Greenland was mindblowing - overwhelming & exhausting at times. Some moments -
First sight of Greenland, from Davis Strait. A vastness of 6000 ft thunderously jagged peaks receding 60 miles away to our left, and 60 miles to our right, white with snow & glaciers, lit up by the sun under the blue skies.
Anchored on the north side of an island 10 km offshore, facing 10 miles of unbroken glacier frontage on the sea, this glacier receding far far inland to the icecap between jagged peaks dominating the skyline.
First thing we did on landing at Greenland. Anchored opposite an abandoned Eskimo summer camp, rowed to it, to the sandy beach at its foot littered with stranded bergs, stripped down and leaped into the sea. We have arrived!
Finding fragments of a polar bear skeleton, long long dead, on a barren stony island.
Taking arctic char, eating it raw by a fire by a clear Arctic lake, or cooked - divine.
Exploring a US WW2 military airfield & base on a vast open slope by an inland passage among the islands. Lots of vintage trucks rusting away, thousands of fuel drums. Steam shovel machinery. Huge baulks of Pacific Northwest cedar shipped in. This was one of thirty bases the US established for the defense of Greenland during the war.
Truly blue, intense blue icebergs floating by, and a totally blue glacier descending from between the peaks down to the sea.
During the night a berg came downwind onto Teddy as we lay to anchor. We fought to shove it off - a berg 100x the weight of Teddy - poling it at one end & rotating it to get it off the chain. Later I ascended the slope of the island, scouted the islet nearby, saw we could bring Teddy in behind it. Into the channel we went, and anchored in 2 1/2 fathoms in total calm, eider duck families swimming by, absolutely free of ice - what a relief.
Swimming in a lake of meltwater, the water warmed up by the sun, the lake ending at a narrow stone ridge - like an infinity pool - high up overlooking the shore and Denmark Strait littered with bergs.
Watching a huge berg roll, calve off thousands of bergy bits, roll the other way, calve more bits, and so on, rolling & threshing violently back then forth & calving away, then splitting into two, the two halves rolling & calving away & drifting apart in frenzied violence, a slow motion tsunami of bergy bits radiating outwards in all directions from the self destructing berg. This frenzy went on for a long time. We were transfixed.
Finding in the apparently barren wilderness of rock small plants & patches of blossoms. Arctic willow, Epilobium, mosses, bistort, geranium, Arctic sorrel, crowberry, blueberry, roseroot.
This is wilderness without civilization.
First sight of Greenland, from Davis Strait. A vastness of 6000 ft thunderously jagged peaks receding 60 miles away to our left, and 60 miles to our right, white with snow & glaciers, lit up by the sun under the blue skies.
Anchored on the north side of an island 10 km offshore, facing 10 miles of unbroken glacier frontage on the sea, this glacier receding far far inland to the icecap between jagged peaks dominating the skyline.
First thing we did on landing at Greenland. Anchored opposite an abandoned Eskimo summer camp, rowed to it, to the sandy beach at its foot littered with stranded bergs, stripped down and leaped into the sea. We have arrived!
Finding fragments of a polar bear skeleton, long long dead, on a barren stony island.
Taking arctic char, eating it raw by a fire by a clear Arctic lake, or cooked - divine.
Exploring a US WW2 military airfield & base on a vast open slope by an inland passage among the islands. Lots of vintage trucks rusting away, thousands of fuel drums. Steam shovel machinery. Huge baulks of Pacific Northwest cedar shipped in. This was one of thirty bases the US established for the defense of Greenland during the war.
Truly blue, intense blue icebergs floating by, and a totally blue glacier descending from between the peaks down to the sea.
During the night a berg came downwind onto Teddy as we lay to anchor. We fought to shove it off - a berg 100x the weight of Teddy - poling it at one end & rotating it to get it off the chain. Later I ascended the slope of the island, scouted the islet nearby, saw we could bring Teddy in behind it. Into the channel we went, and anchored in 2 1/2 fathoms in total calm, eider duck families swimming by, absolutely free of ice - what a relief.
Swimming in a lake of meltwater, the water warmed up by the sun, the lake ending at a narrow stone ridge - like an infinity pool - high up overlooking the shore and Denmark Strait littered with bergs.
Watching a huge berg roll, calve off thousands of bergy bits, roll the other way, calve more bits, and so on, rolling & threshing violently back then forth & calving away, then splitting into two, the two halves rolling & calving away & drifting apart in frenzied violence, a slow motion tsunami of bergy bits radiating outwards in all directions from the self destructing berg. This frenzy went on for a long time. We were transfixed.
Finding in the apparently barren wilderness of rock small plants & patches of blossoms. Arctic willow, Epilobium, mosses, bistort, geranium, Arctic sorrel, crowberry, blueberry, roseroot.
This is wilderness without civilization.
Sounds like you found paradise, again.
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