Cape Dorset, Nunavut - 20th August

When we woke, we were at anchor off Cape Dorset. Once again the weather was being kind to us and it was a sunny but quite chilly morning, with a temperature of 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

We had our breakfast and then boarded the Zodiacs for a short ride to the town, where we had a wet landing on the sandy beach.

Cape Dorset has a population of just over 1,400 and is the only Nunavut town of any size west of Iqaluit. Since the 1950’s, it has become the centre of Nunavut art.

We were taken by a local guide to see the stone carvers and printmakers that have made Cape Dorset famous. At the first stop, Dorset Suites, which is a modern hotel, there was a small display of stone figures. We bought a soapstone musk ox with horns made from caribou antlers. It reminded us of the wonderful encounter we had with one of these magnificent animals in the far north of Alaska.

An example of Inuit art on display in the Dorset Suites Hotel.

 

Then we walked to see a stone carver at work. He was sitting in the open, using an angle grinder to shape a piece of stone. It looked pretty dangerous work, as the grinder was never more than a couple of inches from his fingers!

As we left the stone carver, one of the tankers that supply fresh water to the houses drove past us, throwing up large amounts of dust. In fact there was dust everywhere in Cape Dorset!

We had seen a plane landing at the airstrip next to the town and then Wendy saw this grader at work on the runway. I'm not sure I would fancy landing on a rough gravel surface!

A few minutes later, this quite large plane came in to land.

 

We continued on to the community centre where several stone carvers were selling their work. We saw a small stone loon on one of the stands and I paid $30 for it. We next visited Kinngait Arts, which is part of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, to see a demonstration of printmaking. It was very interesting and, as well as seeing how they made the print block using slate, they also had an artist producing a print. The prints are limited to a run of 65 and are sold for between $300 to $500. Their current blocks are re-cycled from an old pool table!
 

 

We were then taken to the house of the hotel owner, Christina, who had an impressive display of carvings for sale. The larger pieces were being sold for thousands of dollars.. We nearly bought a beautiful polar bear, made of serpentine, but baulked at the price of $880. Should we have bought it??

It was then a short walk to the shore to take the Zodiac back to the ship. As we approached the beach, the young man who had sold us the loon came up to me and said I could have another carving for $20. The idea of having two loons appealed to me, as the birds are always seen in pairs. I parted with the $20 feeling very happy at my purchase.

I left Cape Dorset with a feeling of admiration and pity for the inhabitants - admiration that they can live in such a desolate place and pity because they have none of the joys of the green and colourful world outside the Arctic. For me, this photo Wendy took captures the essence of Cape Dorset, a barren landscape with uninspiring-looking houses and industrial buildings.

Once back on board, we were given a performance of throat singing by two Cape Dorset Inuit women. I can’t say I was very impressed, though their very colourful traditional dress made up for the singing! Throat singing has been practised by generations of women and began as a way of passing the time while the men were away hunting. Wendy was quite impressed with the complicated rhythms.

 

We had lunch before going back to the shore to visit Mallikjuag Territorial Park. We had decided to take the shortest tour on offer, lasting about 45 minutes. Our guide, who wanted us to call him Black because his name was difficult, hunted walrus, seals and whales. Over 150 years ago, Black's wife’s great-grandparents had a camp just where we were walking.

We were shown the Inukshuk that was built to indicate the presence of a camp, as well as to mark where food could be found.

From there we walked to a small lake. By the shore were the ruins of nine stone winter houses that dated back nearly 1,500 years to the Thule people, predecessors of the Inuits. The houses were built of rocks, whalebone, hides and tundra.

 

On the shore of the lake were thousands of walrus and whale bones, particularly from beluga whales. The guide told us that they had found bones in the lake dating back over 3,000 years. This is one of dozens of beluga whale jawbones that were scattered along the edge of the lake.

We walked back down to the Zodiacs, stopping at times to take photos of the stunted Arctic plants. Many were in flower and the small delicate colourful flowers made very good photos.

I liked this photo, again taken by Wendy, of our guide and Chris Srigley walking back to the Zodiacs, both with rifles on their backs.

Claudia, once again, was our driver back to the ship. Shortly after we returned to the Explorer, we started to sail away from Cape Dorset for our next port of call, Bencas Island. The island is at the northern end of Hudson Bay and about 180 miles due west of Cape Dorset.

Once back in the cabin, I checked my e-mails and we were both pleased to have one from Daniel and Keely, saying they were all safely back home in London after their holiday in California.

In the evening we had a curry for dinner, specially organised by Sue and Jerry, an English couple from Ealing. Also at the table were Kevin and Karen from Sydney, Norman and Rowena and Tim Amm. During the evening, Jerry mentioned he worked with Tony Brewer, a fellow OA Golfing Society member. It’s a small world!

We now have only three days left of the cruise before we arrive in Churchill on Saturday. At 7.30pm that evening, we take the train from Churchill for the forty-four hour journey to Winnipeg.