Northern Labrador cruise offers spectacular views

Article content

It’s Day 6 aboard Adventure Canada’s Ocean Endeavour and we’ve finally reached Torngat Mountains National Park in Northern Labrador after crossing the rocky Davis Strait from Greenland.

As we sail out of the mist, the majesty of the mountains — the tallest peaks in Eastern Canada — reveal themselves and we’re keen to go ashore for the first time in more than a day.

Article content

On-deck bear monitors are scanning the shore with binoculars to see if the planned landing site for the afternoon outing is safe. Maria Merkuratsuk notes a polar bear on shore.

“Just over by that brown part over there,” she confirms, although I can’t see it.

Later, expedition leader MJ Swan confirms we have to go ashore elsewhere after determining “that site was basically off limits” for both the safety of passengers, as well as the bear.

“So we went to a completely different landing site,” said Swan, who’s family co-founded the adventure company in 1987. “But that’s the name of the game when you’re in bear country.”

Our patience is rewarded the next day, though, as we move through stunning Eclipse Sound and a polar bear is spotted ashore having a nap among the vibrant copper-coloured fall foliage. After determining it was safe to view the animal from the Zodiacs, our ship-to-shore taxis taking us to and from the 200-passenger Ocean Endeavour, we took turns quietly viewing and snapping photos from the water.

Article content

Article content

On a 14-day trip from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, to St. John’s, N.L., spotting polar bears was probably high on most people’s lists, along with seeing the northern lights and icebergs.

The adventure cruising company has been specializing in touring the remote regions of Canada and elsewhere since 1987 when brothers Matthew and Bill Swan and friend David Freeze began leading tours to far-flung locales. The business remains a family affair with MJ and Cedar Swan (now CEO) still involved, Cedar’s husband Jason Edmunds is an expedition leader and his father Randy was on this sailing as an Inuit bear guard and guide. Freeze was also working on this sailing, along with his adult children.

This adventure — which includes spending four glorious days sailing up and down the Torngat region’s many fiords and hiking over rocks as old as time that are interlaced with lichens, mosses and grasses — happened thanks to the company’s commitment to inclusion and hiring Inuit guides and cultural interpreters on its sailings in Labrador, other parts of the Canadian Arctic, Greenland and elsewhere.

Article content

But the investment in Inuit expertise particularly pays off within Torngat Mountains National Park where armed bear guards are considered a necessity when on land due to the high prevalence of polar and black bears. Only the Inuit guards can be armed in the park.

Because of this requirement, Adventure Canada is the only cruise company that makes routine stops in the remote national park. In 2024, 518 folks visited the park, including two visits by Adventure Canada.

If not on an Adventure Canada cruise, most people arrive on private boats or stay at the Torngat Mountains Base Camp and Research Centre, just outside the southern border of the park, reachable by helicopter or boat.

Wayne Broomfield, an Inuit guide from Makkovik in Northern Labrador who now lives in St. John’s, has worked for Adventure Canada for several years. He doesn’t know why other companies who cruise in the region don’t invest the time and effort to hire the required guides to enter the national park, but he applauds the Canadian company for doing so.

Article content

“They’re doing it the right way and they’re doing it well,” he said. “And they’re not just doing it because it’s required. They’re doing it because they believe in it and the people.”

Broomfield, who once ran the base camp, said only the Inuit people can tell their own story and he’s happy to be given the opportunity.

Along with Broomfield, the sailing also included Inuit cultural guides Aleqa Hammond, the former prime minister of Greenland, and Merkuratsuk of Labrador who shared her wrenching story of abuse, addiction and recovery. Other Inuit guides embedded on the cruise included Liz Pijogge, her son Donovan Pijogge, Garnet Blake, Heather Angnatok, Joe Atsatata and Randy Edmunds.

The trip also coincided with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, offering more opportunities for reflection and understanding.

Article content

During a ceremony on the ship on the day of remembrance, several of the Inuit guides shared their own experiences with racism or inequality, as well as passing on how the abuse suffered by many at residential schools had impacted their own parents or grandparents. Interwoven with the Inuit stories and experiences as we moved through the mountain region were those of the Moravians, the first Europeans to settle in Labrador in the 1770s. On a sunny day we made a sombre visit to Hebron, with crumbling buildings and a graveyard serving as testament to the Spanish flu that decimated the community in 1918 after a provisions boat from Europe visited that year.

We also made a stop at Indian Harbour, a medical outpost for fishermen established by medical missionary William Grenfell in 1894.

Article content

One of the many highlights of our sailing was a visit to Nain, the capital of the autonomous Nunatsiavut region of Labrador.

After making a beeline to the Northern Store for bananas and a general walkabout in the friendly community, we headed to Jens Haven Memorial School to enjoy a thoroughly entertaining display of throat singing and athletic prowess in traditional Inuit competitions.

Broomfield said the Greenland to Torngat Mountains tour with Adventure Canada is his favourite as it highlights the relative prosperity of the Inuit in Greenland, a self-governing territory in the Kingdom of Denmark that controls its own resources, with the modern amenities in the capital city of Nuuk showcasing that success.

“The Inuit in Greenland are thriving quite nicely and then you come over here and hear the story of the hardships,” he said.

Article content