News from the busy Bay

Now we're back to our regular programming!

can you spot the two Newfoundlander fishermen in this photo?

Cambridge Bay has been busy busy busy busy these days.  The barge ships have made it in with everyone's yearly supplies of groceries. My friends are all busy unpacking their stuff like it's a weird grownup Christmas. ("I forgot I ordered these! YES. Toilet paper FOREVER!")

The cruise ships are in and tourists are wandering all over the roads with not a care in the world, and certainly not for their own roadside safety.  I would like to apologize to a particular group of tourists who probably came to get a tour of the meat plant and instead spent the whole time there watching me try to make my credit card work while I purchased more or less all of the smoked char in town. (I'm just kidding. there's some left.)

Other ships are coming in and out. I can't even keep track of them. I partied with a bunch of sailors from the Arctic research ship the Martin Berggman (and probably amused them when I later jumped into the Arctic Ocean right by their boat), soon after which they ran aground somewhere in the Arctic ocean.  It's okay, though. One of the Franklin ships that they were looking for has finally been found.

I keep meeting Norwegians in town, and every time I do, I ask them ARE YOU HERE TO TAKE AWAY THE MAUD. I suppose it's racist to assume that all Norwegians in Cambridge Bay are here to take away the Maud, but, like, I mean, a lot of them are.

They're taking away the Maud

even while you sleep: the Norwegians are waiting to take away the Maud

The old stone church ruins has a roof now. And no longer is in ruins. Wow! I was pretty impressed how quickly that went up. I went exploring around the place, and it was starting to look pretty sharp.  There was no explanation for the random tampon I found on the ground nearby though.

(For reference, here's what the old stone church ruins used to look like.)

And as I mentioned before, they 'sploded the LORAN tower and now it's not so much of a tower as it is a bunch of kind of sad metal on the ground.

sad face

Speaking of 'splosions, especially in that area, FIREWORKS EFF YEAH. I was going go to bed early one night but then I found out they were 'sploding fireworks across the Bay by the old stone church, so I put my pants back on and set up my lawnchair and watched the explosions in the sky while listening to Sigur Ros and drinking some kind of tea called Mother's Little Helper.

This Jeep, however, has seen better days

I kind of missed the night time darkness

hiking out on the tundra

Rocher Percé, the Pierced Rock

Tales from my family's cross-country road trip

On the road, my dad kept going on about how we had to see this pierced rock.  I hadn't heard of the Rocher Percé, which indicates that I clearly do not have enough French Canadian friends, so I was wondering what my dad was talking about and why everyone was so excited about a rock.

It actually turned out to be a pretty big rock.

We pulled into the little town of Percé to see this famous pierced rock, a giant rock formation that rises out of the sea as though the sea gods wanted to mess with sailors and freak them out with a giant rock that looks like a sailing ship.

Although the whole village has developed a tourist industry around this rock - with a tourist wharf, dozens of restaurants, auberges and camping spots, and really, one of the loveliest towns we've visited - but the area around the legendary pierced rock itself seemed somewhat unprepared for tourists.  A flight of stairs leads you down the cliff towards the beach but stops abruptly, leaving you to scramble down the rest of the cliff's boulders on your own.

Then you make your way across the rocky beach, careful not to sprain an ankle on the rocks (with your flip flops, if you are me), because God knows they won't be able to carry a stretcher up those stairs. 

I mean, I assume these stairs went somewhere at some point, right?

these stairs: out of order. Please take the elevator instead. 

It's actually a fun adventure, but the seaweed and the dead crabs on the floor remind you that the tide is out, and will come back in and pin you up against the bluffs. Sometimes people don't realize that and walk across the sand bars at low tide to walk right up to the Rock...only to be stranded when the tide comes back in. If I lived in the village, I would start up a water taxi business, ferrying back tourists too stupid to read the tides. Or I'd build a boardwalk and charge a toll.

Obligatory pierced rock selfie

We had a lovely sandwich picnic on the other side of the cliffs overlooking the rocks, and then continued driving along the coat past many beaches and other picturesque towns. I love Quebec.

playing the tour guide

 

This week I've been finding myself playing the tour guide to several out-of-towners.  This means that I've been going on long drives and looking at a lot of scenery.  I know, it's a hard life up here.

I've been doing what I can to show the best of Cambridge Bay, and taking my own photos too.

The weather wasn't very cooperative in the morning, but it made for an interesting view of the Bay.

Luckily, the skies cleared up beautifully later in the day.

 

 

beautiful sun dog

The lakes, rivers, and ocean were all starting to freeze up this time of the year.

river freezing up

 

the Maud shipwreck, frozen in ice

I took one of our out-of-towners to the Visitors Centre, where there were fur hides of all sorts of animals, including an unborn seal.

   

I also showed her the dump, because, well, I find the dump interesting. 

The dump was on fire today.

The alien spaceship-like structures of the Distant Early Warning Stations were a definitely a must-see.

As well as, of course, the asbestos burial site behind it, a patch of ground fenced off with plastic orange in the middle of the empty tundra:

Cabin in the middle of nowhere

I wasn't sure at first why this worker was climbing up this huge pole.  I'm still not sure why, but I heard that a wolf was spotted on that road, so maybe he was trying to find a safe place?

We spotted a lot of other animals during our drives. It got to the point where it felt like I was on an exotic safari drive but I wasn't on an expensive trip in the African wilderness.  We were behind my house.

 

A swan, walking on ice, probably confused about why the water was so hard.

a different swan, swimming comfortably

Arctic fox, watching us

run fox run

Can you spot the Arctic hare in this photo?

He is probably waiting for more snow to fall.

We also saw some muskoxen!

They appeared to be moulting their fur in exchange for a winter coat.  A lot of the dogs in town are doing that too. It makes them look kind of funny, like they are all shaggy and they forgot to brush their hair. 

 

We were approaching Mount Pelly when I noticed something on top of the mountain ridge that I had never seen before. 

"What is that white  dome doing on top of the mountain?" I asked.  It was enormous.  I hadn't remembered anyone building such a large structure there the last time I had climbed it.

And then I realized it was the moon.

It was a full moon, and it was rising rapidly. 

We stood transfixed as the moon continued to climb up the sky and grow smaller, a smoke contrail leaping out as though a plane had lifted off from the moon's surface.

Meanwhile, at the same time, the sun was setting.

Sunset with sun dog still showing 

simultaneous sunset and moonrise!

Photographers joke about "AFS" ("Another Effing Sunset") but I don't think I could ever get sunset fatigue. It really was a spectacular sunset, out here on the tundra.  Every moment it seemed to grow more beautiful; every few kilometres we drove, we discovered another angle that made it seem different and better each time. And to have a glorious moonrise at the same time as a glorious sunset, while swans and foxes and hares and muskox pranced around..I really felt as though Nunavut was a magical land.