Our day began in Croker Bay, which is located on Devon Island in Nunavut just north of the Lancaster Sound. We hopped on Zodiacs and toured an inlet where there was an expanse of glacial ice of about a mile long and the waters teaming with birds, namely fulmars and glaucous gulls. We zipped around icebergs and sailed by sheer cliffs of the glacier while fighting an undercurrent of fresh water coming from within the glacier itself. It was a beautiful day and not a cloud in the sky, we returned to the ship after this wonderful experience for some well-needed lunch.
While we ate lunch the ship sailed south and anchored on the east side of the mouth of Croker Bay. We landed on a beach that was approximately two miles long and the terrain at first glance looked desolate with the naked eye due to the fact that we are at 76 degrees north in latitude and so therefore vegetation is limited. Though it isn’t quite red as Mars, maybe, but that is the impression I had when we first landed on this alien world. Within a short distance of our landing site was a strip of wet clay with very fresh polar bear prints still not completely dry. Alongside them were the tiny prints of arctic fox. We would need to stay alert here!
We hiked up the jagged rock terrain along a huge riverbank leading into the mountains while stopping intermittently when we came across mossy patches, which were few and far between. Up near the top of the hill we saw another group of hikers who had gone toward the base of a mountain and using binoculars I could see them photographing a group of muskox at close range. We then headed back down toward the beach using a different route and came across hoof prints of muskox and caribou and also droppings of ptarmigan and arctic hare. Among tiny patches of arctic flowers there were the woolly fruits of northern willow indicating that summer will soon be over. Along this path we encountered a number of bones from walrus and bowhead whales, some of them perhaps hundreds of years old. It was fascinating that in this polar wilderness there were so many small wonders beneath our feet.
It was a privilege to walk in such a special place in near perfect conditions.
