The North West Passage

Organised by Explore on MV Fram with Hurtigruten, September 2019.

We don't want to talk about carbon footprints as ours is probably astronomical but I suppose that this wasn't going to be a trip we took on a regular basis. From Manchester we flew to Iceland, then on to Edmonton in Canada. Next day we continued our flight to Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island in the Canadian Archipelago. Here, by means of a almost totally wrecked taxi (only one door would open) we were taken to the quay-side and on a Zodiac to the MV Fram. The amazing thing is that nothing actually went wrong and that we arrived unscathed in our cabin..

So, the next 12 days largely consisted of sailing past strange islands, eating, sleeping and making trips ashore on one of the small tenders. Some islands were little more than barren piles of stones, others were barren piles of stones with an Inuit settlement, and there were graves and ruins that told the tales of the past 400 years of exploration. Frobisher, Franklin, Hudson, Parry, Ross, and of course Amundsen, names woven into a tapestry of hardship and disaster, starvation, mutiny, scurvy and cannibalism, and despite the efforts of rich entrepreneurs and powerful navies it fell to Amundsen in a converted herring boat, the Gjoa to eventually find a way through the labyrinth of islands and ice floes, through Cambridge Bay and out into the Arctic Ocean where they met a whaling ship coming from the west. It was done.

The early explorers were regularly trapped by the ice, sometimes right through the summer and into the next year. We saw little of no ice until we were off Greenland, a sign of global warming perhaps.

We visited Inuit settlements at Gjoa Haven and Pond's Inlet. They were very friendly and put on shows of Inuit culture for us (funded by Hertigruten) where we were introduced to some of the mysteries of Throat Singing and Drum dancing.

Wildlife? Not a lot but I suppose that we are comparing it with Antarctica where there was lots. We saw Beluga and Bow head whales, Harp seals, a wolf and several Polar Bears but all from a distance. When on shore we were always protected by several of the expedition team with guns, and if a bear was spotted before we were due to land the trip ashore would be cancelled. Apparently it is not good for business if a passenger gets eaten.

Baffin Island was spectacular as was Greenland and there we managed a couple of walks in some amazing scenery.

In Greenland we docked at Ilulissat and next day hiked to Holms Bakke, a Fjord almost completely choked with enormous icebergs from the Jakobshavn glacier, one of the most productive glaciers in the world and possibly the source of the iceberg which sunk the Titanic. The icebergs dam up at the mouth of the Fjord before periodicall bursting through into the ocean.

At the end of the trip the Fram took us up one of the longest Fjords in the world, 190km to Kangerlussuaq where we were to start our homeward flights and where we took to 4x4s to drive to the Greenland Icecap. Yes, it's melting, a little sad but still stunningly beautiful in the evening light.

The Northwest passage was to be the shortcut to Cathay and the riches of the east, to avoid having to sail round Cape Horn. A failure in the end, someone went and dug the Panama canal.

So here are a few pictures from our trip.

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1. Our route along the North West Passage on the MV Fram
2. Arriving at Cambridge bay on Victoria Island
3. Shore to ship
4. Where is all the ice?
5. Inuit lady at Gjoa Haven
6. Inuit syllabic script.
7. Seen better days, done better things ...

Gjøa Haven - Uqsuqtuuq means "lots of fat", referring to the abundance of sea mammals in the nearby waters. The name Gjoa Haven comes from the Norwegian Gjøahavn or "Gjøa's Harbour" and was named by the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen after his ship Gjøa. In 1903 Roald Amundsen had entered the area on his ship Gjøa on an expedition intending to travel through the Northwest Passage. Amundsen sailed Gjøa into a natural harbour on the southeast coast of King William Island. He stayed there, in what Amundsen called "the finest little harbor in the world", for nearly two years. He and his crew spent much of that time with the local Netsilik Inuit, learning from them the skills to live off the land and travel efficiently in the Arctic environment.

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1. Gjoa Haven
2. Throat singers at Gjoa Haven
3. Inuit kick the bunny competition
4. Sue and the Bear Watch rifle team
5. False Strait
6. Tundra.
7. Back to the Fram

We climbed to a hillock just outside the town where there was a monument to Amundsen, this is the view looking back. In the community hall the girls were demonstrating throat singing and the local PT teacher was demonstrating a traditional Inuit game where one attempts to kick the rabbit as it is progressively raised up.

Sue sociallises with the gun crew in False Strait where we are waiting for the optimum tides while admiring the view.

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1. Approaching Ballot Strait on the satnav
2. Fort Ross
3. Hudson's Bay hut
4. Radstock Bay and Caswell Tower
5. Polar Bear. The presence of the bear prevented our landing at Radstock Bay.
6. One of three graves from the search party for Sir John Franklin
7. Sue on Beechy Island, actually a tombolo as it's tethered to the mainland by a sand bar.

The tidal current through the narrow Ballot Strait is quite significant and we moored in the nearby False Strait to catch the tide either side of high. Two weeks ago the strait had been choked with ice and the Hurtigruten had to follow an ice breaker through this narrow channel. At the end of the channel is the historic Fort Ross established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1937 but abandoned a few years later. There are still two small huts which are maintained by the Canadian Coast guard and occasionally used by local Inuit for shelter during hunting trips.

Beechy Island is closely linked with the 1845 Franklin expedition, none of the 129 crew members were ever seen again and recently, the wrecks of the ships Erebus and Terror have been found lying in shallow water. It is thought that for some reason the crew tried to walk out and starved to death. It is known that the Franklin expedition over-wintered on Beechy Island in 1845-46. Three graves on the shore plus another from one of the search parties is proof of the unfortunate outcome for expedition members.

Devon Island is the world's largest uninhabited island.

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1. Croker's Bay glacier
2. Pond's Inlet
3. Friendly people
4. Tea time
5. Village kids
6. Drum dancer
7. Wave problems.

Pond's Inlet is an Inuit settlement at the north end of Baffin Island. As it says on the label the natives were friendly and we were treated to a cabaret after being shown around the town. More throat singers and an amazing display of drum dancing.

 

1. North Arm Fjord, Baffin Island
2. North Arm Fjord, Baffin Island
3. Greenland
4. Ilulissat
5. Huskies
6. Hike to Holms Bakke
7. The Ice Fjord,

From Pond's Inlet, the Fram headed down North Arm Fjord overnight and then turned back out so that we could experience the morning sun on the spectacular granite peaks which lined the fjord.

From Baffin Island we made the 36 hour crossing of the Davis Strait to Disko Bay on the west coast of Greenland. Here. we docked at Ilulissat where we hiked to Holms Bakke. This amazing Icefjord is packed with huge icebergs from the Jakobshaven Glacier, one of the most productive glaciers in the worlds and probably the source of the iceberg which sunk the Titanic. The seaward end of the fjord is narrow and shallow and the icebergs pile up there until they burst through into the ocean and head towards Nova Scotia.

1. Sisimiut
2. On a walk in Sisimiut, leaving the suburbs
3. Rock and tundra, autumn colours.
4. Our 4x4 bus
5. Arctic Willow
6. Sunset near Kangerlussuaq
7. The Greenland Ice sheet.

Sisimiut. We had booked a hike here but rain and snow caused it to be cancelled so in the afternoon, when precipitation had stopped Suzy and I went off for a potter clutching a sort of map from the tourist office. We walked out of town and followed a dubious dotted line on the map. Lovely scenery and all the small tundra plants were changing into their autumn colours.

Overnight the Fram took us up the world's longest fjord to the small town of Kangerlussuac where our return airport was located. the show was not quite over however and we were taken by 4x4 up to the stunning Greenland ice sheet. Huge but melting.

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