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First day of work - Sort of!30 Aug 2008
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Well, after saying our goodbyes at the airport for 4 weeks and hopping on the milk run from Toronto to Yellowknife (via Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton!) and spending the night at the Chateau Nova, I was finally onboard a 30 seater turbo-prop bound for the arctic!
The first stop out of Yellowknife was a small town called Tugluktuk, where we picked up more passengers and took on extra fuel. After that we left for roughly an hours flight out to Cambridge Bay where I was meant to be doing my company orientation, medical checks, and inductions, etc... but the landing had to be aborted due "0/0 visibility" (does that mean perfectly nothing?). So, it was back to sunny Tugluktuk to refuel and decide whether to try again or go back to Yellowknife. After about two hours of waiting in the very sparse Tugluktuk departure lounge, the captain informed us that we would be heading back to Yellowknife and will have another go tomorrow. I did get across the arctic circle though and saw my first arctic animal which was apparently a Arctic Ground Squirrel! I also got to meet my first Inuit - a rather large lad called Chucky, who I had the privilege of sitting next to on the cramped little plane. He was a haul truck driver who liked iPods and laughing a lot.
After getting my new flight details back at the airport and booking myself back into the Chateau Nova for the night, I decided to have myself a nice steak and a couple of beers and figure out what to do for a whole day in Yellowknife the next day (The new flight time was 1730!). I guess it could be worse and it's definitely more interesting than working in downtown Toronto, changing light bulbs in a warehouse somewhere and catching the 5.30 train home everynight along with half the population of the city or stuck in traffic with the other half. No Thanks!
