Prince Charles was an experienced diver, but until his 1975 visit to Canada he had never explored Arctic waters. (PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo)
I’m trying to read the mind of the 26-year-old Englishman in front of me, searching for signs of anxiety. His Royal Highness Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland has achieved many things in his rich and royal life, but this is the first time he’s dived under a fathom of ice in near-freezing water.
We’re 700 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, sitting on the edge of a square-cut dive hole. The ice is almost two metres thick. Sea water filling the hole is studded with ice crystals. We’re sitting inside a heated canvas tent, wearing red neoprene diving suits. The temperature outside the double-walled tent is -33 C. The temperature inside is 5 C. As I explain to the prince how to inflate the suit, his eyebrows arch into an unspoken question. Can I trust this man?
Great white sharks can be found in oceans across the globe, including the waters off South Africa, which is where this image was captured. (Photo: Maxwel Hohn)
It was a sunny morning with three-metre easterly swells, which made most sites un-diveable. With me was Michael Schwinghammer, a Navy diver whom I frequently dive with. We chose to anchor by Chebucto Head near Seal Rocks over the site of the Letitia, a 1917 shipwreck because it was the only site with some protection from the weather. Although this site was less precarious, we were still slammed by swells, so we left our delicate cameras in the boat.
At noon, I rolled into the water, closely followed by Michael. Underwater, visibility was terrible, two metres of khaki water. We descended the anchor line to a steep granite dropoff at 34m, where visibility improved. The water was warm, about 12 degrees Celsius. But after nearly 20 minutes of searching, we found no shipwreck, so we began the return swim to the anchor line.
At 12:25 p.m., I looked up the rocky slope only to see the wide tail of a big shark disappearing into the murk a few feet away. A glimpse was all I needed to recognize the tail belonged to a white shark. I turned 90 degrees to face the animal, looked up toward where it had disappeared, and began to signal Michael.
Arthur and Raven by the River (Photo: Nick Quenville)
For a long time, orphaned grizzly bears with nowhere else to go had two options: a lifetime of confinement or death. But staff at the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter (NLWS) in Smithers, B.C., decided to create a third option — rewilding them back into their natural habitat.
Researchers had previously assumed that grizzly cubs raised without a mother would not be able to develop the survival instincts or bear-like tenacity needed to thrive in the wild. But NLWS, North America’s only grizzly rewilding facility, partnered with the Grizzly Bear Foundation to conduct a ground-breaking study on five orphaned bears. The goal? To see if they had what it takes to survive outside the cage.
Documented through the lens of CBC Gem’s The Nature of Things in an episode titled “Grizzly Rewild,” bear triplets Raven, Isa, and Arthur and twins Cedar and Muwin are dressed in GPS collars and sent into the Bella Coola Valley in B.C. to brave the world on their own.
Fly to remote viewpoints with your Can Geo Ambassador, Robin Esrock for a day of hiking and travel writing instruction. You’ll cover topics including how to find your story angle, ways to capture your experience, and the art of descriptive writing.
Perfectly placed within Canada’s ‘high country’, CMH Cariboos offers all the comforts of a well-appointed lodge in the middle of absolutely nowhere. For 3 nights and 4 days, enjoy plush beds at night, and incredible adventure by day.
British Columbia’s remote Cariboo Mountains are one of the hardest-to-reach wilderness areas in Canada — unless, of course, you’re a keen hiker with access to a helicopter
