Wednesday, August 26th - Surprise, surprise...

From our journey here to the Torngat Mountains Base Camp we had already experienced the issue of scheduling in the Sub-Arctic. Travel in such a remote area, by any means, is at the mercy of the weather and today was no exception. Everyone was up early ready to depart for Nain, but heavy fog meant that no one could fly in to or out of the airport. But this is not necessarily a complaint; I think many of the group are a little sad at the prospect of leaving the peaceful and picturesque Torngat Mountains.

So while we awaited news of a possible departure later in the day, the ever-resourceful staff came up with an activity for us. We took a short walk along the pebbly beach stretching from the camp in search of fresh mussels. Everyone had fun routing through the seaweed. Our hunt was bountiful; we had found enough muscles for lunch and some of the team even took a couple of samples. Not for lunch, but some small sediment samples from the shallow waters and bivalves such as clam shells and mussels. In the future maybe these will form some of the fossil record on the coast that a future-generation of intrepid scientists will sample. Back in base camp to no travel update, but a tasty lunch with our freshly caught and prepared mussels.

In the afternoon it became apparent there would be no travelling to Nain. Sadly this meant we missed our ferry, but everyone got to work on their parts of the trip report and each group presented their first ideas in the evening during a short informal meeting. And then we had a call from outside: Northern Lights! Everyone ran outside and I think I speak for all of us that we all held our breath and marveled at such a sight. For a lot of us it was the first time seeing these magnificent phenomena. And no doubt we all hope it won’t be the last.

Rebecca Jackson

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Northern lights!