From last Tuesday morning to Thursday morning I flew from Paulatuk via Inuvik, Whitehorse, Vancouver and Montreal to Heathrow. I took some footage along the way. TRANSFORMATOR TO BE FIXED In Paulatuk we had to wait for electricians to hop off the incoming flight, fix a transformator in town, then hop back onto the outgoing flight. All other flights delayed or rescheduled, too.         HYDRAULIC ISSUES WITH THE PLANE At Inuvik our plane had to be replaced because of hydraulic issues, leaving us passengers stranded in a Breakfast Clubesque situation throughout the night at this Arctic outpost.   BREAKFAST CLUB IN INUVIK A bunch of construction workers ended up playing cards with a 70-year old Inuit lady and her 15-year old grandson. Three ladies were playing basketball. Two kids and one of the construction workers were chasing a chihuahua mixed breed around the baggage carousel (the little […]

On my first full day back on land, I got up at around 9am. Then I bought vast amounts of food at the Northern store on the ground floor, just below our hotel rooms. I had just paid and walked out of the entrance of the supermarket, when I bumped into Gavin, who told me that the police needed us to drop by and have pour passports scanned. POLICE STATION So I dropped all the food in the kitchen, went to the room to tell Mike about the news, then the two of us walked over to the police station, less than five minutes’ walk away. Leven and Art were already there.   (c) BerkeleySqB, except pics w/police (c) Art Huseonica OFFICERS JOSH AND SCOTT Officers Josh (the station head) and Scott (holiday cover for the sergeant that normally is the only other policeman in town) were an absolute delight. […]

At around 1:30am today, Sunday, 15 September, I got up and hopped out from the cabin onto the deck. I hadn’t been able to sleep much. Too many thoughts on my mind. Would we finally reach Paulatuk today? Or would the weather play yet another trick on us and keep us from making any progress?   WE HAD SEEN NORTHERN LIGHTS DURING PREVIOUS NIGHTS… As soon as I had stepped outside, I couldn’t believe my eyes. During the previous nights, we had seen some Northern Lights, and they had been fun to watch, even though rather dim and subtle. I hadn’t taken any pictures.    …BUT NOTHING COMPARED TO THIS. Last night, they were everywhere towards the South, with a few patterns also towards the other three cardinal directions. And so much brighter and more brilliant than during the previous nights. You could easily and very clearly see all the […]

At around 1:30am on the morning of Sunday, 15 September, I got up and hopped out from the cabin onto the deck, as I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t believe my eyes. BEST NORTHERN LIGHTS SO FAR During the previous nights, we had seen some Northern Lights, and they had been fun to watch, even though rather dim and subtle. I hadn’t taken any pictures. This night, they were everywhere towards the South, with a few patterns also towards the other three cardinal directions. And the Northern Lights were so much brighter and more brilliant. You could easily and very clearly see all the main patterns. For complete transparency: they still weren’t anywhere near as intense as the pictures make them look. My Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s automatic filtering really worked wonders here. I didn’t actively do anything at all; the pictures were shot in my phone’s default factory mode with […]