Distance traveled:
April 27th: 7 km
April 28th: 0 km

Position: Gjoa Haven

"The finest Harbour in the world", Roald Amundsen

The weather was overcast, and the hamlet of Gjoa Haven was concealed by the thick mist till we were only kilometers away. We skiied around the point of land, into the small harbour that the town is built around. We were in the true heart of the Northwest Passage.

Many years after Franklin and his men perished, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen set sail for the passage in 1903. He wintered his small boat, named the Gjoa, in a natural harbour, on the south end of King William Island. The ice locked his ship in for almost two years here. Over this time, the Inuit came to trade with Amundsen, and from them he learned the traditional ways to hunt and survive in the Arctic. He also spent time exploring Boothia Pennisula and studying the location and field strength of the Magnetic North Pole. Finally, the ice released his ship, and he continued towards Alaska, becoming the first to sail the Northwest Passage.

After Amunsden left, the Hudson Bay company set up a trading post in 1927, and, eventually, the settlement gained hamlet status in 1981. The surrounding landscape is flat and barren, the highest point on the entire Island being only 300 meters above sea level. The town name, Gjoa Haven, still remains, and the hamlet now boasts a population of 1000 people, not to mention a summer golf course.

Sarah

[Via Pittarak: Northwest Passage Expedition]