Students On Ice – August 11th – Wrapping Up Trip

August 23, 2009 in Uncategorized

August 11th

It’s been a few days since I wrote anything down. We’ve been touring around the south east coast of Baffin Island. We’ve had some cool things happen. We’ve stopped and done tours in a few different locations. We did a zodiac tour around a bird colony at Hanzsch Island which is home to 120 000 thick billed murres as well a few thousand black legged kittiwakes. It was quite a sight to see all this bird life and hear the sound they all make.

We did an interpretive type walk in one great little fiord area, and I went with the botanist who is on board the ship and learned a ton about arctic plants. The area had a river coming down to the bay that still had ice on the side of the banks, that the student had fun learning about and playing on.

Yesterday we stopped at another inlet off the Hudson Strait, and had group activities. I assisted a group that was discussing how to craft a message and presentation in order to get your voice heard. We had a great discussion about how to prepare for presentations when we get back. These students are going to have a lot of things to do, as many people will want to talk to them, and hear about their trip and experiences.

Kimmurut is a small village on the south east coast of Baffin. We stopped there for a few hours to visit the community yesterday afternoon. It was an amazing experience. There was fresh seal for all to try, and we got tours around the community, and then had a gathering at the high school gym. There we were treated to some traditional throat singing and drumming as well as a demonstration of some of the Inuit games. It was a great community and a good time was had by all. Everyone was especially impressed with the hordes of little kid everywhere. Playing in the street, climbing all over the boats and asking question after question of all of us who had come ashore.

This morning we had our last shore excursion before we disembark tomorrow in Iqaluit. We spent some time discussing in small groups the things that everyone had talked about yesterday in Youth Action groups. We also went for a short hike around the area. We ended up at a survey marker that was marked by a cairn of stones. The marker had been put there in the 1940’s by the Geological Survey of Canada. We were hoping to go for a longer hike, but as the first zodiac landed, they spotted 2 polar bears on a hill not too far from where we were. The spotters were sent out and in a short time they got back the news that there were 8 bears in the area. 3 sleeping and 5 wandering around. Needless to say, we wandered in the opposite direction! I don’t think I mentioned this before, but on every shore excursion that we did, there were a group of staff that were armed with rifles and they scoped out the area, and then stood sentry on various points to ensure that the group was never surprised by any unexpected 4 legged, white haired, visitors. It was always pretty surreal to see them up on the hills of the valleys that we were hiking in.

Now we have to pack. We have a full day of stuff to finish today, and then tomorrow we leave the ship behind and after a day in Iqaluit, we end up back in Ottawa. I suspect I won’t write anything until I’m back there, maybe even till I’m back home.