Baffin: Day 13 and 14 - 7th day walking - the exit

And here we are. It is our last day. We have just over 10km to go: 6km to Ulu Camp (the last camp and cabin in the park), and 4km to the sea and our pick-up from the boat.

It’s 5:50am when I wake up, courtesy of the early night the day before.

The weather has improved; still windy but less than the previous day and sunny again.

We’re supposed to take it easy as we don’t have a long way to go. But, as all provisions have gone, we are very swift to have breakfast, put down the camp, and be ready to go.

We start walking at 8am. The river valley has finally opened up and we are getting closer to the estuary so there’s a lot of sand to march on. We make the Ulu Cabin by 10am.

Ulu Camp is the official end of the Akshayuk Pass route and of the Auyuittuq National Park. We allow ourselves a little celebration. At the camp we meet a group of climbers going the other way, just for a couple of days. We ask them to take some celebratory photos of the four of us. The only time we can do that.

Pictures done, there’s not much else to do but continue. We will be early to our pick-up, but it will be a good chance to have a final attempt at fishing at the estuary for the last time.

We get there by 11:30am. 

We are done… walking. We have hiked 133km in 9 days (including our excursions to Battle and Asgard). Mostly with a 25kg pack. 20kg at the end of our journey.

As it is early I do try and fish. The wind is in my face, but I do manage a couple of worthy casts. Again, no luck. I’m trying my best against the wind and the growing tide, which is wetting my feet, when the boat appears almost out of nowhere.

Fishing abandoned; we hurry to get on board before the swell increases too much.

The boat ride to Pangnirtung is shorter than the one from Qik. Only 20km. 

On the way I manage to talk to Peter, our captain, about my lack of luck with the fishing. Peter explains that I am two weeks late and the char is already in the lakes. The fish only runs from early July to mid-August. In addition, the Weasel has little fishing normally as it doesn’t lead to any accessible lake.

That explains what I thought, the rivers were empty.

Pangnirtung (Pang for short) is much bigger than Qik but smaller than Iqaluit. 1500 people live there. The village lies on the seashore with buildings separated by the landing strip, which used to be wide open and accessible to all, but has now been fenced in.

We walk to our B&B, which is a very little bungalow on the sea front. We check in. And there for the first time in 10 days we are offered a slice of homemade bread. Delicious!!!

We settle in; shower and shave; a different face. Time to think about dinner. The arctic char shop is closed, so it is guacamole, pasta and salad for dinner.

Fresh (semi fresh) food.

Of course, the pasta - fish with tomato sauce - is prepared by yours truly. Edible!!

After dinner, I make the mistake to connect to the internet and real life jumps straight back in.