Bright sunshine greeted us when we awoke. Today was our last full day aboard, we had breakfast on deck 5, in the clear fresh air of Radstock Bay as the Captain anchored and the staff prepared for our expedition ashore. Radstock Bay is an old eskimo (Thule) historic sight with the ruins of an old settlement built in the arctic tundra and desert ( today's photo) - we saw the ruins of old eskimo semi - subterranean houses - part underground part above to protect them from the elements. Above ground seal & walrus skins (now decayed) were supported by whale bones with a very narrow entrance, through which they crawled, facing the sea. It's amazing how they were able to live in these conditions.
We also saw some wildlife - a very 'chilled' and very white arctic hare standing out on the barren tundra and a lemming popped his head up momentarily as I looked at the ruins. There was also scat of musk ok and a polar bear - clearly eating grass and birds - evidence of their omnivorous existence when they can't hunt seals. There was also an indented patch full of white hair where it had clearly been resting and snoozing at some point.
Before going back we climbed a scree slope and looking at some lovely mountain and lake scenery - no trees or bushes - definitely above the tree line as we have been for all of arctic Canada.
The wind got up and our ride back can only be described as wet.
After lunch we had a disembarkation briefing for tomorrow as all good things must come to an end - then prepared ourselves for a landing at Beechey Island a more modern historic sight. This is where 3 men from Franklins failed trip to discover the NW Passage had died and been buried. All 129 perished after overwintering at this sight during one winter but despite fragments of evidence their final days and ultimate fate remain a mystery.
This was a poignant end to our trip which had been named 'In the footsteps of Franklin'.
On the wildlife front I did get to glimpse momentarily a ringed seal as it bobbed in the surf and swam off......there were also large numbers of glaucous gulls on the isthmus and on the sea.
We had another wet trip back to the ship - the wind was 17-20 knots and stirring up the waves which we crashed in to!
Back on board it was packing , final recaps of the trip, final dinner with a massive chocolate desert extravaganza - all made by the pastry chef and topped off with a slide show of everyone's photos depicting the essence of our trip through 100 different pairs of eyes. It made for a great end to a n excellent trip......and the highlight was seeing a polar bear on ice - absolutely magical - the ice bear in his natural environment.