episode description
The whales are now on the home straight, and Nigel travels to the Bering Sea in the far west of Alaska to try to see them as they pass. On the Pribilof Islands he meets comical puffins, beautiful cormorants, cute Arctic foxes and fighting fur seals, but the whales prove elusive. But will his luck change when he tries further north, as the native Yupik people take him on a midnight boat ride through the icy seas round St Lawrence? Back on the mainland, on the outskirts of the gold rush town of Nome, Nigel finds herds of shaggy muskoxen, before flying to Barrow, the most northerly city in the USA. Three hundred miles inside the Arctic Circle, polar bears roam the tundra and walrus float on icebergs offshore. The local Eskimos celebrate a successful hunting season with the spectacular blanket toss event – Nigel joins in but he’s not very good at it! As the whales reach their final destination, Nigel takes a boat into the Chukchi Sea to say goodbye, and reminisces about the incredible journey they’ve shared.
