Cambridge Bay and Disembarkation
Filling in time
We awoke to fog. Whilst we thought the ship was anchored in Cambridge Bay, we couldn’t see land at all.
A certain nervousness began to take hold of the passengers in the dining room over breakfast. Would the incoming planes be able to land at the small airport at Cambridge Bay? Disembarkation was supposed to commence for Group A at 8.30 am. Our disembarkation was due at 10.15 as part of the final group for a flight at 14.10, but we had to vacate our cabin at 8am.
Then the announcement that the incoming planes had not even left Edmonton, 3 hours away. People settled on Deck 4 or the Explorer Lounge to await further announcements, first every 30 minutes, then each hour. A lecture from Adrian on Amundsen commenced at 11.30, but I doubt it was well attended; most passengers had already mentally checked out. Then it became apparent that soup and sandwiches would be offered in the Explorer lounge. The sky was now blue, but the incoming flights were some way off.
Finally Group A were called to Deck 2 to take the short ride by Zodiac to the makeshift pontoon ( a couple of palettes, as we had already returned our muck boots). From our vantage point it looked like a small bus was ferrying passengers to the airport which was clearly taking some time. No news about our flight.
Then finally we took one of the last Zodiacs to Cambridge Bay, a conurbation of less than 1800 people. However it sounded like our plane was still boarding 40 minutes prior and thus we were not expected to take the bus to the airport until 16.00. It was 14.30. Peter and I declined the guided tour of the town, which in our experience doesn’t incorporate the transfer of much knowledge and adopts the speed of the slowest person. We set off to look at a heritage installation, made of recovered and heritage items by the Red Fish Arts Gallery, which was very good.
There are 3 statues of animals made out of recovered scrap metal; despite Hurtigruten suggesting that the area was teeming with wild life, this was going to be the nearest we got to seeing any. We passed the time by walking along the dust roads and gave the Canadian High Arctic Research Station a miss. The town was better looked after than the other places we had visited in the Canadian Arctic, with houses with some colour and even some evidence of house pride.
When we got back to the shore, arriving passengers were receiving their life vest briefing before they could join a Zodiac to embark for their first night aboard. The bus only held 16 people but the distance was short. We passed a second small bus with a flat tyre, which had broken down with Jane and Jim onboard. The driver had made some calls to rally his friends round to ferry the passengers to the airport.
More waiting around until our incoming flight landed at 16.40 and we finally got airborne at 18.15, due to land at around 21.00. So much for our dinner reservation at 21.00 near our hotel! The flight was fine, although Peter advised against using the dry loo.
The plane was an AVRO RJ100 – previously known as a BAE 146. The RJ stands for Regional Jet, and the four engines suitable for short runways.
We descended the stairs from the plane to board our coach to the Fairmount Hotel Macdonald in uptown Edmonton. We took off our dusty walking boots and repaired to the bar in our stockinged feet; good job as they were just about to close the bar: 10.36 on a Saturday evening. We enjoyed an expensive glass of wine and some reflections on the trip with Jane and Jim.
A slightly frustrating day.
