irishbrentgoose

June 17th After the excitement of yesterday, today was always going to be a bit on the quiet side. But is started with a really beautiful arctic spring morning...blue skies filled with the songs of knots in their russet breeding plumage, displaying long-tailed skuas (or jaegers depending on what side of the pond you spring from) and a cold breeze coming in from the Arctic Ocean. We successfully made radio contact with Resolute base for the first time and after breakfast we headed west up the fjord to Eureka Sound. We managed to get the ATVs about a mile along the beach after the track end before the ice prevented us from taking them further. The sound is still frozen, but the thaw is moving fast, there was a lot more surface water and many new leads have opened even since yesterday. Further along we came across some small bergs that had grounded on the shoreline, pushing black grey shingle into a series of berms, ridges and mounds. At the back of the beach we found clumps of Nunavut's territorial flower, the purple saxifrage [see pic]. We could also see both harp and ring seals out on the ice, but no bears. All of the first BBC crew are now out camping on the north of the Fosheim Peninsula at a wolf den and the second crew will start their stakeout for a new mini-series called "the hunt" tomorrow.