Arctic travel opened by handbook

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The Baffin Handbook - Travelling in Canada's Eastern Arctic

Nortext Publishing Corporation

260 pages

Suggested retail price $14.95

Iqaluit NWT

A new travel guide has opened a spectacular land of adventure right here in Canada.

Imagine a mysterious world populated by some of the most majestic animals in the world, surrounded by a sea teeming with marine life, and covered by a crystalline sky filled with thousands of migratory birds returning to their nesting grounds.

Add a remarkable culture and welcoming people and you have the Baffin region, Canada's Eastern Arctic.

Once the domain of National Geographic-type expeditions, Baffin now becomes available to less equipped travellers through The Baffin Handbook. The handbook is the first comprehensive guide for travel in Canada's High Arctic region, a tell-all tome including hints of protecting yourself from natural hazards - from ice floes to mosquitos - and detailed information on the six regions of Baffin.

In it you will read about the primeval muskox, bowhead and beluga whales, and what are the best and safest ways of seeing the splendors of the Eastern Arctic.

The Baffin Handbook was a collaborative effort involving more than two dozen writers. It is a unique book written largely in the region and published in the Northwest Territories.

Among the vital information included in the book is a chapter entitled Your Inuit Hosts.

This enlightening chapter is written by Ann Meekitjuk Hanson, a veteran writer-broadcaster who was born in Qakuqtue, near Lake Harbor in 1946. Hanson gives a brief, fascinating overview of Inuit history and culture, discussing language, foods and customs.

"First of all, you are very welcome even if no one tells you so...Don't knock at the door before entering. Make normal noise. We don't like it when people try to be too quiet, it seems like they are sneaking behind our back."

Hanson also includes a few useful phrases in Inuktikuk, spoken throughout the North.

For the first-time or seasoned traveler, The Baffin Handbook provides an essential source of preparing for a difficult but rewarding trip in the majestic wilderness of Canada's Eastern Arctic.

BAFFIN FACTS

- The Baffin region is the largest in Canada's Eastern Arctic. Together with the Keewatin and Kikmeot regions it will become Nunavut, Canada's newest territory.

- The region is 1.9 million sq. km. and makes up one fifth of Canada's land mass.

- Average high temperatures in spring and summer range from -18C to 11.4C.