Back from Thule

[C Elegans]

Hello again fellow SYM:ers! In case you have missed me I am now back from my holiday in Thule, Northen Greenland. I've had a brilliant time hiking and kayaking in spectacularly beautiful scenery. I met a hunter who is my size, so he let me use his kayak
I've also seen many ring seals and harpseals and also narwhales. No polar bear this time, they were further north where the pack ice is.

Pictures to come next week!

[Magrus]

Welcome back, I've heard Greenland is beautiful.

[Denethorn]

Indeed, pictures should be interesting

[fable]

Quote:

Originally Posted by C Elegans I met a hunter who is my size, so he let me use his kayak

And your husband didn't object. Amazing! Oh, wait. You wrote kayak. I see. Anyway, pictures would be nice: and welcome back!

[C Elegans]

Thanks all! Greenland is a beautiful place indeed, so beautiful so I've been there 3 times in 8 years. I was at the West Coast, mainly the Disko bay and Disko Island in 1998, at the East Coast in 2003 and now, in the far north. Both geologically and culturally the regions differ a lot, especially west and east, so it's worth while visiting more than one region. The West coast has the huge icebergs and table mountains, whereas the East has the pack ice, the high mountains and the deep fiords.

While waiting for my film to be developed (I've already learned the lesson that digital cameras are not suitable for arctic light conditions), you can check out some photos from my 2003 East coast trip in this thread and also some photos from my 1998 holiday in the Disko Bay area. The Flying Birds photo won me a photo competition here at SYM long ago!

I went back to the village (well, it used to be a village, but now it has grown into a small town) of Ilulissat in the Disko Bay this year as well. Since I had to wait for my flight connection there anyway, I could as well stay for a few days. I was completely amazed by how much Ilulissat had changed in just 7 years. Not only were the village 3 times larger and extremly modernised, it was also quite many tourists there! The Ilulissat Icefiord was made a World Heritage in 2004, and that usually increases tourism. Several hotels, five or six tour operators, asphalt roads...not at all the same place I saw 7 years ago. The icefiord and the icebergs are as beautiful as they were then, though And I didn't have to eat raw whale skin and blubber and seal intestinies anymore

[Magrus]

Ooh! Thats gorgeous, and all the ice makes me want to move there. I love cold weather.

[The Z]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magrus Ooh! Thats gorgeous, and all the ice makes me want to move there. I love cold weather.

Move to Canada

That really is beautiful. Reminds me of a snowshoeing trip on the backside of Whistler that lasted a week, but obviously this is much nicer, with the water and icebergs. Much more photogenic then a ton of ice with random trees sticking up every so often.

[giles337]

Looks awesome CE. I hope you had a great time, and can't wait to see, what I hope will be stunning photos. Welcome back.

[Grimar]

oooh! that is true beauty!

welcme back btw!

[Nar]

Good you're back. Nice trip . Green-land - one of the biggest lies ever .

[C Elegans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magrus Ooh! Thats gorgeous, and all the ice makes me want to move there. I love cold weather. Quote: Originally Posted by The Z Move to Canada

Or Scandinavia The Greenlandic climate is far nicer than in Scandinavia though. The air is so dry, so in the summer, 10C/50F feels like 20C/68F in Sweden, and in the winter, -25C/-13F feels about as cold as -10C/14F in NYC. If it were not for my job, I could consider moving to Greenland at least for a period. They actually need clinical psychologists, so who knows in the future, I could imagine a 6 month-period maybe.

@Nar: What I've heard is that the reason why Iceland are Greenland have their respective European names, is because when the Norse Vikings came to Iceland, it was winter and they saw a lot of ice and snow, but when they came to Greenland it was summer, and they mainly explored the Southern region of Greenland, which is actually quite green and fertile during the summer months.

[Tamerlane]

I know a lot of people tend to do a lot of crazy things on holiday's so tell me, did you go for an icy dip into the ocean or river.

Did you manage to climb any of the peaks?

[Cuchulain82]

Welcome back CE! Those pics are stunning. I don't even like cold that much and now I'm very curious about Greenland. I mean, how could ice be that big?!

[VonDondu]

Welcome back, CE.

I see faces in the sides of those icebergs.

[C Elegans]

@Tammy: Now, I don't climb anymore due to my knee injuries I don't do any crazy things nowadays, I just hiked and kayaked (although the guy I was staying with thought I was completely crazy to hike on the land ice when it's only a thin crust with rivers underneath). I did not go for an icy dip, I've bathed in 4C/39F before, and I think once in a lifetime is just enough.

@Cuchulain: The icebergs get huge because they come from a huge glacier: the inland ice that covers most of Greenland. I've been to Alaska too, and the glaciers look really miniature there compared to those in Greenland.

@VonDondu: The devil, eh?

Unfortunately the lab managed to partly ruin some of my photos, but here are some pictures from Thule.

ThuleLandice: Qaanaaq is the largest village in the Thule commune with a population of 600 people. Qaanaaq is the new village that was created when the Thule inhabitants were forced to move due to Denmarks' deal with the US to put an airbase where the old settlement has been located for over 4000 years. From Qaanaaq, it is a 2-hour walk to the icecap, ie the inland ice. From the coastline, the icecap slopes upwards and will reach 3000 m at the highest point, but I didn't walk that far. In the summer, when the weather has been hot and sunny, streams of water is running through the ice (and beneath it!).

ThuleHunter: East of Qaanaaq you can hike on the shore and on the cliffs, and while doing this, I spotted a man in a kayak hunting for seal. The Thule area is only remaining district in Greenland where people still hunt with harpoon from a kayak. The harpoon consists of two parts, one "thrower" and the actual harpoon. Attached to the harpoon is a rope with a bladder on, to prevent a harpooned whale from diving with the kayak, the man and all. The bladder is actually a "seal ballon", it's the full skin of a seal with front paws and everything, made airtight.
The land on the other side of the water are two penisulas where the locals hunt for caribou. In the summer when the water is open, they hunt for caribou and musk ox on land and seal and Narwhale in the sea. In the winter, they hunt for walrus and the occational polar bear. You must be a licenced hunter in order to be allowed to hunt. That means hunting must be your main source of providing for yourself and your family, people who have a "normal" job cannot be hunters. Each hunter has an annual quota of how many animals they are allowed to kill, and Greenland as a whole has a total annual quota.

ThuleIceberg Qaanaaq is situated at the Inglefield Bredning. Deep inside this fiord there are five glaciers calving into the sea and a small island called Qeqertaq. This is where the narwhale breeds during the summer. I wanted to see narwhale, so I went there with a hunter, and on the way we passed this extraordinary beautiful iceberg.

ThuleDinnerTableAndKayak: About 15 people live in Qeqertaq. I stayed with one of the three families who live there. The man in the family is a very good friend of my friend the German antropologist who I met two years in East Greenland. My German friend used to live with this man back in the 1970's when he did his PhD on the social behavioural patterns of the Polar eskimoos, and since then he has been back many times although it was now about 4 years ago he was there last time. My host speaks only Greenlandic, but thanks to another man in the village who spoke some Danish, I managed to convey to him that our common friend is alive and happy, which he was very happy to hear.
Life in Qeqertaq is very similar to what it was hundreds of years ago. Apart from the modern houses (compared to the earth houses previously used), not much has changed. There is no electricity or running water. The food is what you catch. Like in all of Greenland, meat is hung out on a rack to dry. Since my host caught a narwhale during my stay there, I was "fortunate" enough to be offered the Greenlandic delicacy "mataaq", raw whale skin with blubber. In order to celebrate the successful hunt, there was a party in the evening and then I was also offered another delicacy, seal kidney. Whereas mataaq is at least better than the dried narwhale meat, the seal kidney was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten. Worse than the dried seal intestinies I had on East Greenland, worse than the rock hard yak cheese I had in Tibet, worse than anything I can imagine. I'd rather eat worms and larvae alive than semi-raw seal kidney, and believe me, I am not the picky type with food.

NukapianguaqsKayak: One of the best ways to go around and to see wildlife in Greenland, is to paddle kayak. Places where tourists go usually have European kayaks for rent, but if you are lucky as I have been, you may borrow a real Greenlandic kayak from a hunter. In the old days they made them of a wooden skeleton covered with sealskin, nowadays they use canvas instead since it doesn't rot. My host Nukapianguaq is not only a good hunter, he is also an excellent craftsman. This is his kayak, which he kindly let me use. Luckily he is about the same size as I, so it fitted me perfectly (a kayak has to be tailor-made depending on body size of the owner). A Greenlandic kayak is a swift and silent little vessel with high maneuverability. It's perfect for watching seals and whales close up. I saw three narwhales and many Harp seals and Ring seals during my stay in Qeqertaq.