For The Love of Travel

It was a bleak landscape when we woke up on 21/8 and we knew we weren’t going anywhere by plane….lots of nervousness about missing ongoing trips; mail being redelivered by the post office and no-one being home to collect; various appointments needing to be cancelled….Lindblad did an excellent job rebooking all our plane flights and worked virtually overnight to achieve the task.

22/8 weather looked really dicey also up until about 2pm, but we all cheered when we saw the first charter land at 4pm, then the next one shortly after that. We were going to Edmonton!! ….. arrived at 9.30pm.

Up at  3.30am to get to the airport for the flight to Vancouver…..joining my next (Scenic) tour group tonight for dinner.

 

Resolute is a small hamlet (230 pop) on Cornwallis Island, situated at the northern end of the N W passage. Very icy and blustery weather this morning.
Everything works like clockwork this morning to get us off the ship via zodiacs 

 

…..the hotel ATCO South Camp Inn was ready for us with a vast array of sandwiches and tiny desserts for lunch. 

 

A couple of really old buses took us to the airport and we waited for the 2 charter flights. We looked out with trepidation (and Canadian resignation) at the increasingly foggy runway and heard the first plane and then the second fly over ….we later heard that they couldn’t land and had to go onto Cambridge Bay to refuel. This was when we learnt that the airport is replacing its Instrument Landing System, which will be ready on 5/9. So pilots can only use VFR (visual flight rules) and need to see the horizon for landing…..we could be stuck here for a while unless Lindblad comes up with another plan.
Returned to ship for the night.

Our intrepid expedition leader  told us that Lindblad has chartered 2 planes on 22/8 to fly us to Edmonton. They are also working on back up plan if  weather continues to be poxy.  Stay tuned…….

Just as breakfast began this morning we started to enter the ice between Devon and Cornwallis Islands….we have been spotting for wildlife on and between the floes….just a couple of polar bears today, way in the distance. No ship docking facilities at Resolute so we’ll get ashore tomorrow by zodiacs, people and luggage! The National Geographic photographers have asked for 5 photos from each gue st so that they can compile a folder of the voyage….what a great idea.