Greenland

The names Greenland and Iceland are both all about deception. When the Vikings named Iceland, they wanted to keep people away from their fertile new lands. On the other hand, when Eric the Red got kicked out of Iceland, he wanted to take as many people along with him as he could. So he called the next big island over “Greenland” to lure people.

So it should be no surprise that Iceland is a lush, green, beautiful place with an icy center. And Greenland is a cold, barren, rocky, desolate place. Did I mention Icy? And desolate? Yeah.

We started the day in the Reykjavik airport, waiting several hours to see if the plane was even going to attempt it. Apparently the weather is so problematic that their “regular” flights are often not regular at all. It was alright. We had a duty-free shop to keep us entertained.

It took less time to fly there than it did waiting for the plane- but we nearly ended up turning right back around on arival. The pilot couldn’t find the runway because of fog. We made one attempt, then they announced that they would only try one mroe time.

The landing was rough. We gave the pilot an ovation as we rolled to a stop. When we got out, I noticed that the old tarmac had been through so many frost heaves that it had crumbled back to soil. To groom it, there was a steamroller parked at the end of the runway.

From there it was a short bus ride through rocky, gray scenery to our hotel.

From then on the trip would have a mild tension underneath. The previous group of OAT travelers had gotten stranded by the irregular flights. They’d been stuck at the same hotel for several days with nothing to do but wait for a plane to come and get them.

They were having lunch when we arrived for our own lunch. One woman ran up to me to ask if we had just arrived by plane or helicopter. When I said plane, she ran around the room from table to table to spread the good news. There was much rejoicing.

That told us pretty much what we were in for. While they quickly packed it in and left, we hiked to Kulusuk village. We were also supposed to go on a jeep ride, but that never materialized.

The next day was all about getting from Kulusuk to Tasiilaq. This depended on how much fog would get in the way of our helicopter. The morning was apparently going to be a bust, so we wandered up a side road to visit a machine dump. Yes, we walked out to see a dump.

This is better than it sounds. Most of the equipment is old and rusted out in the artistic way of an old car abandoned in the woods. Some of the equipment was just parked and still usable. As our regular guide had to stay at the hotel and wait for word from the helicopter we had no guide for this jaunt. We simply wandered around like a flock of geese. We ended up by the water looking at all those cute little icebergs. Most of them are about the size of a car at surface level. Since they frequently flipped over, I’d have to say they weren’t that much bigger underneath. So much for that business about the tip of the iceberg.

To her credit, the tour guide specifically told us before we left that icebergs are very dangerous and to stay away from them. So we found some that were beached, and thus relatively stable, and took turns getting our pictures taken while standing or sitting on them.

It’s lovely, and quiet if also stark and cold. After a while we all decided to wander back to the hotel to wait for the helicopter. No sooner had we taken a few steps than someone from the hotel ran up to say that we had to get packed up in fifteen minutes or the chopper would take off without us.

I’m pretty sure that was just scare tactics. Yeah, pretty sure.

We didn’t test it. We all ran back and grabbed our bags and got to the foyer in plenty of time to catch a shuttle to the landing pad. The helicopter only carried five passengers at a time. We had to take it in two load. Here is where I made a mistake that I will probably always regret. I was directed into the front seat. But it was on the left side of the helicopter. I thought I was supposed to scoot over.

Between the language barrier and my confusion, I ended up in the back seat instead. Apparently the pilot seat was on the right, despite the fact there were controls on the left side as well. I gave up the chance to take some fantastic pictures of Kulusuk, which looked like a toy town below us as we took off. I tried to get my mother to take some for me, but she was busy looking at ice. Like we couldn’t see ice any old time. All I got was stuff like this:

So we took a chopper in to Tasiilaq, which is on Ammassalik Island. I already covered our brief time there, except to say we almost got stuck when it was time to leave.

Fog again. It was only overcast at the hotel, but the pass we had to fly over stuck into the clouds, making it fog. I didn’t actually have any pressing business that I needed to worry about. An extended stay would not have cost us anything extra. It was a nice enough place. But the charges for internet access were, well, expensive. I was almost out of reading material. And since we needed to be on hand to catch the ride out, we couldn’t go explore. So… a little tense.

Then the skies miraculously cleared and we were off to the airport where the plane from Iceland had not only arrived, but was held at the airport for over an hour specifically waiting for our group. Well, we did occupy over a third of the filled seats but we got some glares from passengers who were going to miss their connections.

We spent one more night in Reykjavik, and then flew home.