Friday 4 July 2008

Greenland and Kangerlussaq

Air greenland flight to Kangerlussaq.

Greenland has a population of about 60000 and is supported financially by Denmark. The main  airport is Kangerlussaq. Eighty one percent of Greenland is covered by ice and it is dependent   mainly on fishing and fish exports. The flight with air greenland from copenhagen was full, expensive and very comfortable and took about 4 hours. Arrived at the airport to heat, dust and no customs. Collected the bags and driven to the accommodation block. There were only about 10 people in the building at this point. Some staying for the next few months and others waiting for the next plane. 












Accommodation blocks. 
The red one is the 'kiss' (kanger international science support) building which is on two floors with cooking, washing and sleeping accommodation and the blue one is the greenland prison block, no doubt a low level security prison since the inmates get out of the building for short periods. 











Go south to the antarctic and get bitten by a fir seal, come north to Greenland and get bitten by mosquitos. The right eye swelled up after being bitten and stayed so for a couple of days. Rest of the body was well covered up so only a few bites since they were able to get through thin layers of clothing as well. No peace.











Dirt track to the glacier. Most of the roads are dust covered and driven mostly by 4x4 although there are only 3 roads extending for a maximum distance of 30km from Kanger even though it is the international hub with 500 residents and only one nurse. Most people fly in and then onto other destinations within the country.



A 7 hour round trip dirt road cycle ride to the Glacier. The soft sand in places made it hard work at times but it was a beautiful bright and sunny day.






A bench rest after the first leg of the cycle trip. Looked like a nice place to lie down and catch a few rays but the mosquitos came and so it was time to get back onto the cycle and start again. They are everywhere.






Three american hercules on the runway. One of them took us to summit on the Greenland ice cap. The flight lasted about 3 hours. The views were amazing. See below.







start of the ice sheet.








snow covered mountains.

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