Back in North Baffin Island and it is getting colder.

This part of Canada is labeled  "a Polar Desert" and it really is a desert.  There is little vegetation and almost no rain.  The sun shines all the time and even though it is cooling off,  the constant sun really does pick up your spirits. The days are getting shorter fast.  Instead of the 24 hours of sunshine a day we were getting a month ago the sun disappears at 11 pm now until 530 am.  Although it does not truly get dark it is close enough to being dark that sleep comes easier.

We had 4 Narwhal pass within 20 feet of the divers working on the wharf yesterday. By the time I ran for my movie camera and got back they were gone. Two adults and 2 babies visited the site . I saw them coming from some distance and I ran for my movie camera, in case I needed to get a shot from a distance.  While I was gone they came right up beside the site and left. They also left me without any pictures.

While we are on the subject of narwhals, when we went to the meal hall the other night for supper there was a plate of Narwhal Muktuk on every table for our dining pleasure.  At the galley there was raw narwhal on ice, sushi-like Narwhal it looks the same as cooked except the yellowish layer is pink. The cooked is more tender or less tough I guess.  I did not partake myself but it was comical to watch the face of participants and the ejecting of narwhal pieces into the refuse containers.  A few people liked it or said they did anyway.

 

 

My wife liked the anniversary present Narwhal earrings I bought the last time I was here, a lot,  and I won an other pair in a raffle for medical expenses for the artist. So, Narwhal is a huge part of the culture here as was exhibited by the reaction to the Narwhal visit by the local people working on site.