Icy Arm, Buchan Gulf, Baffin Island
After leaving Devon Island behind us we travelled south overnight towards Baffin Island. This island, the fifth largest in the world, has a population of only 11,000 people. Our goal for today and the rest of this voyage is to explore the east coast of Baffin Island, indented with numerous remote fjords ideally suited to the type of expedition travel that is our goal.
We began our exploration by turning into the Buchan Gulf. The scale of the landscape was hard to come to terms with. We steamed about 25 miles into an extensive fjord system with many branches. Sheer granite cliffs rising to 3,000 feet bordered the waterways which were over 22,000 feet deep in places. From our charts it appeared that the numerous peaks were largely without names, but some of the more dramatic precipices had received equally striking epiphets – one example being Executioner Cliffs.
After finding a sheltered beach we went ashore and hiked amid the glacially carved landscape. Evidence of the action of these rivers of ice was everywhere, along with the more recent action of water in the river cut canyons and wave washed beaches.
Back onboard the National Geographic Explorer ventured a short distance further up the fjord in search of marine mammals. We were lucky to find several small groups of narwhal – our second encounter of this voyage. These Arctic whales are a near mythical animal; the tusk of the males is closely linked with the source of the unicorn myth. While the views were typical for this notoriously shy animal, several groups were observed swimming close to the shore, providing a fine end to an excellent expedition day.
After leaving Devon Island behind us we travelled south overnight towards Baffin Island. This island, the fifth largest in the world, has a population of only 11,000 people. Our goal for today and the rest of this voyage is to explore the east coast of Baffin Island, indented with numerous remote fjords ideally suited to the type of expedition travel that is our goal.
We began our exploration by turning into the Buchan Gulf. The scale of the landscape was hard to come to terms with. We steamed about 25 miles into an extensive fjord system with many branches. Sheer granite cliffs rising to 3,000 feet bordered the waterways which were over 22,000 feet deep in places. From our charts it appeared that the numerous peaks were largely without names, but some of the more dramatic precipices had received equally striking epiphets – one example being Executioner Cliffs.
After finding a sheltered beach we went ashore and hiked amid the glacially carved landscape. Evidence of the action of these rivers of ice was everywhere, along with the more recent action of water in the river cut canyons and wave washed beaches.
Back onboard the National Geographic Explorer ventured a short distance further up the fjord in search of marine mammals. We were lucky to find several small groups of narwhal – our second encounter of this voyage. These Arctic whales are a near mythical animal; the tusk of the males is closely linked with the source of the unicorn myth. While the views were typical for this notoriously shy animal, several groups were observed swimming close to the shore, providing a fine end to an excellent expedition day.
