It seems that one incident I write about reminds me of another incident.
As I've said many times , I spent five years in the Arctic. I was active and many adventures gave me interesting times.
The people and the land changed my life immensely. It gave me a completely different perspective.
Our school care takers still went out hunting beluga whales. They agreed to have us come to their camp on the shores of the Arctic ocean. They had been there for a few days and had caught 2 or 3 whales and were in the process of butchering them and preserving the many parts of the whale that they would consume.
Their camp was between Tuktoyaktuk and Kitigazuit. They were in a neat little cove that that did not face directly out to sea. They were well protected from storms and high seas. There were not many high seas and the tide was about 18 in.
The next morning they took us out. We were in our own boat and were to follow. About a mile off the coast a beluga was sighted. They made a shot but were not sure if they made a hit and the whale sank or if the whale got away.
They looked around for an hour or two and then went back to camp and continued preparing the meat. We were about 3 miles off the coast and were seeing small chunks of ice so it was time to get out of there. About 8 miles off the coast there began to be large areas of ice.
Later on that afternoon I climbed over the 50 foot ridge and went down to the beach. I was by myself and sat on a large piece of driftwood on the beach away from the other people. .
I gazed out into the arctic ocean. It hit me that there was nothing between me and the north pole. That experience has stayed with me.
The little protected cove behind me
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