Well, back from the long weekend at Ugakjualik (it means place of the Ugak/cod). What an amazing trip. We left at about 10pm and managed to see sunset and sunrise (within about 2 hours) en route. Spectacular! It doesn't get dark now, it just gets pink, which I haven't stayed up late enough to see, so I was happy to travel from 10pm to about 3am on Friday, and see just that. I think I took a whole roll of photos just on the trip up there, 2 rolls on the way back, and who knows how many in between. Beautiful country. And we didn't see any sign of human life (we did see a few animal tracks --- rabbit, siksik/squirrel, birds, etc.) the whole weekend. Not even one settlement on the way up --- about an 80 km trip.

80 km in 5 hours? (you ask) that seems a little slow... Well, we travelled by snowmobile and qamutik, a convoy of 5 of these, and a dozen people altogether, plus one dog (not an arctic dog, though, a spoiled southern dog who had his own bed in caribou skins on the qamutik --- no running alongside for him!).

The terrain can be a little rough sometimes, going through the multiyear ice, for instance. On the way back, Paul dumped Romani and I and the whole qamutiq through this, the snowmobile taking the beaten path, and the sled behind it flying into a 5 foot tall piece of multiyear ice sticking out of the surface. No harm done, just a little excitement, and about 10 or 15 minutes work to "right" the situation and get back on track. It was bound to happen as we'd already hit 2, not quite as big, though. You see, when driving a skidoo with a qamutik attached, it's good to look back every once in a while, just to make sure that your passengers are still there along with the rest of your load. These sleds are so loaded with stuff that while going down hills, if you're not driving fast enough, the qamutik will fly by you --- not a pretty sight.

So on a few hills a couple of our travel companions unhitched their qamutiks and sent them down on their own. No steering, though, so one went straight into a rock and dumped. Lots of hands to help put it back upright --- this is one of reasons why it's better to travel in a group. Another reason: going UP steep hills. If your sled is really heavy and your skidoo is not all that powerful, it can be a problem. Some of the qamutiqs had to be pulled up one hill by 2 snowmobiles, having tried and failed on their own.

The group travelling thing is really great, though. You travel pretty much at your own speed, and then every time you hit bad terrain or it's time for a break or the leader loses sight of someone, you stop and regroup. Then it's teatime, socializing, stretching your legs, finding a rock behind which to relieve yourself, whatever. And there is a definite leader, an elder of the group who knows the way and does the best job of negotiating routes in messy terrain.

Our group included one 10 year old (Laila) who, while everyone helped get qamutiik up that steep hill, pushing or turning them around to send them down and start all over again, passed the time by standing up rocks here and there, making her mark. It's kind of hard to explain, so check out the photo. Anyway, it was interesting to see. (Kids that spend a lot of time on the land know how to keep themselves busy, and very rarely do you hear the words, "this is BORING!" come out of their mouths.)

So, we arrived at about 3am and had Paul's "Arctic Oven" (that's the name of the type of tent he owns!) set up along with the coleman and caribouskins for underneath the sleepingbags within an hour or so. Then some people stayed up (I wasn't one of them) and drilled some fishing holes. A gas-powered auger is used for this feat, as the ice is 6 or 7 feet deep. The next morning, or I guess it was afternoon by the time everyone got up, it was time for some cod-jigging. Not much skill involved in catching cod. A stick, some line, a lure, maybe an eyeball pierced into your hook, jig, jig, jig, and presto! COD! Sometimes it involves a little patience is all. I managed to catch 7 in between sliding, hiking, cribbage (the weather got nasty on the second day, and we caught about 5 inches of snow or so) and rolls of film being shot off from the neighbouring hills. Once you climbed these hills, you could see the north end of Baffin Island to the North (I think, maybe NNE).

Heating up the tent: just turn up the coleman! Some of the other tents are made out of canvas and have no floors, which I think is preferable because then you're not worried about the rocks and gravel that you're constantly bringing into the tent, nor the caribou hair that's constantly shedding. All in all an excellent trip, although no successful hunting, they tried for rabbit yesterday, but to no avail. As for the fish, there are about 20 cod in Paul's shed that need to be filleted (sp?) --- probably about 70 or more were caught and are around town in the various sheds... No freshwater fish were caught, either, another venture yesterday, as there's a lake not too far away. We were camping by sea ice on a tiny island of rocks.

That's all for now folks. Lynn