Journey to the
Floe Edge
Floe Edge.... where the Arctic ocean meets the ice that is still attached to the land. It is an area rich with wildlife. In June of 2022 I was there, hoping to see Narwhals and Belugas!
I was one of a group of 6 on a tour with Baffin Safari. We started our adventure in Ottawa and travelled to Pond Inlet on the northeast shore of Baffin Island. I lived on the 'land' near the north part of Baffin Island for 6 days. Except the 'land' was actually frozen ocean and I didn't step on real land for almost 6 days!
From camp we travelled to the floe edge on 3 separate occasions when the weather permitted. We were hoping to see Belugas and Narwhals, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
On the first two trips we saw lots of birds and some amazing views of the Floe Edge with the icebergs trapped in the ice, and the mountains on Baffin Island and Bylot Island. We were fogged in at camp on our last full day and we were all pretty frustrated. The weather was supposed to break by early morning on the day we were to leave for Pond Inlet.
If the weather cooperated, we all agreed that we would give it one last shot and get up at 2 am and head out to the floe edge, then head to Pond Inlet in the afternoon. The sun never sets that far up north in June so at 2 am it looked like 10 am. When the snow mobiles started up shortly after 2 am, we were off.
We got to the floe edge around 3 am and we were treated to a show of 10 - 15 Bowhead Whales who were eating and diving for the next 6 hours!