Cambrige Bay muskoxen

I went to Cambridge Bay for work and while there was taken out on the land to see muskoxen.  I had a Canon PowerShot A550 with me, which is a fine point and shoot camera but what I saw made me want to come back with my Canon F-1 and 400mm lens.  Too bad it was in Kugluktuk!

Other people had stopped to photograph the muskoxen as well since they were close to roads.

Trip out of town (part 3)

The Honda was coming back with us! And note the dried meat on the front of the boat.

A view over the Honda of our wake.

It was very very calm on the way back. It was so still it reminded us of Tucker Lake!

Although it was very warm at the camp, once back on the water it quickly cooled off again.

Trip out of town (part 2)

More images from the Science Camp in Basil Bay.

We had a snack shortly after we arrived. Bannock, tea and dried caribou (I think it's called mikku)! Yummy!

Then we were served delicious arctic char soup!

Trip out of town (part 1)

We were invited by the school board to visit the science camp put on for students in the region. They were camping about a hour and a half from town by boat. They had been camping for a few days before we visited. It was a beautiful sunny day, but it didn't take long on the water to need our coats, hats and mitts! Once we landed those layers were quickly taken off.

View from the boat on the way to camp.

The students had caught four caribou near the camp. They were butchered and out to dry when we arrived. There is also arctic char on the drying rack! Some content below may not be suitable for all viewers. :)

Yamtastic!

Although there are two stores in town that sell grocery items, they do tend to charge double - triple what the same items would cost in southern Canada. Thankfully there is an alternative. We call it food-mail; we email for fax our grocery order to a store in Yellowknife and they pick it, charge a small fee plus air frieght and put it on a First Air flight to Kugluktuk. On our first order we learned to be specific since they tend to pick the large size of an item, however as you can see from the photo above the four sweet potatoes we ordered were ... large. If you have any sweet potatoe recipes please post them in the comments!

Kugluktuk air terminal building. A wee bit smaller than Halifax Airport where I used to work.

Paula misses driving, she's thinking about applying for a snowplow operator position! :D

Welcome.

Another view of the windmill, in case you had a hard time seeing it last time!

Cheers!

A closer look at Coppermine River

All about Kugluktuk

Everything you ever wanted to know about Kugluktuk but were afraid to ask. Check out this site:

http://www.kugluktukheritage.ca/i18n/english/visit.shtm

Guess who came to town?

We had a visit from a Coast Gaurd ship August 4th. We took our camera out for our walk that day and captured some images.

This hill is across the road from the hill we climbed the week before, we hope to climb it (on the gently sloping side) this weekend.

These crates sit next door the barge that was stuck here (frozen in) all winter. What do they contain? When this years barges come the lot here will probably be full. Other than things flown in the only other option is the yearly barges. Can't wait to see what happens when they arrive!

In case it's not clear in this small photo, that's a windmill. It doesn't turn... yet. Another one appears to be under construction next to it. Seems like an excellent idea to me, hope they get it going soon!

There was a big stir in town this day, when the Coast Gaurd ship came a calling!

My artsy shot of a little boat and the big ship.

Midnight sunset

Maki sushi in Kugluktuk!

Yummy!

We made maki sushi for the first time ever! We used sushi rice, crab flavoured pollock, cucumber and homemade spicy sauce. I was pretty impressed that we were able to do it.

Up the hill we go!

We'd been wanting to hike up the biggest hill in town so when we had the oportunity to we took it. Here are some of the things we saw.

Closeup of a neat looking plant growing between the rocks.

Locals told us that this barge has been stuck here all year since last fall when the ice formed before it had a chance to leave. This year's barges have not arrived yet, but shoud be here any time now.

Facing away from downtown, out toward the industrial area.

Our first Inukshuk. This one stands at the top of the hill and looks at town, or in this photo the Coronation Gulf where it's met by the Coppermine River.

Town

More walking around town!

This is the closest we've been to the Coppermine River! (so far)

This is where I work.

This is some new construction we saw on our walk. They seem to be using an interesting new method of support with the triangular framing. Paula is wondering when the open house will be.

Hardware store. We haven't been inside yet.

Paua's photo of the rocky hillside at the edge of town.

End of July excitement!

Our living room with some of the 89 boxes that arrived!

Spare room with more of the (did I mention) 89 boxes. It was like Christmas opening them. No more camping indoors for us.

Life is good we are now online!

Paula, July 30th

Continuing to walk around town.

Nurses station.

Co-op, containing the Canada Post office. They sell winter coats and boots here. A Northen Goose winter coat might set you back about $800.

Our second store, the Northern Store. It has a little bit of everything electronics, housewares, clothing and food!

Float planes land and take off here all the time, we can watch it out our front window. Neat!