Notes on a plane...

Thursday, May 17th, Day 42 of this trip.

Out of Inukjuak on time at 3:00 p.m.. I had been a little bit worried last night when the snow started blowing and the wind started rattling the windows but the dawn brought calm weather. Apparently the main storm had hit south of us as our Dash 8 aircraft skipped over Umiujaq as they still hadn’t had time to get enough snow off the airstrip for us to land. So it was straight to Kuujjuarapik for the mandatory debarking, luggage claiming and security clearing routine that I have spoken of before. We were all surprised by the warm south wind that greeted us as we got off the plane. Some passengers were still wearing their winter parkas and I heard one woman comment that it felt like berry picking time. This was a bit of wishful thinking as there is still lots of snow on the ground and Hudson’s Bay is still ice filled. Much of it does have the distinctive blue “candled” appearance in many places so it won’t be long before it starts to seriously beak up and melt though. I would say that we were close to the La Grand hydro complex before the last of the snow started disappearing from the shores around the lakes and rivers below us.

Once again I was surprised by the appearance of trees around Kuujjuarapik as my mind seems to forget their existence after a month or so on the tundra. You seem to get so used to seeing the open horizons and rock strewn islands that even the smallest bush can cause excitement. I remember once years ago when I was taking a vacation after almost two years inland that I was downright shocked by the colour green around my hometown in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It wasn’t so much the trees as where I’d been had lots of scrub spruce and other fir trees but the appearance of a leaf on a maple or oak tree just shocked me for several minutes. I had simply forgotten about their existence.

Anyway, we were the normal group of passengers coming out of the north on this flight. Patients headed south for doctors appointments, people who had been visiting or were going to visit relatives, workers like myself who had finished up their assignments and contracts and even a couple students who were headed to Montreal to pick up graduation gowns and other paraphernalia. Those of you who head to Sudbury or maybe locations farther to shop may find it hard to believe that people in the north may have to travel thousands of miles and spend well over $1,000.00 just on a plane ticket to Montreal to pick up a prom dress but it’s true, and a fact of life for many arctic citizens.

I’m going to close this off now before it drags on too long but I’ll continue this saga in another blog entry. See ‘ya!