Dispatches

A collection of full feature articles written by Pamela for major Canadian newspapers and other journals including: Ottawa CitizenEdmonton JournalCalgary Herald, and Montreal Gazette.

Pamela Coulston in kayak in Arctic Ocean, Pond Inlet, video.

Kayak Nunavut ’99 on CBC TV news

Kayak Nunavut '99, ten part series by Pamela Coulston.
Cross + crucifixion with sun behind, Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 1

We are off. My Mr. King and I, my travelling companion Mike Beedell, are embarking on an Arctic expedition to circumnavigate Bylot Island by kayak.
Kayak and tent on sea ice, Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 2

Our attempts to leave Mittimatalik have been thwarted. It is approaching 11 pm and under the 24-hour Arctic sun we stand at the shoreline of town and look across the still frozen waters of Pond Inlet to our destination Bylot Island.
Kayak and tent on sea ice, Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 3

We are, I think, exhausted although I'm too tired to be sure. We were finally able to leave Mittimatalik a couple of nights ago, towed by Hamm's snowmobile across the annual ice still fast in Pond Inlet.
Kayak and komatik on sea ice, Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 4

The Norwegian Otto Sverdrup said he could think of no greater hell than to be born a sled dog. Now here I am, in no greater hell, my life as a sled dog continues.
Kayak and komatik on sea ice with Pamela Coulston, Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 5

Lady Franklin and the British Admiralty never heard from Sir John Franklin after he headed out in 1845 to look for the North West Passage because he was dead.
Broken sea ice, lavender coloured, evening sun, Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 6

Was this my mid-life crisis? It was my 40th birthday and I was spending it with my husband pulling our 300 kg komatiq, kayaks and gear from the abandoned Scottish whaling station on Bylot Island to Button Point, the last leg in pulling this beastly burden. 
Pamela Coulston in front of tent, walrus skull, coffee, camp stove, Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 7

You do what you can. You plan, you prepare, you research, you do your math. In the end, in the Arctic, nature will decide where you go and when you go.
Button Point, Bylot Island, tent, rough seas, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 8

We were trapped. We had spent almost a week at Niaqunnguut 'the land shaped like a human head' (Cape Graham Moore). Undispersed ice on both sides of the promontory where we camped (a finger of land 40 metres wide and pointing 150 unprotected metres out into the water) precluded movement both forward and backward.
Kayak and ice pans, Arctic waters, Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 9

This was not an emergency. This was not a search and rescue. We were not being saved (as such). But when the Coast Guard choppered into our camp one evening to check on us, we gratefully accepted the lift back to Pond Inlet.
Ice berg, person in kayak, Pond Inlet, Bylot Island, Nunavut.

Kayak Nunavut ’99, Part 10

Even the snow geese didn't make it this year. Usually they come by the tens of thousands to Bylot but only a few thousand waited for summer to arrive on the island to build their nests and fledge their young. 
Pamela Coulston and custodian of genocide site Rwanda.

The Aftermath of Hell on Earth

At first glance, Rwanda reveals few changes from a visit earlier this decade. A tiny East African country slowly modernizing: a new building here, a new traffic light there.
White Spirit bear on rock in stream

The Spirit of B.C.'s Mid-Coast

There is a spirit that moves through the rainforest of British Colombia's mid-coast. I have seen it. Merging with the morning mist, a white anti-shadow moving against the current of streams, receding back into thick foliage. Here. Then gone. Then here again. Spirit bear.
Pamela Coulston with Peruvian children, showing camera.

High Altitude Padre

Nothing. Not one fish. Not even a bite. I've completely encircled this damned but apparently fish-full lake high in the mountains of Pamparomas, a remote district in Peru's Cordillera Negra, trying to reel in my part of tonight's dinner. I would have long since headed back to camp but the priest insists I catch a fish.
Peruvian Paso horse on longe line

Heavenly Gait

Paca-paca, paca-paca, fine unshod hooves clack against the cobbled courtyard of a Peruvian hacienda in the outskirts of the capital Lima.
Group of many macaws on clay lick wall Peru.

Wings of Fire

Hell, if you're looking, is a tiny town deep in the Peruvian Amazon near the Bolivian border, locally referred to as Infierno.
Sir Wilfred Laurier, Canadian Coast Guard, arctic waters, ice.

Arctic Gatekeepers

Surprisingly, everyone made it to dinner, they also made it to breakfast and lunch. The Coast Guard icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier was taking a whipping from the weather in the middle of the Bering Sea. But not a meal was missed.
Sir Wilfred Laurier, Canadian Coast Guard ship, Arctic

Arctic Gatekeepers (video)

This exciting little video clip shows life at sea on the Sir Wilfred Laurier.  A storm in the Bering Sea lasting a couple of days — and the SWL just rolls with it. Filmed by Coast Guard staffer Gerald R.

Sir Wilfred Laurier, Canadian Coast Guard ship, in Arctic.

Arctic Gatekeepers (Uncut Version)

It is a story of ice and men. The maritime history of Canada's Arctic begins with bold explorers trying to chisel a route through the Northwest Passage, pick-axing through a frozen continuum in vessels ill-suited to what lay before them.
Pamela Coulston, Tashi Dorje, cook and pony man.

Little White Pebbles (Publishing Pending)

It was not until the end of the trek, after 12 hard days of ascending and descending through the Bhutan Himalaya, that I understood the importance compassion played in the journey. In particular, the compassion of a young man, Tashi Dorji.