July 31, 2011 Iqaluit

Kugluktuk: We finished court on the Wednesday, July 27, 2011. 
We walked each night on the tundra and ended up looking onto the Coppermine River. It was great when there was a wind as there were few bugs. 
The carvers here seem to carve with dolomite from a quarry about 18 miles away or alabaster (from Three Mile Island). I did buy a carving of a walrus from alabaster. The woman said that her husband had carved it and he had signed his name on the bottom. It is a rusty walrus with tusks that are not removable. I was worried how they would survive the plane travel. But the court reporter, Janet, had some marshmallows and I put one covering his tusks. He came through in one piece. I have saved the marshmallow for the next trip. 

Here is Wally the walrus. His face is pretty cute and the spots on him are from the rock. 


One of the defence counsel, Clare, took some photos too and she put them on a USB for me to copy. Her camera knit several photos together so she has a panorama overlooking the Coppermine River from the tundra. 

Here are some of my photos from the walks on the tundra and seeing the Coppermine River

We never did get to go down the Coppermine River to Bloody Falls. 
Thursday we flew to Yellowknife. There we went for Vietnamese food and then to a movie. 
Friday I flew home with the 77 pound hockey bag full of files. No one was there to meet me but lucky for me Justice Sharkey (my former classmate) was on the plane. He saw the prosecutor who had been on his circuit walking down the road so he came back and gave me and all my bags a ride. 
Paula, the prosecutor from Halifax, had returned from Cape Dorset and we went for supper. She had some great experiences in that she saw the equivalent of FIsh and WIldlife chasing a young polar bear further down the water and she saw a whale and its baby. Paula flew out yesterday. I miss her. We shared the prosecutor's apartment and explored quite a bit. 
I got on the internet just briefly Saturday morning and that was it. Barry, Dawn and Lucy (their dog) picked me up and we went to Sylvia Grinnell park to see if anyone had shown up for the office BBQ. It was cold and rainy but there was a building that had a wood burning stove and a BBQ that we put out on the deck. There were three dogs (one was a puppy) and three children so we had lots of entertainment. 
Then I tried to get onto the internet to no avail and this is the first time so I thought that I better take advantage of it. 
I am here all week to prepare the files for Gjoa Haven and we fly to Yellowknife on Friday and Gjoa Haven on Saturday. 
So I think that I 'fixed' my camera and am going to set out to walk to Apex after I have lunch.