Qaanaaq

When we arrived at Ilulissat airport were assured by the friendly Anders from Air Greenland freight that our stuff was getting on the flight, and sure enough a few minutes later it came out on the forklift truck and got dumped unceremoniously on the tarmac ready to load on the plane. This was a great relief to all and the flight up to Qaanaaq was amazing – incredible, desolate scenery; mountains, glaciers, icebergs and sea ice. Ewan discovered quickly why the window seat next to the emergency exit on our Dash-8 was free – he had a cold breeze all the way. Greenland is a very sparsely populated country - you could fit the entire population in a moderately sized football stadium (just over 50,000 inhabitants) but they are spread over an ice-free coastal area of 1.75 million square kilometres (mainly in the south and west).

 

Qaanaaq itself is one of the last true bastions of Inuit culture. Hunting narwhals with traditional harpoons and packs of sled dogs is still a way of life here. The town is set on the coast of a wide ice fjord and we have incredible views from our base for the duration – the Hotel Qaanaaq – of the large snaggletooth icebergs frozen in by the sea ice that stretches off into the distance. Hans Jensen (the owner, local legend) has a trailer that he drives out and fills with blocks of ice from the icebergs and which supplements our fresh water supply at the hotel. Here's a picture of Qaanaaq town:

 

Last night we had a delicious dinner of fish soup and rabbit (Arctic Hare) meatloaf with potatoes and gravy. After dinner we went for a walk to look at the sunset and all you could hear is the sled dogs howling. There was a Swiss couple staying with us here last night who have gone off on a 6 day dog sledding trip where they are going to dress in the traditional fur clothes, eat the traditional foods and get as authentic as they possibly can. I think if we see them on the way back I’ll ask them about the traditional nose-curling stench. Here's a picture of Hotel Qaanaaq:

Yesterday we went through some checks of the equipment, got hold of some oil and petrol for the generator and started it up, ran the Network Analyser and took a radar shot of Hans Jensen’s dining room floor. It all seemed to be functioning remarkably well considering it’s travelled here from the Rothera in Antarctica, via the Falklands and London in less than 4 weeks. Today we’re going to assemble the full radar set up outside and see that we can operate everything in the cold using the generator. Then maybe later we’ll wander down to the ‘beach’ to check out the sea ice down there and maybe start thinking about marking out snowgrids and digging pits…

 

A final picture - spot the Arctic Hares: