This is our first post with very limited internet access. So, I will have to be sparing on the pictures, paint them with words. For those averse to my long winded writing…Sorry! The other thing that became apparent is that the pictures may not end up where I wanted them (like all at the end or beginning). I can’t fix that here, so I will put a [note] where the next picture and caption should be.
This morning we got up early to go catch our flight to Greenland. It was an A330-200, and I know a few folks that think that is a good thing. Not being one of them, I had to cringe a little that it wasn’t a perfectly good Boeing.
[Air Greenland A330-200 (big red plane)]
Anyway, after we took off, they came by and passed out the Business Class menus. Usually those are nice paper. But these were in a little book with a beautiful seal skin covers. They were soft and looked amazing!
[Sealskin menus]
We could see just a little bit of Iceland as we flew over it. But, as we approached the Greenland coast, it was all overcast, and we could see nothing, except one little peak poking through the clouds. It was neat, but being white on white, it didn’t really show up well. But, as we neared Kangerlussuaq, we did see parts of it.
[Ice Cap]
[The fjord near Kangerlussauq]
After landing, we entered quite the bustling little place, as some 150-200 people crowded through one of the smallest airports we have been to in a while, and certainly small for the size plane! We grabbed our five bags (two huge, two carry-on, and a back pack), and started toward our “lodge”. We couldn’t really call it a hotel, though bed and breakfast sort of fits. It was not paved most of the way, and the path was soft in some spots, but we made it the roughly 300 yards with our 175 lbs of luggage (yes, we added it up when we left DFW!).
Recalling from our pre-trip teasers, Kangerlussuaq is a village of about 500 people (with a plane carrying up to 200 flying in and back out), with the largest commercial airport in Greenland. This used to be a US Air Force Base, beginning in WWII, and up until 1992. Then they packed up the Base Commander’s personal car, the Base Chaplain’s car, sold the whole base to Greenland for $1 (or about 6.7 Danish Kroners), and left everything that didn’t fly.
[Pay no mind to the b0mb next to the door!]
We are staying at the “Polar Lodge”, and have a private room (oh my)! Walking up, we agreed that nothing quite says “Welcome!” (or Velkome!) like 2 dozen sheets flapping on the clothes line or unexploded ordinance perched by the steps to the front door! We checked into our palatial space (about 9x15 feet), with two single beds pushed together, and a short walk down the hall to one of two shared bathrooms. A bit less than the really nice upgraded room we had at the Hilton; I guess we’re a little spoiled. I do like the wire drooping along the ceiling from the wall to the light in the center! Nice!
After organizing our room and slight unpacking, we checked out the grocery store, a souvenir shop or two, and headed to the cafeteria in the airport for lunch. Yes, the airport was the best option!
We had a tour at 1PM to go out to the ice cap. It was a class act!! They showed in a Mercedes Benz to pick us up!! OK, it was a MB truck with a completely separate box mounted behind the cab.
[Tour in a Mercedes Benz!!]
We climbed in with about 16 or so others, and started bouncing down the path (not really a road) into the wilderness. At one point, some construction equipment preceded us leveling the road, presumably from water erosion. The scenery was stunning. In some places, it was beautiful grassy slopes, and others were sheer rock walls with moss or grass clinging in the cracks, next to a pool of glacial melt, trickling from lake to lake to the fjord. In other places, it was piles of rock and dirt and silt piled high, dropped in incredible heaps, or shoved into berms. Or fields strewn with stony debris wherever the receding ice left them. Whether beautiful or ugly, it was all stunning!!
Our first stop was a plane crash. December 8, 1968 (when I was one day old), bad weather blew in, shut down the airport, and three military airplane (T-33s) were told to hold and wait for it to clear. Well, it didn’t and they ran out of fuel and crashed. So, we gawked at it. I was fascinated, and identifying as many parts as I could (I’m sure I found the rear wing spar), and trying to envision the crash from the debris. But, in the 46 years that passed, lots of people saw fit to carve their names into the metal, so I doubt there was any integrity to the scene! (all 3 pilots survived)
[If anyone wants more plane crash pix, let me know after we get home!]
At one point, we spotted an arctic fox, who had run up a slope, paused picturesquely on the crest, then darted over to the other side. Later, we spotted a small herd of muskox running along the terrain. We yelled and pounded and tried to get the attention of the driver, but he had a microphone and we had speakers, and not the other way around. So, he drove on not realizing the spectacle we tried to capture while harshly bouncing down the road. It is like zooming a camera while riding a bicycle down the railroad tracks!
[One of our long and windy paths!]
The apex of our trip was the edge of the ice cap. Our driver pointed the way, noting the truck could not drive out there, and we all headed up the hill toward the ice. At the first crest, I turned back and saw our truck backing away. Wha…..??!!!!! (OK, he had to turn around, but still!) The terrain was fairly rigorous, strewn with rocks, and occasional plywood “bridges” (two 2x4s and a sheet of plywood), and always either uphill or downhill. But, after 10 minutes, we made it to the first spots of ice. Then farther, it was not so much dirt, but an icy crust. As the ice melts, all of the dirt goes down, and you see the dirt, seemingly just under the ice, but not the ice that goes perhaps hundreds of feet beneath my own two! Often, you could see little streams under the layer of ice on which we stood. We could not be sure how deep the “stream” was, although it looked only a fraction of an inch.
What amazed me most was the sound as we walked. The ice surface was like a carpet of jacks (like the nearly ancient toy), not at all smooth. When you stepped on it, parts of the ice broke, and sounded like 10 or so people cracking walnuts in step with my pace. With the incredible space, it was so quiet except for the crunching of walking and the voices near us.
[Theresa on the ice cap]
As we headed back, we walked along a side that had collapsed, and continues to do so. The edge was very soft, and when it broke free, it tumbled a hundred feet or so to the bottom. We stopped and watched the area. The ice face was mostly vertical, but wrapped under a bit at the bottom. So, the occasional rock broke free, rolled down, then off the edge and splashed or crashed onto other rocks. Though it was a few hundred feet away from us, we could hear it like we were just next to it. The face of the ice wall seemed to focus the sound back in our direction.
[The edge breaks free and pieces fall into the water or rocks]
Back in “town”, we decided the best choice for dinner was the … airport cafeteria!! The special this evening was oxtail and fries with gravy (and beets and salad), which I had, and Theresa had the spaghetti with meat sauce. Honestly, it was the best oxtail I have ever had (yes, also the worst), but the spaghetti was actually very good as well!
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