We spent the first 5 days driving around and hiking in Iceland.
Iceland supplies most of its own energy requirements by geothermal energy.
This is the major national park in Iceland. The continental divide of the tectonic plates of North America and Europe runs right through Iceland, creating a rift valley that widens 1 inch/year.
Minerals/capillaries at Geyser.
Waiting for a geyser to blow
Gullfoss
Dan, posing behind one of the many waterfalls we hiked around in Iceland
Water is everywhere.
2am
You need to get knee deep to view the rest of this waterfall
A quite vertical hike had me taking this trail slowly and stopping to catch my breath at times. Dan, the gym-rat, went straight up without a pause.
Everything was covered with a thick layer of volcanic ash.
A very happy camper!
This truck preceded our bus to show the driver the safe route through the glacial melt (the riverbed was dry until the recent eruption). I am surprised and pleased to admit that it is possible for a group tour bus ride to thrill.
Mad Men 2010
Our first sight of Greenland. A bit daunting?
We were met at the airport by a Greenlandic friend. First stop was for groceries (the market was very well stocked). All our gear was in the back of a pickup truck and Kampe assured us that everything was safe while we shopped for food. The New Yorker in me kept checking on the truck, I couldn't help myself. Then on to one of the most tenuous official campsites ever. It worked for one night but a sense of humor and a love of dogs is absolutely required. Do not under any circumstances leave any gear in your vestibule!
Dogs in foreground, beautifully colored houses in background. Ilulissat is a most lovely town in so many ways. Of course, it only takes one dog to get the town chorus going. The cacophony is hard to imagine.
In Disko Bay, ice is always in sight. This is the ice fjord, or more specifically, the icebergs that are peeled/split off the glacier which is about 55km upstream. The statistics concerning the glacier are hard to wrap our minds around. Use Wikipedia or another source for more information, it's worth a view.
Our launchsite.
Paddling away from the ice fjord, Ilulissat.
Bliss
Note to self: stuff happens out here.
You can see Dan's kayak between the 2 bergs to gauge their size.
Fish-berger
Dragon-berger
We paddled only around 200 miles in 21 days because we spent most of our time watching, listening to, and being hypnotized (and once, trapped) by, the ice.
This was our first village, about 20 km from launch. We filled our water bags at the village well. It was a bit awkward, we weren't sure if the villagers had to pay for water, but the dogs and people pretty much ignored us. We found a well. Press the magic button, get fresh water. It worked as well in every village. Also, every village, no matter how small, had at least one bench, often several, for the residents to enjoy the view of the sea/icebergs.
As we were leaving the village, I spotted this seal's paw in the water by my kayak. A fellow from Finland who was camping in the village told us that the day before (Summer Equinox??) was a day of celebration and a seal was caught and slaughtered for the celebration.
Could you ask for a better campsite?
Ok. Lots of black flies and mosquitoes, but they didn't bite much and in an even faint breeze a bug net was not needed. I think I was chased into my tent by the bugs only twice in 3 weeks.
Our kayaks viewed from a lunchtime hike. We were looking for fresh water again and considered collecting the drip water from a very stable looking iceberg, seen in the bay. We decided to have lunch first. We would have been nailed, badly injured or worse if we'd tried to gather water. It was our first experience seeing an iceberg tip with absolutely no warning and was a lesson well learned for (most of the) rest of the trip.
Any geologists want to join us next year??
Can you see Dan on the right, approaching this iceberg?
He's at the left base now. We were on our way to get a fresh bath in the first substantial waterfall.
Perhaps my favorite campsite of the trip. I watched the water ebb and flow and the icebergs move up and down and tried to figure out the tides. A pointless but enjoyable exercise.
This lovely family's boat got loose from its mooring. The young daughter in the center, who spoke excellent English, and her boyfriend on the left walked over the hill to our campsite and asked for help, which was gladly given.
The family's summer house. We visited them later for coffee and cake.
A rewarding campsite at the end of a 10 hour paddle.
What bugs??
A visit to Eqi glacier
Climbing up the lateral moraine
Amazing views from the lateral morraine.
This drop off has no slope. If you missed a step you would fall straight down. Serious butterflies in my stomach!
Looking directly behind the lateral moraine.
Hard to explain this picture. I won't try.
We got pretty close to the glacier face, but the fear of "depth chargers" made us keep our distance. We saw one pop up at high speed from on top of the lateral moraine.
One of two fog days. We stayed in camp and did a short hike instead of paddling on.
Back support!
The tip of the iceberg.
These long flat icebergs are stable. The Inuit use them as work stations (skinning seals, etc.)
These bergs split or disintegrate in a most dynamic way without warning. But how lovely.
Sometimes landing was a bit slippery but at least it was easy to pull the fully loaded kayaks over the ice.
Another candidate for the best campsite ever.
Paddling out the next day was interesting. Very strong currents made some icebergs seem like barges on the Hudson River.
We were unable to get up to the last 2 glaciers due to heavy (and BIG) ice. We also were unable to paddle north...we could have pushed on and taken our chances but having been trapped once, we gladly retreated while we could, camped overnight and made it through the next day.
It was lumpy and quite a climb, but still was a lovely retreat.
The next morning there was more ice, so we didn't think we'd make it through, but there was always navigable water.
I think this was the first day we saw or heard evidence of airplanes, and we then saw dozens/day. We assumed the Iceland volcano was acting up again.
A pickup soccer game.
You can't see her, but a woman in the red house watched us struggle the kayaks out after the water ebbed out of our slot.
We camped a few km out of town. In the morning I found this grave, with a human skull. Turned out there were several around our campsite. I was concerned that we desecrated the area, but on closer inspection it was clear that the place was very much used as a campsite, signs were all around (the most common sign was broken glass, which seemed to be everywhere humans camped in Greenland).
The burial plots were built up and the top left open on many. I'm not sure if they were opened by archeologists, amateur or otherwise, or if this was a way of ensuring spirits are released (some Christians open windows for this purpose).
We named icebergs as we paddled along....this wonderful optical illusion was named Escher-berger. It took several kms before we determined that the iceberg was actually in front of the peninsula.
As I go through these photos, I keep saying...THAT was my favorite campsite! There was idyllic camping for most of the trip.
Full daylight at 2am. I brought a headlamp with me and the only times I needed it was when the air was too cold to keep an arm stretched outside my sleeping bag to hold my book. I was forced to snuggle all the way down with my book and headlight. It didn't work well because the air was so cold, and the sleeping bag so warm that my reading glasses kept fogging up. Sigh.
An almost frozen waterfall.
The bust was of Manasse Mathiessen, who was credited with saving the Greenlandic kayaking culture years ago. Thank you Jack Gilman, another champion of Greenlandic kayaking culture, for letting us know!
We saw fewer traditional qajaqs than I expected.
Every house had at least one sledge.
A baby polar bear rug, drying in the sun.
These 2 cuties helped us launch. Most of the children pretty much ignored us but these two were a very different story and were happy to play with us.
Yet another free running glacial stream that came from a hanging glacier. We had a fresh bath and a beautiful hike to the glacier the next day!
A beautiful cove, but the fishing boat stayed with its generator on until early morning. Fog rolled in heavily.
The only currently inhabited portion of the old whaling station. We arrived here by GPS in heavy fog.
This family greeted us and invited us in for coffee. The children shared their puppy with me, their great grandmother worked at the whaling station, they showed us the house she lived in.
This whale must have been butchered on the water. There was very left and even the birds were leaving it alone.
Beautiful old wooden ships that now bring tourists from Ilulissat to Oqaatsut (AKA Rodebay). A restaurant run by a German couple serves excellent fresh foods and ice cold beer. We had a lovely lunch after the crowd left. It was a delightful change after almost 3 weeks of dehydrated meals and water.
Perhaps the finest campsite of my life.
These plants are known as arctic cotton. I'm fairly sure they were used as lamp wicks in seal oil lamps, as described in the wonderful book "Kabloona Among the Inuit."
The Qajaq Club.
Until next year.
