The desolate beauty of Digges Islands
Lots of lovely, little details in vast, barren landscape
Along with eight other explorers aboard a small Zodiac rubber boat, the icy-cold waters off of the Hudson Strait splash us on one side of our face, while the morning sun warms the other. We are headed for Digges Islands, a place we quickly learn has a sorted history.
There are two islands that make up Digges — East and West Digges — which lay in the arm of Hudson Bay, between Nunavut and Nunavik. I have stepped onto the west island as part of the Adventure Canada, Heart of the Arctic tour, along with almost 200 other Arctic explorers.
The black raft seems so out of place against the beauty that surrounds it. Everything in the Arctic feels so extreme, as the icy cold wind on the Zodiac ride cuts into my skin. Below us are the deep blue, crystal-clear waters of the bay, speckled with pure white pieces of jagged ice floating in its waters.
After a short ride to the island, we hop out of the rubber boat and are greeted by a harsh landscape. Sharp rugged grey rocks with no trees in sight make the island feel desolate, empty, vast and lonely. After a few steps it almost seems like we are walking on another planet.
After a short hike, I sit down on a yellow and orange lichen covered rock. Gentle winds help keep the mosquitoes at bay. It isn’t until I lay on my stomach to photograph an Arctic flower that I start to notice all of the little details of this barren, windswept landscape. The lichen, spongy moss and the wildflowers nestled between the mylonite rocks are where the beauty hides.
The tallest structure for miles is an Inuit Inukshuk pointing on a ridge. Built out of rocks, Inukshuks are markers used by Inuit to point in a certain direction. Nestled under its shadow, we are kept under the watchful eye of Adventure Canada staff members touting silver and black shotguns, scanning the horizon and incoming ice flowing in the strait, which polar bears ride to hunt for seals.
I meet the ship’s historian, Season Osborne, while hiking the island who tells me the story of Digges’ history.
In 1611, the English navigator Henry Hudson and his men were navigating the Hudson Straight, the body of water that connects Hudson’s Bay with the Atlantic Ocean.
After a brutally harsh winter, Hudson’s men abandoned him after they did not want to keep exploring the region. Following the mutiny, the lo- cal Inuit on the island killed five of the crew members after their raid of a food cache.
“They were nasty Englishmen,” the ship’s historian tells me. “You have to understand, the Inuit were never aggressive people, whatever happened must have been bad.”
Osborne also tells me the story of local Inuit dying on the island from the harsh winter conditions. “It’s amazing to me that people could live on this island; there is just nothing here,” she says.
On my ride back to the ship, the wind has picked up considerably. Waves now crash over the sides of our Zodiac boats and we quickly become drenched in freezing Arctic water. How quickly the weather can change, our guide points out. But unlike the early Arctic explorers, we will soon be comforted with a hot meal and a warm cabin bed on a ship that can cut through ice.