Hotel Narsarsuaq

... all this cool history, today I hiked to the site of the old hospital (Hospital Valley). Along the way I passed a lot of old abandoned military buildings. In the valley, you can definitely tell that something was build here. There are piles of rusty old nails and bits of building debris and concrete. The coolest thing is a massive stone fireplace, probably about 12ft high, just standing by itself ...

... t talk to them cause I don't speak Greenlandic or Danish but Noelle (the Alaskan girl) is half Inuit and since the languages are similar, she can understand a bit. She left during the day to visit the town Qaqortoq (aka Quack Attack) by helicopter (there are no roads connecting towns so you have to go by boat, plane or helicopter. I decided to climb up Signal Hill right behind the town to get a good view. It only took ...

... glacier ice was no day before more welcome than today) and erect our camp aside the locality of Narsaq - that we are lacking here a creek or something similar for drinking water supply is not a problem at all, because we have planty of sweet water in frozen form "at our doorstep". Just before we paddled into the bay, we noticed some clouds of nebulizing water rising between the ice at the opposite shore in irregular intervals. And while we still were ...

... the moment I write this (it's about 10.00 pm) it is still light enough to read without the help of artificial light (the sun will set in about an hour and will show up at the horizon as early as 3.00 o'clock in the morning. Let's hope, that the foehn disappears as far as it came - paddling in this seas is no alternative in any case, I'm afraid.

... a lot like the Canadian Rockies. Of course, almost all of it is covered in icecap...it's impossible to imagine how huge it is...just ice as far as the eye can see. Narsarsuaq is a really nice little town...emphasis on little. It has three streets (one of which is paved) that contain the airport, a tiny police station, a cafe, a shop, a hotel, a hostel, a harbour and about 10 houses. The best part is it's right on a beautiful fjord that's full of icebergs ...

... But I would never have expected temperatures about the 20° C, the thermoter displayed today. Indeed it is no big challenge to carry out the necessary personal hygiene in the cool, crystal clear creeks; we even took a bath in the "icy" floods this morning ... Just the moment I write this lines, we begin to understand the unusual "good" weather. We were alarmed - the warm ...

... we disembark - by now (stemming against the current of the starting tide for the last kilometres) exhausted and with tired muscles - in a small bay, which is named "Tartuusat" in the maps. We couldn't have chosen a more Arcadic place for our first "paddle camp": a small plain nestles to a cliffy, rocky mountainside; high grass is hiding boggish swamp, crossed by petty rills and creeks. Only a tiny plateau offers just ...

... a valley which truely lives up to its name: tresses and low bushes are crouching onto the green hillsides, a bit scant but neither arid meadows are reaching into the valley; a multiplicity of little flowers makes up not only some coloured spots but also whole "carpets". Especially a small gantian blue to syringa coloured bell flower stands out every now and then - a exclusively ...

... Sure, for some of our travelmates this might be a flight "home" or at least a visit to some relatives, judged by their Asian appearing face features, the somewhat higher cheekbones and almond eyes. It is an uneventful flight most of the time, but when the cloud cover eventually is clearing up - fittingly just when we are above Iceland - a spectacular view is presented: dark rocks, which are passing into barren brown soil, but moreover into broad white ...

... forward. The evening before we couldn't reach them and I dind't like the idea to fly almost 5 hours over water having not talked to the destination airport. Weather was not to bad few clouds but good visibility. Only the alternate Nuuk (BGHH) up to the north on the west coast of greenland was not to fancy. Broken 0900 light snow. We decided to leave since we are Instrument equipped and the Cessna has de-icing capability. We got the external heater to heat up the engine. The flight plan ...