Karl’s made it to Nunavut!
A chance to learn more about this not-well-known, and even less-visited, part of the world:
• Nunavut is 21% of all of Canada. (Canada is the second largest nation in the world.) Minus a few near the Manitoba border, there are no trees in Nunavut. • There are no roads to Nunavut. You can only get there by air, or by sea. (In this case, by SUP) • Nunavut a population of just over 33,000 in 25 communities, and 85% of the population is Inuit. • Nunavut also contains 33,000 islands. That is one island per person. • There are four official languages in Nunavut: English, French as well as Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun. Inuktitut uses syllabics instead of the Latin alphabet. • 75% of the world’s Narwhals call Nunavut’s waters home. • There are no political parties. Every member of the Legislative Assembly runs as an independent and decisions are made by members seated in a circle. • (For my Canadian friends!) Nunavut is home to Tim Horton’s most northern location. • If you thought tides were high here... The tides in the capital city of Iqaluit are over 35 feet (12 m)
Karl made it about 30 miles today. His tracker has been spotty as he's had to shut if off to save batteries -- when he arrived in Paulatuk after plane hopping for almost two days, he discovered that his solar panel batteries had been removed from his checked luggage -- so, the only way to charge his tracker and phone for the trip so far has been by plugging directly into the solar charger... however, that only works if the sun is bright! The last few days he has had rain, thunderstorm and thick fog, so battery is low.
Wind looks promising for the next few days so Karl is hoping to make miles before the next Easterly comes in middle of next week. He had a walrus surprise him on his board today and a big lumbering brown bear "the size of a VW Beetle" come by his camp yesterday as he sat out the blow. Karl said the bear didn't care one bit about him. He was on his own program. Lots of caribou and birds... always birds...
