What sets an "expedition" apart from a "cruise" (a word that is rarely heard on National Geographic Explorer)? Is it not the activation of our sense of adventure, and the quest for the unexpected? We have certainly had both adventure and the unexpected on this voyage into the Canadian High Arctic.
Philpot Island lies off the eastern side of Devon Island. The two are geologically connected, but separated by a large ice cap. It is a place that none of us had previously visited, but it looked promising in offering a protected anchorage, wonderful views of a broad glacial face and access to the tundra, so off we went for what would be our final adventure off the ship. The yellow blow-up boats came down, and finally we were able to offer our guests the opportunity to kayak in the Arctic. Others chose either Zodiac cruises or walks ashore.
The latter two options quickly converged when one of the long-walkers, who had just expressed a desire to see walrus (not usually part of a walk over the land), actually found them. A group of three dozen or so of the beasts were piled in a heap on rocks just above the shore. Some were adorned with formidable ivory tusks, while younger animals of the group had tusks that were just sprouting from the corners of their mouths. Walrus are among the most social of the pinnipeds. A walrus spends the majority of its life, both on land and in the sea, in contact with other walrus. It is not always an amiable relationship as, seemingly without provocation, one walrus can give its neighbor a stiff poke with a large tusk; but the conflict soon abates and peace reigns again ... at least until the next poke. Occasionally the group burst into a chorus of walrus roars that echoed off the rocks behind.
Our Zodiac tours also took us across the bay, where the vertical face of the icecap drops its load into the sea. Old icebergs took fantastic shapes of blue crystal, and a few of them reached the end of their existence and disintegrated into fragments before our eyes. The bluest ice is ice without air bubbles to reflect and refract the light. Taken up from the water, they resemble the finest crystal glass.
We had one more activity to complete before our departure from Philpot Island: the Polar Plunge. Some of our fellows stripped from their warm clothing and abandoned the cozy confines of the ship for a bracing dip in the Polar Sea. Several could now claim the honor of having dipped in both the Antarctic and the Arctic oceans, and they have the photos to prove it!
