July 20, 2007 11:42 AM

Dropped Off In Resolute, Canada

By
Chloe Arensberg
Topics
Tech Talk
(CBS / Chloe Arensberg)
RESOLUTE, Nunavit, Canada -- Here's what's disconcerting: being left with all of your baggage, on a gravel air strip considerably north of the Arctic circle, without a single familiar face around you. Odd after 15 days with the same people, all of them lovely, and 76 percent of them named Paul. We've just gotten off the ship in Resolute, Nunavut. The area is literally known by its Mars-like terrain. Even NASA acknowledges it.

Our last day on the ship was – at least for me – unspeakably sad. And as Daniel pointed out – very much like the last day of summer camp. This is not to suggest that we were doing arts and crafts and taking magic classes for 2 weeks – it was more about the personalities involved, and the small town that eventually emerged. I walked around a
(CBS / Chloe Arensberg)
corner, saw some new crew members, and screamed in horror. And I clearly cried when Daniel said goodbye to his father.

I'm really going to try and not say "sea legs" at any point here, but it is very strange being on land, especially when you feel like a hugely expensive rover. Resolute's the second most northern community in Canada – and one of the coldest inhabited places in
(CBS / Chloe Arensberg)
the world. I can't do the Celsius conversion and hate math – but I think the average temperature is about 6 degrees.

350 miles south of the North Pole, the Inuit were forcibly re-located here in the early 1950s in a "government effort" to assert Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. The Inuit girl on our trip said the plan was to get the people further north, and that ice prevented that, sort of dumping the transplants wherever convenient. We'll start to explore tomorrow. So far I'm really not sure what to make of it - adorable children, but an underlying sadness.

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