Travels with Louis
Day 15 — Kugluktuk, End of the Line
Location: 68°26,472'N 110°42.139'W
Beautiful weather here this morning as we drop anchor. It's warmer in Kugluktuk
than in Halifax, according to CBC Radio (which we're getting from a transmitter
in the hamlet). Aquin and I were among the first off to head into town to do some interviews.
Spoke to my old friends Frank and Margaret Ipakohak, who were intrigued to hear about
our trip and to see some of Aquin's fine photos. It interested me to hear that
Frank is not all that exercised about sovereignty. Kuglukuk is his home. A lot has
changed in his life. The alluvial island on which he was born has washed away in the
changing flow patterns of the Coppermine River estuary. Ships and people will come
and go. The Inuit, he says, have always adapted to change. Right now, he's getting
ready to take some elders in for a tour of a proposed mine site southeast of town.
That's what's on for the next couple of days.
Meanwhile a chartered First Air Boeing 737 arrives from Halifax with a whole new crew.
In a matter of a couple of hours, while the two captains confer on the ship, our entire
crew and gear are ferried off in the chopper and, with a new pilot at the controls, the
new crew and all the new scientists are ferried out to the ship. It will be their job to
people the Louis for the next six weeks of her Arctic peregrinations. Quite a journey this
has been.
Posted by James Raffan on Thursday, August 3, 2006
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