Tundra Hike: Dundas Harbour

The storm that kept us on the ship during the first half of the day abated considerably by the time we were back out in Lancaster Sound. We even had patches of blue sky. And sunshine, too. Yay! Time to put the zodiacs in the water and get us ashore for one last landing.

Dundas Harbour (Tallaruti in Inuktitut; meaning “a woman’s chin with tattoos on it”) was where we were going to drop off our modern-day explorers for their quest to ski across the Devon Ice Cap. So, it made sense that we go ashore here for a tundra hike.

Once again, we were called down to the ready room by our hiking groups. We tacked ourselves onto the end of the medium fast group to get the lay of the land before deciding to go with the medium slow group instead.

The plan was to hike towards the south coast to check out some Thule ruins and then hike across a ridge to the site of an RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] station that was abandoned in 1951. The first part of the plan worked out just fine; the second part not so much.

Because we took our time walking across the tundra to the Thule ruins, we ran out of time to get to the RCMP station on foot. No problem. We were offered a zodiac transfer to get there instead … similar to the contemplative group. The problem? The ride required going out into open waters and making our way around a headland. The water was rough … the landing beach, even if we could get there, inaccessible due to heavy swells rolling ashore. So back to the ship we went.

Thus, for all intents and purposes, we have wrapped up our expedition. Yes, we still have several days left before we board the charter flight back to Toronto. However, those days will see us speeding back … no time to stop and explore along the way.Read more