At 1 am on Saturday morning, after a bus ride to Portland from Logan airport in Boston, after a flight to Boston from Keflavik airport in Iceland, after a flight to Keflavik from Ilulissat, Greenland that fortunately departed on time, after a flight to Ilulissat from Qaanaaq the previous day that much more fortunately (and surprisingly) also departed on time, Jack and I boarded his little C-Dory outboard at Chandler’s Wharf for the 20 minute boat trip across the bay back home to Peaks Island.
We went to Greenland and traveled to and then beyond the northernmost natural human settlement on earth, and we lived. I almost added “…not that there was any doubt we would,” but I’m not totally sure I can say that. There wasn’t much doubt. Most of the time.
This is Inuuteq (pronounced roughly “Ihhh-NOO-chuck”) one of the hunters who took us to Etah and an obvious star in the making.
I have a lot to tell you about this trip, and I actually succeeded in keeping a journal the whole time so I probably won’t forget most of it. But I want to write the whole thing before I start sending newsletter posts, so there is going to be a bit of a delay. Don’t worry, it’s coming! But to give you a preview, here’s a partial list of…
Things I Saw and Did in Greenland:
Saw a lot of bones. Seriously, there are bones everywhere. What’s a normal amount of bones for a place to have? I don’t know any more.
Ate reindeer, more reindeer, fresh baby musk ox, and lots of ramen, but very little whale.
Did not see (let alone have to shoot) any polar bears, much to everyone’s relief.
Which is not to say nothing got shot. So content warning for a little of that, I guess. Nothing got shot while I was present… wait, no that’s not strictly true either. You’ll just have to read about it.
Saw a lot of dogs, some pretty happy and some very unhappy.
Traveled 165 miles, much of it north of any human habitation, in a 19 foot outboard equipped with several harpoons, zero life jackets, a running diesel drip heater in its homebuilt forward cabin, and five 70 liter plastic gasoline tanks in the stern.
Did I mention the bones? There were really a lot of bones. What happens to all the bones here? On the other hand we have a lot of trees, and there are no trees in Greenland. No trees: lots of bones. Many trees: very few bones. Trees == tall bones??? More research is needed.
Kayaked about 37 miles, which was much less than I expected to.
Never saw a sunset—the sky was permanently stuck on “mid-afternoon.” I found myself in total darkness once, by accident, about halfway through the trip and I almost had a panic attack.
Pooped in a plastic bag enough times that it started to seem normal.
Saw probably half a million dovekies. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. That’s my genuine best guess at how many dovekies I saw.
Visited the thousand-plus year old longest known Dorset longhouse in Greenland.
Bones.
Walrus skulls in Siorapaluk.
That’s just a partial and arbitrary list of some of what happened. Stand by for the whole story, which I’ll be working on for the rest of this month, and should start arriving in your email in September.
Two ruined cabins at New Etah, at the head of Foulke Fjord.
