Icebergs Afloat

Trouble sleeping since someone (PW) spent the whole night walking up and down the corridor opening and closing his room door.  The mosquitoes in the room did not help either, nor did worrying about the flight plan not been closed, so an early start with toast and bacon for breakfast.

We catch a lift with the guys who,are dropped of at the train station, this involves going through the small town and seeing the two other hotels that were mentioned, we had the better one.  However on returning to the airport I spy the hotel that we,original were asking for, and which the taxi driver had not heard off, the Rodeway Inn.  Not surprising the taxi driver had not heard of it as he also owned the hotel we actually stayed in.

We get to the airport early but it was closed, eventually the fireman turns up and let's us in, we get away at 7:45 am, 15 mins early.

The landscape to Kuujjuaq, you pronounce because I can't, is again tundra with thousands of lakes and bodies of water.  We catch some,rain enroute but the temp is fine so all should be ok.  We take a gamble and enroute to Kuujjauq bookmour hotel room at Frobisher in Iqaluit, they had only two rooms left, let's hope we get there.  

A remarkable quick turnaround at Kuujjuaq, about 45 mins to refuel, do the necessary and put our grumpy suites on.  I would like to say it is great to be back in our gummy suites, but they are pretty uncomfortable and the air temp is 15c, However 20 mins enroute and all good.  

40 miles north of Kuujjuaq we start to see small pockets of snow and ice even though the ground temperature is 17c. 65 miles nort and we are along the coast over Qikirtajuaq, a flat rocky wildness; unlikely to get Carib out here but maybe seals and bears?

At 60 North we pass over a settlement, Kangirsuk before turning right towards Quaqtaq.  Kanqirsuk looked almost inhabitable apart from the rubbish tip by the airfield.  

As we approach Quataq a ship lurks in the Baie Diana.  The water below us has begun to look a lot colder and our air temp is beginning to drop.  Along the coast towards Quataq we spot a number of single dwelling, which must lead to a lonely existence.  Exactly how do you meet your wife here, do just pop in town and say "hey honey fancy living in a remote spot by the freezing and we're is gets dark all winter".

It is understood that this area has been inhabited for over 3,000 years. 

As we coast out over Quataq and over the Hudson Detroit we spot some sea fog and what may be our first iceberg of substance!  So we are headed towards Baffin Island, Canada's largest island and the fifth largest in the world.

As we get about half way across the strait we spot further icebergs and more sea off.  As we coast ions Baffin Island the icebergs become more numerous and the coast is full of ice.

Looking ahead the cloud base is getting closer to looming hills, let's hope,this doesn't spoil the fun.  Ok the clouds are spoiling the fun we have managed to find a clear level between the clouds which is above the hard rocks below and were we can see that we are clear.  No we just have to work out how to get down to Iqaluit, place of many fish.

As soon as we saw the sea again we headed straight.to it and made our way to Iquait taking runway 34.  Let's hope we have no cloud for tomorrow's departure.  

Well we made I to the Frobisher Inn, they weren't expecting us, internet and connectivity issues again, but we managed to get two rooms and I managed to get a fabulous pizza (fish ain't my thing).  PW ran around like a blue assed fly worrying about tomorrow's timetable, hey we decided to move it ahead one hour, problem solved!  All I had to do was amend the flight plans!

Well it ain't as easy as that, as I keep getting a message that we must file IFR, eventually I give in a file IFR.

So again another early start ahead!