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Showing posts from August, 2013

14 Days in Greenland 5

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The weather forecast for the next few days was not looking too good. In order to maintain a reasonable safety margin it was decided to cut short the trip which meant the glaciers could not be visited on this trip, which makes for a great excuse for a return trip. We left the campsite at Tuno and continued our journey NE towards towards the old US Airbase at Ikateq. Not to be confused with the village of the same name where we had camped at on our first night out of Tasiilaq. The Tuno valley is a geography teachers heaven with glaciers, hanging valleys and all manners of rock features. photo courtesy Zoe Newsam It was easy paddling with great views. We stopped for lunch at the airbase dump to enable some of the team to go trophy hunting. The rest of us compared yoga notes over soup and coffee. We proceeded to the airbase beach which was the first mud that we had encountered on the trip. The campsite was on the flat ground between the beach and the runway, so once

14 Days in Greenland 4

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Today we are facing an 8 hour paddle in order to relocate to the NE of Angmagssalik Island. It was hinted that this could be a bit of a chore but we wanted to explore further NE towards the Karale Glacier area so we just need to get this done. The route took us along a long Loch like waterway nick named by Martin The Lairig Ghru after the Scottish mountain pass. In any event the scenery along Ikasagtivaq although not changing very quickly made up for the length of the paddle and with frequent brew stops we achieved our objective in good time. The campsite however was taken by other sea kayakers so we had to camp on the main island close by. We had managed to scavenge wood along the route so we were able to get our camp fire going without too much trouble. Overnight the weather changed and the next day we faced strong winds and rain. The wind also blew in the ice to close off our beach. The kayakers on the other beach also faced being blocked in so they chose to de

14 days in Greenland 3

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Bear watch was completed at 7am so I settled into the routine of getting up at that time with the intention of leaving the beach at 9.30. The tide in most areas was negligible so this was not usually a consideration. The tide had gone out over night so the local hunters fridge was exposed. This was to be a short paddle today to our next campsite on an island at Ukiverajiko. There is a point at Pupik in Sermilik Fjord where the width of the Fjord narrows and the sea gets shallower. The result of this is that the ice gets chocked at this point which could affect our progress. We needed to reach this point with a full days paddling in front of us hence the short day. The boss The Rockpool Team There was no water at the campsite so we had lunch in a cove with a waterfall in order to replenish our supply of drinking water. Just after lunch we met a local hunter who congratulated us which was a nice boost to morale. The island made a nice camp