What is it about rocks?

Because of the rich pickings from marine life in Port au Choix, this was another ancient spot where once early Inuit groups, then the Dorset Paleo-Eskimo, and finally the Beothuk had lived over the last 3 000 years before Europeans arrived to chase the Beothuk inland where they couldn’t survive. On the way I spotted a moose in the distance crossing the road. The huge animal stopped briefly as it munched its way through the forest.

Heading further north with a glimpse at the tail of Canada’s longest river

I flew over the MacKenzie River delta, awestruck by its size and beauty. Canada’s longest river flowed into the Arctic Ocean, and we followed its course as we headed to Tuktoyaktuk for the day. The island was situated in the Arctic Ocean. In the winter, a highway joined the outpost to the mainland—an ice road, but in summer, the road was part ocean. With global warming, the future of the winter ice highway is uncertain, and it will be a problem for the residents to maintain their supply route.

Heading true north

I had a desire for a long time to see the Arctic Ocean. So, one summer I booked a one-way flight to Whitehorse and then up to Inuvik in the very north of the North-West Territories. Inuvik felt like the end of the earth and in a way, it was. The streets appeared desolate, and it didn’t take long to walk from one side of town to the other.

Churchill’s Inukshuk Beach

I arrived at Inukshuk Beach where not another sole lay in sight. Iced Hudson Bay stretched before me along with the first inukshuk I’d seen in the north.

They were signposts for the Inuit. Where the flat, wintery landscape looked the same and there was no sun in winter to indicate direction, inukshuks were constructed to guide the way. Sometimes, food was stored under stones so a hunter might find something to eat if he hadn’t been successful.