On the Floe Edge – Seven Hours North of Baffin Island

The day began with flights – first, from Ottawa to Iqaluit where I spotted some other members of our group in the airport. I’m not gifted with great detective skills – they were easy to spot and so was I. Grinning from ear to ear, wearing coats way too bulky for the airport and wheeling duffel bags straining their zippers …

Packing for the polar sea ice is a mammoth job. Luckily, the Arctic Kingdom guys are masters of organization. Not did they tell us exactly what to bring, but they also rented anything we didn’t own – genius!
Decked out in huge clouds of Canada Goose down - coats, pants and mitts - we climbed into the komatiks (wooden trailers) for …

“Best advice…” Tom said as we climbed into the komatiks and headed for the ‘bird cliffs’, “Don’t open your mouth when you look up!”
When we reached the cliffs, the guides warned us to watch where we stepped – but while photographing the hundreds of terns and mers, our Aussie buddy Brett …

On our way to the floe edge this morning, we spotted polar bear tracks and stopped to scan the horizon with our binoculars. The print-maker was far off but we snapped shots until he ambled away.

The sun shone and the water was alive! Tom and Mike hauled out paddles, survival suits, drysuits, snorkels, masks – everything we needed to get up …

After yesterday’s adventures, crawling out of bed was hard on this, the longest day of the year. At the floe edge we found belugas cavorting, so we hurried into our dry suits and kayaks. The whales lingered, gliding around the drifting ice chunks, then slowly swam off, leaving us eager for more.

Flocks of King eiders swooped overhead and …

Our last full day was so warm, madness struck.
At the floe edge, Sandra, Tom, Cornelius and I posed in bathing suits on caribou skins for an Arctic Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot, while Justin and Jens kayaked to a floating berg and were quickly surrounded by belugas. The biggest excitement of the day came when fifteen-year-old Edward decided …

After hours of bumping around in the komatiks, we arrived back in Pond Inlet, tired and ready for our denouement dinner – a bitter sweet moment. Mike had promised we’d find our magic in the Arctic and we had. My favourite surprise revelation came from Sandra, my Singaporean buddy. Tiny but intrepid, she’d struggled her whole …