The adventure begins at the Ottawa airport, where we check in for our 9:00am FirstAir flight to Iqaluit. Excitement runs high, and the atmosphere is broken only by quick repacking of bags to meet the strict baggage requirements: two checked bags of 70lbs each, one carry-on of 20lbs, no personal item. We get our first indication of life in the north as we watch fellow passengers check large plastic tubs of provisions and dogs in animal carriers.

The flight leaves about half an hour late, but it is a smooth ride. For those of us used to the budget-conscious American airlines, the FirstAir amenities are a welcome change. We are treated to a warm washcloth to wash our hands and faces, as well as a full breakfast, followed up by a cookie towards the end of the flight. We spend about half an hour in the Iqaluit airport before boarding our final flight to Pond Inlet.

One more adjustment to make as we travel north: there are no assigned seats on our Pond Inlet flight. As with the flight from Ottawa, all announcements are made in the three languages of English, French, and Inuktitut. We make a brief stop in Clyde River before landing in Pond Inlet.

The sky is overcast, and the clouds hang low over Bylot Island across Eclipse Sound. Our luggage is delivered to the hotel, which allows us to stretch our legs with a short walk to the hotel, led by Dave Reid. Along the way we catch our first glimpse of Pond Inlet: low houses painted bright colors of pink, green, or blue stretched out along unpaved roads. The tundra is awash with the red, green, and brown of late-flowering plants. In the sound, a huge iceberg slowly drifts east.

On the way further north we stopped at the capital of Nunavut Territory, Iqaluit and then at a small hamlet known as Clyde River.  There were polar bears reputedly hanging around at the town dump, about a mile from the airfield, but Emile was unable to arrange to get there in the short time we stayed at the Clyde River airport.

The runways here and at Pond Inlet were both gravel, not asphalt or concrete.

Your first impression of these small towns will probably be that they are rough and unfinished.  They have the look of a frontier town, which of course they are.

The people we met on our trip were friendly and sometimes unpolished in nice way.  One incident  that sticks in my mind occurred at the end of the trip as we waited for our plane to be refueled and to be loaded for our return to Ottawa.