Days 13-14 [66km] - de salis → Nelson head

I now had six days of food left, and calculated that I probably had enough to continue down to Nelson Head before returning to Sachs Harbour with a small safety margin.

Nelson Head is famous for its polar bears – Manning and MacPherson reported seeing 15-16 polar bears in one day in this area, and hunters in Sachs Harbour later told me it is still one of their favorite hunting regions.

This is also the highest land on the island – with hills reaching 720 metres above sea level. The hiking became more difficult due to steep undulating hills and deep river valleys.

I made ok progress initially, but on day 14 the weather started to change. The pattern of hot sunny days and cool nights abruptly shifted to freezing temperatures, strong winds and snow – overnight the temperature fell by 20C at once.

I woke in the morning of the 15^th to see a light covering of snow across the fields. As I hiked I could see clouds and fog filling the tops of the hills to the south.

As I approached Nelson Head the weather further worsened – the winds were 40-50mph and visibility was reduced to a few hundred meters.

At a point roughly 10km north of Nelson Head, where I had hoped to be able to see across the point to the seas and yet be out of range of the bears, the heavy fog prevented any view at all. I turned and headed north.

I now had six days of food left, and calculated that I probably had enough to continue down to Nelson Head before returning to Sachs Harbour with a small safety margin.

This is also the highest land on the island – with hills reaching 720 metres above sea level. The hiking became more difficult due to steep undulating hills and deep river valleys.

I made ok progress initially, but on day 14 the weather started to change. The pattern of hot sunny days and cool nights abruptly shifted to freezing temperatures, strong winds and snow – overnight the temperature fell by 20C at once.

I woke in the morning of the 15th to see a light covering of snow across the fields. As I hiked I could see clouds and fog filling the tops of the hills to the south.

As I approached Nelson Head the weather further worsened – the winds were 40-50mph and visibility was reduced to a few hundred meters.

I woke in the morning of the 15^th to see a light covering of snow across the fields. As I hiked I could see clouds and fog filling the tops of the hills to the south.