Pictures, actually.

This is about a 20 minute walk from the town. There are a lot of Inukshuks around here - but they actually serve a purpose, rather than aesthetics. They are built by basically anyone, but are put on top of the large mountains to let you know you are near something. So around towns and things you will see a lot of them. They don't necessarily have to be the 't' shape that most take in the South, essentially an Inushuk is a pile of rocks - or so we were told. There are a ton of rock formations all around here that used to be mountains, but were mowed down by the glaciers during the Big Ice Age, the one that was like 25,000 years ago. Oh, and it's also covered with Falcon poop. There are a ton of them milling around. If we can put a video up, we have some footage of a Falcon swooping down at us right around here. He came down at the dog we were walking with. It was pretty intense. I had a rock in my hand and was confident I could fight the falcon. Shawna suggested to go back to town.

This makes up the majority of the landscape, the low lying areas are grass and moss covered with various low lying plants and rocks jutting out everywhere. To the left where you see the hill, that is a whole bunch of large, small, and crushed rock leading up to the top of a mountain that's been destroyed by nature. In the distance you can see the Arctic Ocean. Our town is built directly around a small bay that leads into the Ocean. Apparently whales will swim right into the bay (they haven't for about three years though) - for those of you reading who are familiar with my home - the bay in Taloyoak is about the size of Millers Bay on the Rideau, and cuts off at the point across and to the right if you were standing on my dock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Cambridge Bay to Taloyoak this is what the landscape looks like. A ton of fresh lakes and ponds created by glaciers moving around and melting. Of course, the holes that are made are just filled with the snow from each winter melting. Some ponds last the whole summer, some don't. As you move further North towards the Boothia Peninsula the landscape becomes more mountainous and these lakes take shape around them. You can swim in any of them if you like, they are also pretty well fine to drink out of - no worse than lake water. I've been trying to take a swig out of at least a few each time we go out on the land. I'm still feeling ok, so I'm going to keep doing it. Shawna is not a fan of my antics.

And this is just another idea of what the land looks like with Shawna in there. The rocks you see in the foreground are standard size, and are the same as what you see in the background. Going up and down these mountain will make you might agile, and certainly will give you a work out. Good shoes are a must. No cheapies here. We've got shorts on now, the weather is uncharacteristically hot right now. Every day has felt like a standard warm September, with a bit of cooling around 9 or so. Sun still doesn't really go down. It does this little dip thing around 2:00am or so then mills back up.

 

 

There's some pics to tie ya over. That took like an hour to post, so we'll keep trying whenever we're here at the school.