Thurs July 22
What a lump I am! Spend most of the day sleeping and reading ( archeologists found pre Dorset artifacts – stone flakes, a tiny ‘maskette’ with inscribed tattoo lines, dating +/- 3500 BP, scattered along the coast of the Truelove Lowlands, and east on to Cape Hardy and Cape Sparbo). Ugly looking foot wounds, pussing and angry red colour skin. Maybe musk ox Quiviut boot padding is not such a good idea…Alfred pops in and out checking on me, then wanders to film as opportunity presents. The weather has socked in again…hear a plane pass overhead but its not visible through the cloud cover. Sleep and sleep some more.
Its 9pm before I finally drag my butt outside…a fox kit swims across a large pond. At first, I can’t make out what it is – it looks like a beaver with its body flattened and tail held out stiff behind. Upon reaching the shore, the kit shakes once then rolls himself in the tundra to dry and fluff his grey fur. Mom fox shows up with 2 lemmings in her mouth – there is a mad scramble between the youngsters, they streak across the plains, chasing the food. In the end, I’m not sure that one kid didn’t get both!
At 1am, the temperature is 1C but dead calm. A weak sun is trying to burn off the fog but to no avail. The birds are quiet at this time of day (night?) and the fox kits have disappeared. We decide to stalk some distant musk ox as the back ground cliffs will make for a great photo backdrop. Time has lost its meaning, we move totally as the mood strikes us. What luxury! The muskox allow us to approach within 50m, I have some regret that there is not more light for photos and video. But since photos/video don’t matter in the end, we enjoy the moment. It’s a treasured, rare, calm and easy encounter between beast and beast.
