14 Days in Greenland 6

We left the campsite and the horrendous flies at the Ikateg airbase early as we were anticipating a long days paddle. The wind was forecast to increase over the next few days and we wanted to knock off a few miles in order to reduce the distance back to Tasilaq.
Our return route took us south west along the north west coast of Qianarteq until we joined  Angmagssalik Fjord at Igterajik Kiateq where a burial cairn was clearly visible on the cliff. 
An outstanding last resting place. 
We had the option of heading straight down Angmagssalik Fjord but chose to take a route eastwards and to the outside of an unnamed island which was potentially more exposed but gave superb views to the east. This also involved our first real open crossing but with clear blue skies and despite a strong headwind we made good progress.


 There was plenty of ice about and we kept close to the shore.



The weather was really superb, we were out of the wind with not a cloud in sight.


Some of the ice bergs were the biggest that we had seen so far.




We stopped for lunch on a pebble beach which was littered with ice bergs. This gave us plenty of photo opportunities.



After lunch we headed back out into the ice, this really was Greenland at its best.



Many of the ice bergs were grounded due to the tide being out which made them very unstable. This also produced some weird and wonderful shapes.


There was not a good quality water supply at the airstrip campsite so we took advantage of a large waterfall to top up our supplies. This involved a tricky landing and some team work to put one of us ashore.



There are numerous islands in this area. Our route was between Salissalik and Nuerniagkat.
All through the trip we played a game of turning ice bergs into recognisable shapes this one was clearly a rabbit and was visible for quite sometime which gives an idea of how big it was.


To the south of Salissalik is another unnamed island its north coast features a number of stunning glaciers. Large amounts of ice had also become trapped here.




Our campsite for this stop was on the side of a beautifully clear channel called Nialigkap ikasa.


This was one of the best campsites on the trip and I managed to get one of the prime spots.






When the sun went down the temperature dropped instantly and you could actually see the suns shadow moving over the ground as it set.
There was still snow adjacent to our tents and we considered having a go at glissading down it however it reached right to the beach and a brake failure would have proved interesting. This was truly weird considering it was August.
We experienced true darkness for the first time during our bear watch and it felt like winter was not far away.

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