This morning I was woken up at 9.00 by a phone call.
On the other end of the line were Frank and Jennifer from Cabela's.
They apologised for what had happened. There was a breakdown in communications between Boyd and Cabela's over who should book the ticket, and how. It was a mistake and they admitted it. They assured me that Boyd was going to do everything he could to make my hunt a success, and Frank thought that I would still get all four of my trophies, despite this mishap. It was a calm and constructive discussion, and he promised to call Boyd, once more, to remind him that I was allowed to shoot two, not one, caribou. (In my letter from Boyd there was only a permit for one.)
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I find this attitude very reassuring. Whether I lose a day at the hunting camp, or not, is not a vital issue. But what is, is who is going to take responsibility for the situation? Because if nobody does, what can I do about it? I'm here in Canada, a foreign country 4700 miles by air from Budapest.
I have to say that, on going through my itinerary and accounts, I can not see any mention of a ticket to Holman, or having paid for one. I've only just noticed it myself. According to Boyd, he didn't book the ticket because it was not part of my hunting package; he says it was the responsibility of the organizing company. (Cabela's thought exactly the opposite, which is what caused the misunderstanding.) I was given ten pages of detailed accounts by Cabela's and nowhere in it was such a ticket listed. Well, the ticket has now been bought for me by Boyd - or rather by Carlos, his employee - who said that on Monday - today - he will sort out with Cabela's who is going to pay for it. This is going to be interesting as First Air is charging the eye-watering sum of CAN $2295 for a return ticket on a scheduled flight: that's really fresh of them. Taking a rate of HUF170 to CAN$1.00 makes it come to HUF390,000 - for that amount you could fly almost anywhere in the world - and Holman is only 620 miles away. Frank has not asked me to pay this yet. I don't know who is going to pay for it, but, as long as it isn't me, I don't care.
It was a wise choice to use Cabela's. There was no attempt at evasion, argument, trying to shift the blame or suggesting that other people were idiots... there was just a solution.
Yellowknife is beginning to show signs of life.
The shops open and, at last, there are people and cars in the streets. I discover that there is one hunting shop in town, Wolverine Sports. According to the map on Google it is just over 2 mi. from the hotel, so I will get my daily walk, as well as having something to do during the day. Wolverine Sports is a small store, but has a well thought out stock; it's owner-manager is a cheerful, friendly,elderly man. Anyone who suddenly realises that he's lacking some accessories, stands a good chance of finding them here.
In the evening I see that my phone is flashing: I have a message. The machine's voice tells me how to access it. I listen to it five times, but still can't make out what the machine is saying. I ask the receptionist to come up to my room and help - he must speak better English than I do.
He can't understand it either.
We sit and look at each other.
We randomly press every button on the machine, and guess what - it worked! Suddenly, we hear Boyd's voice saying that he will call me tomorrow morning to tell me what to do. Then Carlos calls, telling me to take the hotel bus to the airport. I then make the last error of all the errors
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made in Yelloiwknife; I confuse the flight number with the departure time. If the receptionist hadn't put me right I would have arrived at the airport an hour late.
Tomorrow I shall be leaving Yellowknife.
I hope...
Sitting under a polar bear
Airport Departure Lounge
Yellowknife