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Monday, December 8, 2008

Brent and Dee Cowan write after their Ellesmere kayaking expedition


“We thoroughly enjoyed our Northern Experience and are your ambassadors in Southeastern Alberta.

We had heard good things about your company and the northern trips. We have a mission to do what we can do while we can still do it and to travel Canada. Ellesmere Island sea kayaking sounded like something that appealed to us and so over the course of a year we got ready for it!


As the trip came closer we became excited/apprehensive; confident/unsure. On July 28th we left our home with apprehension-we spent 2 nights/days in Yellowknife to acclimatize to the North (not north at all upon our return). July 30th we flew to Resolute-North on the outside but in the local hotel we did not really feel the north. Resolute-the town-was a bleak introduction for us-cold and very windy 24 hours a day at the end of July-we didn’t know what to think.

July 31 we teamed up with our new friends and travel mates from Calgary and Toronto and flew to Alexandra Fiord on northern Ellesmere. We became aware of its beauty from the air as we circled before landing. The air was clear, the water clean and we saw Narwhal from the plane. A great beginning!

We met our guides Dave and Andy-said “hello and goodbye” to the preceding group as they were leaving. We proceeded to acclimatize ourselves and went on a hike ot look at fox dens while Andy sorted out the food. Our days quickly turned into nights as we stayed up until 5 AM to watch a spectacular solar eclipse from the shore. What a way to begin!

The trip was amazing. The water, the ice, sea life, fox, hare, flowers, kayaking, hiking, silence, sea ice crashing, walrus breathing and archaeology were all amazing.

On top of all this, we had two excellent guides who took very good care of all of us and were a wealth of information with all the questions asked of them. They were always (not most of the time but always) friendly, cooperative and cheerful. We realized how much time they spent preparing meals, organizing and helping everyone with everything and were always congenial with us. The guides were great, the scenery spectacular, the tents were warm and dry and the kayaks served their purpose well.

The meals were five star-we ate better on the rocks on Ellesmere than we do at home with all the amenities of a modern stove. It is amazing what can be prepared with only 3 burners and a few pots! Your company, the people who prepare the food and the guides are all to be commended as each day we looked forward to new and varied creations. GREAT!

We wanted this to be a trip of a lifetime for us and it was-the North is truly magnificent and gives us a whole new appreciation of Canada and past generations who inhabited this part of the planet.

We feel honored to have been there and are thankful to the new friends we made along the way.

We ventured out of our comfort zone and were richly rewarded.

We thank Whitney & Smith and all of your employees for being patient with us and making this a most memorable adventure of us."

1 Comments:

Blogger Spatch said...

http://www.canada.com/news/national/Arctic+researcher+flees+after+wolves+gorge+bacon/1964535/story.html

September 5, 2009 at 4:59 PM  

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