Why I left Cork and brought my family to the freezing Arctic

What possessed a mother of three young children to uproot the family and live for a year in one of the most isolated parts of the world?

In 1989, Geraldine Osborne, who was a locum GP in Castletownbere, her artist husband Danny Osborne, as well as five-year-old Tempy, two- year-old Orla and baby Oisin, took off to live in the tiny Inuit settlement of Grise Fiord in the northernmost community of Canada.

More than 1,000 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, it is extremely cold in winter, below -40 degrees, and it’s in complete darkness for about three months of the year.

On top of such inhospitable conditions, Danny had to train their dog team to prepare for a perilous dog-sledge journey across the frozen sea to retrace the route of the last Inuit migration to Greenland.

Geraldine, who has written a fascinating book about the whole experience entitled Somewhere Cold, says it was really Danny’s idea to go to the Arctic. But she always felt she would make the journey one day.

“Life is short,” said Danny. This goaded Geraldine into making the decision to go.

And Danny had experience of the Arctic, having spent three months there in 1981 as part of a three-man team making up the first Irish Arctic expedition, which resulted in an art exhibition by him and an RTÉ Radio documentary.

Danny first went to the Arctic in 1977, where he painted. He and Geraldine had gone on trips to South America and the Tibetan Himalayas, but left the children in the care of relatives.

“We could actually take the children to the Arctic and the trip was very much designed around them,” says Geraldine.

“I was really excited about it. While I didn’t have a fear that anything terrible would happen to them, I did fear that it might be too hard on them, too cold, too miserable. But it worked out fine.

“However, we couldn’t make the journey of the last Inuit migration to Greenland because of climate change. That caused the sea ice to open on our planned route. The ice (in 1989) was particularly low.

“We set off, but hunters told us the ice had moved out so we had to change our plan. We ended up doing a lot of trips.”

When the children were in the sledge, the hypnotic movement of it made them sleep on the journeys across the snow-covered terrain.

“As a result, they were hyper-alert at night while we were very tired,” said Geraldine.

She admits she found the winter in the High Arctic difficult whereas the children didn’t mind it at all.

The lack of light resulted in Geraldine suffering SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

“I was irritable and tired. Your whole 24-hour clock was reset,“ she said. “But once the light came back, we did lots of outdoor things like camping and just being outside. Once the spring and summer came, it was fabulous.”

The family didn’t hire guides as that would have been expensive.

“The trip took a lot of organisation. We had to do a lot of research and preparation. I had to put a lot of faith in Danny because he had experience of the Arctic.”

Resourcefulness was all part of the life-changing experience.

Danny had to build a sledge driven by the dogs he had trained. Geraldine had to make an amauti (a special baby sling worn on the back of the mother).

While most people in their community used skidoos (snow mobiles), Geraldine and Danny wanted a traditional Inuit life.

The people they encountered “were quite intrigued by us and very generous,” said Geraldine, who found the Inuit people initially reserved, but once barriers were broken down, they became friends for life.

“We ate a lot of ‘country food’ which are the traditional foods of the Inuit. It’s very nutritious and cheap.

“Seal is very good for you and very bloody. I’m sure it’s full of iron. It has the texture of beef but is very strongly fishy tasting

“I wasn’t too fond of it but we did eat it. We ate caribou and muskox also.”

Most people, apart from the elders, spoke English. Geraldine was interested in the stories of the older folk and would converse with them with the help of translators.

The dogs that Danny trained were working animals and definitely not pets.

“I was pretty vigilant all the time that the children didn’t go near the dogs,” said Geraldine. “They’re dangerous to children. But it wasn’t a big worry. I just watched and the children didn’t bother the dogs.”

Life back in West Cork got in the way of Geraldine writing the book when she returned.

Between her demanding job as a doctor and looking after the children, she put aside the four chapters she initially wrote.

“It wasn’t until I retired two-and-a-half years ago that I took out the book again,” she said.

“I always knew I would write it. I had lots of notes and Danny kept a very good journal when he was out with the dogs in the Arctic.

“There was a lot of material to dip into. I had very vivid memories of the whole year. It was probably the most exciting trip we’ve ever made.”

Danny, whose best known work is the Oscar Wilde monument in Dublin’s Merrion Square, illustrated the book, published by Mercier Press.

It is a compelling mix of travel, memoir, nature, and cultural observation that also features striking photographs. Perfect for armchair travellers who can only marvel at the sense of adventure of the Osbornes.