Fish inside Eileen's smoke house, Tuk
The Arctic Sea, Tuk
The harbour, Tuk
Corinne at the Arctic Sea, Tuk
Tony inside the Ice House, Tuk
Permafrost inside the Ice House Tuk
Original whaler's house, Tuk
Tuk
Geese, Tuk
View over harbour Tuk
Our guide, Eileen, Tuk
Pelts, Tuk
Boarding plane to Tuk, Inuvik
We awoke to steady rain and windy conditions so after a lazy start to the day and a prolonged breakfast there was no great incentive to venture outside and leave our warm and comfortable hotel. Eventually, well wrapped up with parkas, beanies and gloves we walked along the main street of Inuvik to see the Saturday market. This was a non event as only one tent had been set up and this was in the middle of a wet playing field with no customers in sight. A logical alternative was to go and have coffees in the Mackenzie Hotel. Our group gathered there for an hour or so and then went further into the town to check out some shops and then have some hot chicken soup for lunch. With the rain easing somewhat we headed back to our Nova Inn hotel and prepared for our flight north to Tuktoyaktuk. This town’s name is so hard to pronounce that locals refer to it as Tuk (tuck). Our flight at 5.00 pm was in a Beechcraft B200 twin engine, ten seater aircraft with two pilots. The flight distance north was 250 km and took only half an hour. On arrival at Tuk (69o 27’ N) we were greeted by our local guide (Eileen) who is a member of the Inuvialuit indigenous people of this area. She had a minibus to transport us around in and our first stop was at her house where she gave us an introduction to life on the edge of the Arctic. The township is at the mouth of the East Channel of the Mackenzie River Delta and has a reasonably protected harbour providing shelter from the powerful Beaufort Sea. A Hudson Bay Trading Post was established here in 1937 and the port later became a key region in the development of the oil and gas industry. Eileen’s husband and son are hunters and she proudly showed us skins of fox, caribou, wolverine, wolf and musk oxen. There was also a pair of fluffy white trousers made from polar bear skin which were tried on by Jeff, one of our fellow travellers. Apart from fishing for herring and white-fish, the local indigenous people are permitted to hunt for beluga whales which as part of their culture form a significant part of their diet and their skins are used in clothing and numerous other purposes. The beluga whales come close to the Tuk harbour chasing fish and if inside the breakwater they’re potentially trapped and can be harpooned. We understood that this is not a frequent event but up to 50 may be ‘harvested’ in a ‘good’ year. The flesh, blubber and skins are all used and we were assured that there was minimal wastage. We were all less than impressed by this so called ‘harvesting’ as these rare white beluga whales were, up until recently, listed as an endangered species! However we managed to avoid any controversial commenting despite the harvesting which now employs outboard powered boats and rifles as opposed to ‘traditional’ hunting methods!
Our next stop was at the Tuk community “Ice House”. This involved going down a 10m vertical ladder to chambers below carved out of the permafrost. These rooms were once used to store meat and fish but with diesel powered electricity generators now in use, the Ice House is more of a tourist site although two rooms were locked and presumably in use. The permafrost is layered bands of different coloured soils bonded like rock by ice. It looks like sedimentary sandstone rock with its coloured layering. The tunnels radiating from the main vertical shaft were one metre wide and varying to about two metres high. The ceilings of the tunnels were totally covered with ice crystals which sparkled like diamonds in the light of our head torches. Another special feature of this Arctic coastal area is the occurrence of pingos. These are large ice covered conical hills that form initially from a drained lake. Unfrozen sediments below the lake become saturated with water that upon freezing, expands and pushes the land upwards. Ibyuk Pingo just south of Tuk is probably the world’s largest growing pingo and although over 1000 years old, it is still growing a couple of centimetres a year. An opportunity for us to swim in the Arctic Sea was turned down due to the wind chill factor that made the air significantly colder than the ocean. Despite the strong windy conditions we had periods of bright sunshine and fortunately no rain at all. Eileen showed us around the township which showed all the signs of the harsh conditions it endures throughout the Arctic year of wind, rain, snow and storms. The local school covers K – 12 and there are presently 150 students in total. Last school year (finishing in June) there were 16 students graduating from year 12, this being a record. Some students then head south to further their education at college and then university. The main northern highway leading up from Dawson City is gravel for the first 700 km but then becomes 250 km of ‘winter road’ from Inuvik up to Tuk. This means that the only means of transport is by ice buggies across the frozen delta region. We visited Eileen’s fish smoking house and then saw some traditional wooden house/structures formed from driftwood and then covered with peat for insulation. After an intriguing afternoon’s visit we returned to Inuvik in our Beechcraft plane. We passed Jak Park on the way back to our hotel. (Jak means blueberry in the local dialect.) Our late evening meal was finished with ‘nightcaps’ at midnight and sunlight still visible on the horizon!