The end of February turned out to be a busy week for us, with 8 musk ox safaris in 10 days. And this week really showed that no day is the same!
We started with an easy safari. The musk ox were only 3,5 km away, in a relatively flat area that was easy to hike through, with just a little bit of uphill. This was a public safari, which means that the people who joined all had different backgrounds and levels of experience. We didn’t have to rush and took several short breaks, and everyone made it to the musk ox. We found a herd of at least 4 animals, but they were spread out, lying down on a little hill, making it difficult to get a good view. When musk ox first lay down, they can stay like that for quite a while, so often you need some patience to see some “action”.
The next day I was out again, with a different group this time. We went to the same spot, thinking this was going to be an easy day. Unfortunately, the animals had moved, and despite multiple groups of people searching, we didn’t find them that day. That just shows you’re never allowed to think it’s going to be easy, you’ll just jinx it!
It doesn’t happen often that the animals move that far without being able to find them. Of course, you never really know happened, but it was a busy week in the mountains, with lots of people - many without guide - going to see the muskox. Perhaps there was too much pressure on them? Unfortunately, we see this a lot; not everyone knows how to behave around the animals, trying to get too close and surrounding them, without understanding the animal’s behavior, ultimately pushing the animals out of the area - and ruining the experience for the rest of us. To ease the pain of not finding muskox, we went and searched for moose. Here we great succes, as we found multiple ones!
This picture was taken on a different day. I never bring my camera on moose safaris, as I feel it brings bad luck - very superstitious I know! It’s always when I don’t bring my camera, that I wish I had brought it. ;)
The next day the weather turned for the worst up in the mountains, and I had to make the tough decision to turn back. With blowing snow and gusts of wind reaching over 20 m/s, we couldn’t see anything, it was a complete white-out, making it very difficult to orientate - and impossible to find musk ox. In these conditions injuries frost bite is also a possibility, and safety always comes first! (Again, we did a moose safari as back-up plan).
The weather forecast for the day after was the same, but we decided to try anyway. And I’m glad we did! Visibility was a lot better this day, and after a long and exhausting hike we finally found the musk ox. Conditions were very though, sometimes we could hardly stand upright. Photographers had to be careful and protect their cameras everytime a wind gust came in. BUT the guests managed to take some awesome pictures, so it was worth it in the end! This was definitely the most extreme safari this winter!
One of the pictures taking this extreme day, by one of our guests Michel Prins. I still hope to take a picture like this one day, but of course I didn’t bring my camera! ;)