The Grand Tour
The Magnetic North Pole trip team and all our gear are now in Resolute Bay.
We did a grand tour of the North today. We began our day in Ottawa at 7am when we made our way to the airport. Check in and security was no problem and soon everyone was sitting at the gate with Tim Horton�s or Starbucks in hand.
Out 9am flight to Iqaluit went smoothly and just over 3 hours later we landed. It was cold (about -12), but much warmer than when I was here 3 weeks ago. Once inside the airport we were met by an old Outward Bound friend Meeka who lives in Iqaluit. She took us to her place for a quick visit with bannok and tea.
Our next flight at 2pm took us 2.5 hours to Pond Inlet where we had a 30 minute stop and got off the plane to stretch our legs. Pond Inlet is surrounded by amazingly beautiful mountains on all sides and from the plane you could see the glaciers snaking all around like superhighways.
We then had a 60 minute flight to Arctic Bay and this too is a beautiful place framed by huge and steep sea cliffs. We were only in Arctic Bay for about 15 minutes then we took off for the 1.5 hour flight to Resolute Bay.
Once in Resolute we were met by Angus who flew in yesterday and the staff from our hotel the South Camp Inn. We loaded our bags and were soon checked in. Resolute is basically directly North of Winnipeg and we are now on the Central Time zone. After dropping our bags in our room we met for an amazing prime rib dinner served by the Chef Josee.
The South Camp Inn is owned and run by an very interesting man named Ozzie who moved here from India 40 years ago. He came here for a job with the Hudsons Bay Company, met an Inuit woman and never left. He started the South Camp Inn and has been host to pretty much every North Pole expedition in recent history.
We will be here until Friday morning to prep all of our gear for our trip out onto the ice.
It has been a long day of travel and everyone is tired. Tomorrow we will start all our prep work.
Good night from the North.