There are some work trips that don’t really feel like work, and this is definitely going to be one of them. I’m in Greenland, getting ready to join Quark Expeditions as a sea kayak guide for a journey that will take us from the west coast of Greenland, across Baffin Bay and into the Canadian High Arctic. Previously I have only worked with Quark in the Antarctic.
For someone who has spent a large part of their life paddling, guiding and travelling in wild places, this feels pretty special. I’ve been lucky enough to sea kayak in some extraordinary places over the years – from Vancouver Island and Baja California to Antarctica – but there is something about paddling in the Arctic that has always had a particular pull. This time I’ll be doing it as part of the expedition team, helping guests experience this remarkable landscape from perhaps the best possible viewpoint: a few inches above the water in a sea kayak.
I arrived in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, with a little time before joining the ship, which gave me the chance to explore the town on foot. Nuuk is an interesting mixture of old and new. There are colourful wooden houses and reminders of Greenland’s colonial history alongside modern apartments, cafés, shops and a striking cultural centre. The Greenland National Museum was particularly fascinating, giving some context to the Inuit cultures and communities whose relationship with this landscape stretches back thousands of years.
Standing on the waterfront and looking out towards the mountains and fjords also brings home just how closely life here is connected to the sea. Long before kayaking became the recreational activity we know today, the kayak was an essential hunting craft. The Greenland kayak was light, quiet and extraordinarily manoeuvrable, allowing Inuit hunters to travel and hunt in waters that would otherwise have been almost inaccessible. Many of the techniques we now regard as advanced sea-kayaking skills have their origins here.
That makes coming to Greenland as a sea kayak guide particularly meaningful. Modern composite and plastic kayaks may look very different from the traditional skin-on-frame craft, but every time we pick up a paddle here we are following a tradition stretching back generations.
From Greenland our expedition takes us across Baffin Bay to Baffin Island and onwards into the waterways of the Canadian High Arctic. It is a landscape of huge fjords, glaciers, mountains, tundra and sea ice, and an area where wildlife encounters can be extraordinary. We will be constantly watching for whales, seals, walrus, Arctic foxes and, of course, polar bears. Above us there should also be some spectacular birdlife, from fulmars and guillemots to vast colonies of nesting seabirds.
But this journey isn’t only about wildlife and landscapes. We are also travelling through a region with an extraordinary human story. Inuit have lived and travelled through these lands and waters for thousands of years, developing the skills and knowledge needed to survive in one of the most challenging environments on Earth. Much later came the European explorers searching for the elusive Northwest Passage.
One name in particular hangs over this part of the Arctic: Sir John Franklin.
Franklin sailed from Britain in 1845 aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, attempting to complete the Northwest Passage. Both ships disappeared into the Canadian Arctic along with all 129 men. What followed became one of the great mysteries of exploration and prompted an enormous series of search expeditions. Gradually, fragments of the story emerged, although the wrecks themselves would not be found until Erebus was discovered in 2014 and Terror in 2016.
Our route takes us into the same waters explored by Franklin and by the expeditions that went looking for him. One of the places I am particularly looking forward to visiting is Beechey Island, where Franklin’s expedition spent the winter of 1845–46. Three members of the expedition died there and their graves remain on the bleak Arctic shore. It is one of those places where history suddenly becomes very tangible. (Quark Expeditions)
There should be plenty of other remarkable places along the way. Around Devon Island we may explore places such as Dundas Harbour and Croker Bay, while the waters around Lancaster Sound – Tallurutiup Imanga – are among the richest wildlife areas in the Canadian Arctic. Conditions will ultimately dictate exactly where we can land and paddle; in the Arctic, weather and ice always have the final say.
And that unpredictability is part of what makes expedition kayaking so exciting.
A planned kayak outing can change completely because of wind, ice, swell or wildlife. Sometimes the best paddle isn’t necessarily the longest one. It might be quietly moving amongst icebergs, following the base of an enormous cliff, watching a glacier from a safe distance or simply stopping the kayaks and sitting silently while a whale surfaces somewhere out in the fjord.
As a guide, my job is to help make those experiences possible while keeping everyone safe in an environment that deserves a great deal of respect. Cold water, rapidly changing weather, moving ice and wildlife all add dimensions that we don’t normally encounter on a day out paddling at home. There is a lot of judgement involved – but there is also enormous satisfaction in helping someone experience their first Arctic paddle.
I’m particularly looking forward to those quiet moments when the ship and Zodiacs disappear from view, the paddles stop splashing and suddenly all you can hear is water against the hull, seabirds overhead and perhaps the crack and rumble of distant ice.
For Wee Wild Adventures, this trip should provide plenty to write about. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing stories from some of the places we visit, looking at the wildlife we encounter and exploring some of the remarkable history of this part of the world. I’ll also be writing about Greenland’s kayaking heritage, Arctic paddling, wildlife safety and some of the practicalities of operating small boats in such a remote environment.
Most of all, though, I’m looking forward to getting afloat.
There are few better ways of experiencing a wild coastline than from a kayak. And to have the opportunity to guide people by kayak through Greenland and the Canadian High Arctic, amongst icebergs, glaciers, wildlife and some of the great locations in the history of Arctic exploration, is a genuine privilege.
Next stop: the Arctic – paddle in hand.