Arctic Narwhal Adventure
See narwhal, get close to narwhale, narwhales everywhere, Arctic adventure on Baffin Island.

This trip departs from Pond Inlet, on the northwest corner of Baffin Island.  We motor by boat to Milne Inlet and Koluctoo Bay.  There just a short distance from the Robertson River we'll spend the next 10 days at a very nice base camp.

The Narwhal is a small toothed whale weighing about a ton up to 3000 pounds.  This is the approximate size of a gray whale baby who is a month old.  The characteristic horn is actually a tooth (usually located on the left side) that continues to grow, until it reaches a maximum length of 10 feet. Stories of the magical unicorn probably originated from the discovery of the narwhal tooth by European explorers and traders. Only one in four females have this tusk.  The females   generally display a shorter 3 to 4 foot long tusk.  These whales normally swim in small pods of 2 to 12.  Sometimes a Narwhal will have two tusks.  They are found in the most northern Arctic waters. 

Ten  action packed days exploring an arctic wilderness that is home to a vast assortment of birds and mammals.  This is an adventure that you will never forget!

Baffin Island has an extremely small population of   just over 20,000 people and covers an area of almost 200,000 square miles.   That is larger than California, but a bit smaller than Texas.  Pond Inlet has a population of about 1,500 and excluding the 4 cruise boats receives only about 150 tourist visits each year.  Koluctoo Bay where we will camp and whale watch only receives visits from a dozen or two dozen tourist adventurers each year.  This is a really remote place.

The third type of Arctic trip,  closest to our trip, but vastly different,  is the Arctic trek.  Usually done in July, August or September these trips require you to hike to the destination.  That puts you in close contact with the countryside.  Sometimes too close.  In the summer there are many streams and patches of flowing water to cross.  When traving on foot you will be splashing or wading through this ice cold water.  Plus hiking limits just where you can get to in the time available.  By traveling to our base camp over the water using a motor boat we can reach the best location for our nature viewing in a very short time.  You cannot hike to our location from any regular airfield. 

The red shading indicates the locations where the Narwhal congregate following the breaking up of the pack ice.  The Narwhal enter the relatively shallow bays and inlets to escape the ravaging Orcas who hound them mercilessly.  As the channels and leads open in the ice, normally in June, the Narwhal are there to follow the first clear channels inland.  The Orcas, not comfortable in shallow water, generally don't follow the Narwhal close in.