Pond was the first community I saw an iceberg in. Evidently they drift into the bay and will eventually drift out. We had a vehicle so could travel a little ways out so I got lots of pix of it. I guess it was cool but it not like I got to climb on the damn thing or anything, so it may has well have been a picture.
Things I remember of this trip where numerous.
First, on the small flights you can book your seat all you want. Window?...sure. Until you climb on board and the stewardess tells you those magic words. “General seating, sit wherever you wish”. The sad part was in the airport there where these two scientists or explorers (or some damn thing). One who seemed like a typical arrogant Dutchman who was talking pictures of everything in sight, and needed to be smacked just for being him. Along with him was a big guy I labeled “fathead” by the end of the trip. Even before the called general seating they made a bee line and for some reason got let on the plane ahead of a lady with 2 kids.
By the time I got on the plane both Dutchman and fathead had grabbed window seats across from each other and were yelling across the aisle. Eventually some people had to move around to accommodate the mom and kids, and I made the mistake of sitting beside “fathead”. “Fathead of course had wide shoulders to match his girth, so for the next 2 hours I was super uncomfortable. Frankly the travel is the part of this job I am starting to hate.
When I got to the airport the gent running the Hotel picked me, “fathead”, “Dutchman” and some other dude up and took them to the shore to get on a ship, then he dropped me to pick up the “awesome mobile” (see older blog). Shame I forget his name but he reminded me of our Kitchener dispatcher. So I drove to the Sauniq hotel (part of the Inns north chain) and checked in. It’s a nice place and though by southern standards the food at their restaurant is a little pricey, it was really good homemade food.
After I got in my suite (which I later shared with a coworker) I headed to a site to look at an actual emergency. This led me to the Local GN office where when I inquired as to where the phone room was I got the best line I might have ever heard. “I’m sure I couldn’t help you with that”. That line was quickly shared and I even sent his pic to some coworkers so we could all “take a laugh” at his expense.
Later in the week I was joined by a coworker and being we had a vehicle and the weather was great the whole time we actually did a bit of touring. Again, the weather was awesome and the scenery there really is lovely. On one venture, we were going to bring some bones DG found back to Iqaluit for BKs seemingly odd collection obsession. But decided against it.
We even saw what appeared to be mounted up ground that may have been the remnants of old dwellings. Large circles of mounted up dirt and rocks that could be the base for tents or igloos. Very close to a river that runs into the ocean so it would have been a good place to live.
Work was work and that went as well as can be expected. Later in the trip we had to move out of our suite and into the “old old” hotel. Which is a trailer with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a common area. Not the cleanest place but at least we had our own bedrooms.
In conclusion, the weather and the people helped make Pond Inlet an okay place to be. I’m sure I’ll be back some day.
Mountains shaped like a boob:
Tommy Chong was at the hotel....far out
Is that last picture the "old hotel" or some Nunuvut solitary confinement facility?
ReplyDelete