so we could perhaps have even 6 days when we’re pinned down where we are now.

We’ve managed to hike around the hills in the area and get a feel for the land. It’s very,very dramatic and impressive scenery – rugged mountain scenery. We climbed a mountain nearby yesterday and in the distance we saw lights which was rather a surprise because we’re in the middle of nowhere. Through the binoculars we could see what looked like an exploration or mining camp and these are the things that the elders have been talking about that seem to be affecting the animal movements in the area. So we saw one and there was a runway and helicopter movement and machinery working – it was a long way off but we could see it through the binoculars.

We’ve heard that there are 4 musk oxen stranded on an island not far from here sadly they must have come on the island when there was ice and now they’re very emaciated and on the verge of dying and there seems little hope for them. I doubt if we’ll see them because they’re not exactly on our route – just part of a sad aspect of life up here sometimes.

A few days ago when we came into this particular camp site we were on our way down the coast and we saw a wolverine just off the coast which was an amazing experience for all of us because it’s a very rare animal – I say rare animal but it’s a rarity to see it – so that was really quite exciting for us. We have about three days paddling left to get to the portage at the head of Elu Inlet then about a mile of land to carry the equipment across and then we’re pretty much at Cambridge Bay at that point. There’s a short crossing to Cambridge Bay. We’re debating at the moment given our time frame whether to paddle across the crossing — its about 12 miles. Or we may have a chat with some of the hunters we know there and get a boat pick up – we’re not sure yet.

Everything’s well. We’re all in good health – except Stephen has had problems with his wrists that virtually incapacitated him on one day. So he’s on some pretty serious drugs at the moment to try and solve that one.

Other than that we’ve noticed a distinct drop in temperature. Autumn is on its way. We had sleet yesterday. The tundra is starting to take on some beautiful autumn colours now and we’re just hanging on in hoping to get a break in the weather for the next three days for the portage. There’s a reasonable amount of food at the moment, fuel is ok. So that’s about it – thank you to everyone who’s reading the blog – we’ve had an huge amount of help from all sorts of people – I need the mention the Canadian Coastguard have been great, the RCMP have been great, all the hunters we’ve met have been fantastic – so the usual Arctic welcome which has been fantastic and we’re all in pretty good shape and looking forward to heading off. Love to everyone at home.

Julie making a welcome hot drink

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Hello this Glenn on August 15th with the Arctic Voice Blog. We’re now back in Umingmaktok. We’ve had a very eventful few days – not least the weather and it made it quite a slog back up Bathurst Inlet. We managed to make good time when we were paddling but the weather has been pretty inclement most of the time lots of strong winds – gusting (Force) 5 and just making for difficult paddling – quite rough seas at times we arrived in Umingmaktok late last night about 11 pm but the village is more or less empty at the moment because everyone’s gone on a summer camp. There were three people in the village; Eddie, Martina and their daughter Alice and they welcomed us. We were soaking wet because when we arrived we’d been paddling 12 hours in pretty non-stop torrential rain. And they welcomed us into their cabin – it was absolutely fantastic – they gave us hot coffee, tea, caribou and fresh bannock, so it was really, really welcome as it was dark and other wise we would have had to pitch the tent and things would have been tricky. So it was fantastic and we really thank Martina and Eddie for that.

Martina is from Umingmaktok originally and Eddie is from Cambridge Bay and they’ve invited us to come and see them when we arrive in Cambridge Bay. The kayaks are performing very well. All four of our kayaks are Feathercraft K1 and they perform fantastically well in the seas we were getting yesterday. Most of the time the seas were breaking over the kayaks and we came into camp pretty much dry within the kayak so that was really good news. We’re using Lomo dry bags and once again they performed faultlessly so it makes a big difference on a day like yesterday.

We had a fly over yesterday from a twin Otter (plane) that is moving people around from Cambridge Bay to Umingmaktok and a pilot that we met in Bathurst Inlet dipped his wings to say hello. So that was good.

A couple of days ago we were coming after 40-50 kms journey into camp and it was a very hard slog so everybody was absolutely worn out so there was pretty much no chance of going anywhere else. And as we came into this bay we could see this bear on the tundra. Stephen fired every pyrotechnic known to man into the air – it was a bit like a firework display but the bear did absolutely nothing except look at us quizzically. Anyway there was no chance that we were going to go anywhere else so we came in and eventually it ambled off to the hills. But we slept slightly fitfully that night because we were so concerned that his bear would turn up and investigate us! It was quite a young one so it would have been on the inquisitive side I think.

A few days ago after we left Bathurst we were paddling through these islands on an absolutely mirror calm sea and the islands were a glacier worn pink granite and absolutely beautiful. The geology here is absolutely fantastic – you can see signs of massive earth movements with huge pushed up strata in the rocks and lots of colours browns and blacks greys and pinks. As I stand here talking I am looking out from Umingmaktok on a flat calm sea at this rock structure that must be absolutely ancient.

So all is well. Thank you once again to all our sponsors – we’re heading off on what looks like a flat calm sea and we’re going to head up into the Kent Peninsula and hopefully we’ll make Cambridge Bay in the next 10 days or so.

Alison making good progress in heavy seas

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Hello this is Glenn with the blog on 6th August. We’ve been at Bathurst Inlet for a day or so. We came in very late a few days ago after a very, very long paddle from the Inlet itself. It’s very picturesque - topographically very interesting with lots of mountains nearby and we’re sort of set amongst the mountains and the whole situation itself is very pretty indeed. Bathurst Inlet itself lies at the mouth of the Burnside River and the Inlet itself is a faultline - a geological faultline with granite on one side and a volcanic sedimentary composition on the other side.

At the moment we are awaiting Julie’s arrival. She’s on her way out and we’re expecting her in a day or two’s time. She will turn up with our resupply and then we plan to head on to Cambridge Bay. We’ve had a good day today - a local helicopter pilot became friendly with us and there’s a mountain nearby and yesterday we were discussing climbing the mountain but he said “Never mind I’ll take you up there”, and so basically he brought us to the top of the mountain today on about 20 or 50 square feet of land and flew off and left us up there. There were fantastic views – it’s been quite and experience. I’m not awfully convinced about our carbon footprint on that one but there we are.

A few interesting things have come out of our talks with local people here. We’ve interviewed a few elders which has been a very good experience for us. One of the things that the Elders here are very conscious of is the drop in water levels for not only the rivers but also the lakes. And they’ve noticed a very definite drop in water. I don’t know myself why that is. I have heard that as the permafrost melts so these lakes start to dry up. Maybe it’s because of that – I can’t say I know what the reason is but this is what they are telling us.

They are also telling us that similar to last year the migration patterns of the caribou are changing. They have their thoughts on why this is and a lot of them seem to point to the mining and the drilling and the exploration that is going on for gold and diamonds. This is scaring the caribou - the noises of the various helicopters and machinery which is sad – clearly they are quite disappointed by this. We’ll expand on this in our interviews when we get back.

Another interesting thing is that here at Bathurst Inlet we’re learning that they are probably going to close the settlement down, the reason being that the elders here are starting to get to a point in their lives where they need more medical treatment. It would appear that the government in the south are finding it not economical viable anymore to ship people out for medical attention. It seems a little odd to us when we see aircraft bringing in pallet loads of sugary pepsi water very day and pallet loads of pizzas into some of these settlements that they don’t see the strange irony of that perhaps the Pepsi cola and the pizzas are making the young people ill and at the same time they’re saying its not economical to fly people out for medical attention. Anyway I’ll let that one hang in the air.

We’d like to say hello to anyone reading the blog particularly our friends over at the Orkney Sea Kaayking association – hello guys – and Seapoint – Gordon and Morag at Skyak adventures – hello to you – and of course our sponsors – we’re very grateful to Vango, Palm UK, Feathercraft, Kobold, Paramo Lomo (the dry bags are great guys). So it’s been really good to have this kit – and we’ll tell you all about our experiences with it when we get back. I’ll sign off now – we plan to make our way to Cambridge Bay in two or three day’s time – there is still a fair way to go and we believe we’ll encounter a lot more bears as they come down and look for the fish and start to come up the river.

Stephen preparing dinner

The team are having difficulty sending blog entries but Stephen sent a few comments below about the latest situation, also Julie has been able to join them and is now travelling with the team:

August 17th 2008

Our position is 68 01 98N 107 40 26 W. 4 miles Southwest of Cape Croker at the entrance to Melville Sound. We are now beginning to track east across the underside of the Kent Peninsula. We’ve travelled 328 miles and have approximately 90 miles to go!

We had rough seas yesterday but as we were travelling in sheltered waters the waves were only about 2 feet. However had we been in the open sea they would have had to come off the water. We are making slower progress than we expected but hope to be at the portage point in 6/7 days. We hope to arrive in Cambridge Bay around 25th/26th August but that is dependent on the weather and the portage.

We are expecting to see some very interesting coastline coming up in the next few days - around the area called Kuururjuaq. Steep vertical rocky cliffs.

Yesterday we saw Bearded Seals and Wolverine and have seen the odd Caribou and just the one Bear!!! However we have seen significantly less wild life of any kind compared to last year -very few birds.

We arrived for the second time at the settlement at Bay Chimo very tired and wet and were welcomed into a local resident’s home with hot tea bannock and Caribou. We were given a lovely hospitable welcome and were invited to stay for the night in the warm and dry.

August 11th 2008

We are approximately 30 miles south of Bay Chimo. There’s been lots of rain and a thunder storm. We had our first encounter with a bear. We had just beached and saw a young bear. I fired a warning shot but it continued - another warning it continued ! another and it kept on ambling towards us but Glenn got a bit closer to it and we think it smelt his scent and turned tail.

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Hello this is Glenn on 1st August. Our position is 57 degrees, 41 minutes, 42 seconds north, 110 degrees, 56 minutes, 30 seconds west. We are actually camped in the little settlement of Umingmaktok which is near the top eastern end of the Bathurst Inlet. We’ve travelled across the top of Bathurst Inlet and we’ve had a very successful time travelling across there. We’ve had a few big open crossings but the weather held and we were able to get across without any sort of drama. So that was pretty good, they’ve been pretty long days though. The wind today is quite strong, it’s a strong southerly wind which is in our favour but it is bit choppy, so we’re waiting for things to calm down now before we put to sea again.

Everything is going to plan – we’ve obviously have had to look at our food situation because we’ve got to try and make it to Cambridge Bay on rations that we had that were going to allow us to go south into Bathurst but I think as things stand it seems to be panning out okay. We’ve had some wonderful sunsets because we’ve been paddling late into the night and the scenery is absolutely stunning up here. It’s still very reminiscent of western Greenland but very, very beautiful scenery; huge big orange granite rock structures and big blocky cliffs—the whole thing is very nice.

The people of Umingmaktok have been very very welcoming and at the moment they’re allowing us to charge up some batteries so that’s good news particularly in view of the Sat phone which is what we’re using at the moment. Anyway, love to everybody – tomorrow or possibly later today all all being well we’re going to head northeast into Melville Sound which is south of the Kent Peninsula and then up though Warrender Bay up into Elu Inlet which we should reach in about 10 days’ time all being well. And then we have to make portage across land and carry our equipment ourselves to get into the Queen Maud Gulf itself.

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Hi this is Glenn (on 27th July) with our update for the blog. Our position is 67 degrees 56 minutes 45 seconds north, 110 degrees 24 minutes 28 seconds west. We’re about 6 miles southwest of Cape Barrow and that of course is east of Kugluktuk, our point of departure. We’ve had a number of days tent bound, we’re getting very sort of fickle weather - sometimes it’s quite still and the wind seems to vary from day to day and sometimes in fact within a day. This morning as I look out from my tent I’m looking at very picturesque scenery reminiscent of western Greenland. It’s a beautiful spot but the wind unfortunately as I look out at the sea is going from right to left which is bad news for us. As I mentioned, the scene is very much like Greenland, it really is very beautiful. We’ve been paddling through these red rocky islands — it’s much more forgiving than last year, it’s not quite as barren I would say — very pretty. A few days ago we had a lunch stop and as I pulled out onto the beach I was faced by a wolf just staring at me. Steve unfortunately didn’t see it as he was a bit too low down but Alison saw it. We just looked at each other for a few seconds and then it turned tail and went off and disappeared into the landscape — it was quite an amazing experience seeing a wolf.

We’ve had some sad news that Julie’s mother has been taken seriously ill, and she now won’t be able to join us. So our dilemma now is how do we cope with the rest of the journey because we’re not going to get a resupply and all our logistics hinged around travelling down to Bathurst Inlet. We’ve thought this through and our plan now is to travel on to Cambridge Bay which was the original destination and we will take a slightly different route — not travel down to Bathurst but we’ll probably call into a small settlement on the way called Baychimo and there may or may not be anyone there. Our problem really is going to be rations and we are short on rations for that of the journey to the point that we’ve got enough if all is well If we’re stuck for days and days then we could run short but no doubt we’ll win through one way or another. We’ll just have to go on a bit of a diet!

There’s a lot of ice around — yesterday we had to pick our way through masses of pack ice and as I look out I can see ice flowing by. So we’re in an area that is still congested with ice but it’s fairly broken and we can get through it. It just makes life a little more awkward. Anyway love to every body at home and hello to everybody reading this.

(Note from Pippa: Alison has a blog too which shows the team’s location, take a look at: http://alisonsigethy.typepad.com/)

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Hello this is Glenn with the first Arctic Voice blog entry of 2008. We left Kugluktuk about four days ago after a flurry of preparations. We had a lot to do with getting food ready and provisioning for the expedition. We’re now after a few days of travel about 50 miles east of Kugluktuk. Our position is 67 degrees 40 minutes 49 seconds North, 112 degrees 55 minutes 05 seconds west. We’re camping on the mainland next to a little island. The winds have been very variable; we’ve had some quite cold winds and some very hot southerly winds – unusually hot.

The seas have been good – we’ve had a slight chop here and there but generally speaking the conditions have been good. We’re quite tired today because every day we’ve had it’s been like paddling across the English Channel in terms of distance and it’s quite tiring, but we’re bedding in quite well. A few days ago Alison had a tough day because she took some dairy produce amongst the mashed potato that we’re eating so we’re being a bit more vigilant with the diet. And yesterday I had a pretty tough day as I think I picked up a virus that was going around in Kugluktuk, but on the whole we’re going well.

We’ve heard there have been a lot of wolves here in Kugluktuk. We didn’t see them ourselves, but we have seen seals. We’ve also heard that there’s been a woodpecker at Baker Lake which apparently is extremely unusual and may be another illustration that animals are moving further north. The temperature changes have been quite dramatic – I’ve mentioned the wind – the southerly wind makes it very hot and then you can turn towards a northeasterly and be very cold. There’s quite a lot more fish in this part of the Arctic as we’re going east and we’ve met a lot of fishermen out on the waves, some of them with their grandchildren – the Inuit elders with their grandchildren. Some of them recognise us from last year when we talked to the schools. Anyway, we’ll be back with another update in a few days about how we’re getting on. Love to everyone back home.