The first leg of our trip north involved an early morning charter plane from Montreal, Canada to Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. Nunavut is the newest province in Canada, created in 1999. Iqaluit is its capital.
School busses took us the short distance from the airport to the hotel. The airfield was built during WWII. Planes from the US landed here to refuel on their way to England.
During the afternoon the Silversea expedition team had shuttles running to take people around the village to the sights and attractions. We hiked from the old Hudson Bay post back into town where we stopped at the visitor center and the art gallery.
Our cruise itinerary was modified because there is heavy ice around Pond Inlet. The original plan was to get on another charter plane and fly to Pond Inlet where we would board the ship. Now, the ship is picking us up in Iqaluit.
On Thursday morning, we joined a guided hike on the tundra in Sylvia Grinnell park. The local guide was very informative and told us the names and uses for many of the trundra plants. We are north of the tree line, the plant life was all under our feet and it was surprisingly beautiful and diverse. I liked the pretty purple River Beauties, and Andy's favorite was the fragrant Labador Tea. The ground was both rocky and spongy. We scrambled up a hill and where rewarded with a spectacular view of two waterfalls and the sea beyond. Below us, at the falls, local fishermen occasionally hollered when they caught a fish!
After lunch in the hotel, Silversea arranged to have a native language teacher give a presentation and attempted to teach us some short words and phrases. After that 3 local girls did a throat singing demonstration and an elder did some drum dancing. It was interesting, and filled the time as we waited for the ship to be cleared for us to board.
Silversea program director Michael gave us the mandatory expedition cruise training. We learned how to get on and off the zodiacs that would take us to the ship and how not to get eaten by a polar bear. We were ready and cleared to board.
With our training fresh in our minds, we boarded zodiacs and were transported to the ship.
First Impressions
The Silversea Endeavour, our ship, is spectacular
Our room and balcony are also spectacular
The parkas we got are very nice.
The ship is quite small by todays cruise ship standards. The fact that it only holds 200 guests was very appealing (feels like less than that for this sailing).
Because the ship is small, I can feel it moving, I hope I get used to it.
Also with a small ship there is not as much to do on board. I assume they keep us busy hiking and kayaking and looking for polar bears.
As the ship took us further north we attended the mandatory muster to the life boats and a bio security thing, where they checked the coats we wore hiking and cleaned our boots so we don't introduce invasive plants into thenArctic. With all that accomplished, we were ready to have dinner and explore the ship a bit.
Now the slight rocking of the ship, is rocking me to sleep. Tomorrow, maybe a polar bear!
I had to put in this picture, this is a crazy nice bathroom for a ship!!
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