Foggy

The weather is stable on Disko island. Unfortunately for us, we encountered a stable period of fogg. The fogg creates a very spooky atmosphere, it also cools down considerably. When you've just reached the top of mountain, you don't have the wide view and sometimes you completely loose your orientation.

Is that another mountain on the horizon..?

At the peak of a mountain are piles of stones that indicate the highest point of the mopuntain. Since the area we hiked through doesn't get that many vistors, not every summit had a pile of stones.

[ no problem, we just built one ourselves... ]

A brand new summit indicator...

>> Next day

Waterfall

Today a relatively short hike. By an ear deafening waterfall we made camp.

[ not too close to the edge, because that didn't look very stable... ]

Enormous amounts of water came down...

We walked down to the beach were a large amount of icebergs were stranded. It's both a beautiful and a sad sight to see these magnificent icebergs being beached and melting slowly to nothingness...

Dying icebergs...

In the surroundings you could see incredible rock formations. The basalt stone breaks up in the most amazing ways, creating very unlikely forms.

It looks like a cathedral ruin...

>> Next day

Glacier daytrip

Today we've camped underneath a glacier. During a daytrip we hiked to view the huge icemass up close.

Lopen over de gletsjer, wow...

The ice of a glacier is beautiful. There are a lot of blueish color captured within the ice. The meltingwater has etched grooves into the old ice.

This water was extremely cool and fresh...

If you get near the glacier you can see a lot of patterns. In some places you can see how the cie has grown over the years. You could almost calculate the age by counting the layers...

Playful patterns in the ice...

>> Next day

Mostly moss

When you're walking, you either walk on rock (big blocks or fist sized rocks), or on moss. The moss is nice and soft, but you will sink away a bit on every step you take. Sometimes upto 15 centimer.

[ and if you're unlucky, you'll sink a lot deeper...... ]

Moss, moss and moss: in many colours and varying bounciness...

Besides eating dry biscuits (hartkeks), a meal is prepared every evening. When diner is ready everybody takes out their brightly coloured eating bowl. These are filled till the brim (if you're lucky) and you can enjoy a hot meal...

The blue one is mine...

>> Next day

River crossing

We do not walk on any existing road or routes. With help of a map and a GPS we plan our route. Every onw and then you run into a river you need to cross. You have no other option than to look for a place where it is not too deep and the current is not too strong...

Knee deep through the water...

Your shoes will not stay dry. On the other side of the river you can pour the water from your shoes and wring out your socks. Luckily the temperatures are not too bad. On most days it will be around 8 degrees (47 F). At night time it doesn't cool down very much; the sun doesn't really set here remember...

Mini-thermometer on my backpack...

>> Next day

Galloping glacier

From our camp at the fjord we took a trip to the glacier that is responsible for carving out the flord. Apperantly the gletsjer moves 100 meter per day, earning it the name of 'Galloping glacier'. After a couple of hours of walking a huge icemass peeped around a bend in the fjord. But no matter how we tried, the gletsjer didn't come any closer.

[ the clean air and the scale of things makes everything appear closer... ]

In the end we decided that the glacier was to far out to reach and headed back to our camp. It would have taken at least another two hours to reach it, and those kilomteres also needed to be walked back.

The unreachable glacier...

One of the benefits of Greenland is that it is very clean. There is no pollution (no industry) and you are able to drink the water straight from one of the many meltwater steams.

Very cool and fresh water...

Although you do not need to carry any water with you, there is nothing edible to find.

[ unless you like reindeer moss or can live on tiny blue berries... ]

This means you need to carry all the food with you that you are going to eat. A weight that slowly gets less every day...

>> Next day

Going to Disko island

Early in the morning we took the boat from Ilulissat to Disko island. After about 4.5 hours of travel we arrived in Qeqertarsaq (GodHavn). From there we took a small fisherboat that took us far away into the heart of the island. There it left us at the end of a long fjord.

Hvalen, our private little fisherboat...

Taking to the sea near the coast of Greenland is a very special experience. Ilulissat is know for being one of the birth places for icebergs. The ship constantly navigates through a maze of incredible white/blue icebergs.

[ one is even more beautiful and bigger than the besides it... ]

And this is just the tip...

>> Next day

24 hour sunlight

Today we returned to the place we started: Ilulissat. We made camp and did some last minute shopping before heading to Disko island.

[ I bought all the flavours of chocolate bars I could lay my hands on... ]

The icefjord quickly came into view again...

Something you quickly notice in summertime Greenland is that it just doesn't get dark. A flashlight is useless, it doesn't get more than a little dusky (or is it dawn?).

This picture was taken at 0:15 AM...

The moment you expect the sun to disappear behind the horizon, it starts to rise again...

>> Next day

Wild animals

Today we've walked the whole day. During a short break we stopped near a small beach which housed a couple of small icebergs.

Icebergs in clear water, fairytale like beautiful...

Besides a mesmorizing scenary, you quickly get to know a less pleasant side of Greenland: mosquitos, lots and lots of mosquitos.

Musquitos on your arm, in your tent and in your nose...

Putting on DEET lotion (anti-musquito stuff) and wearing a headnet offers some protection, but you're garanteed to be bitten...

[ my ears have completely been eaten by those little %^*#$@!... ]

>> Next day

Greenland for real

Copenhagen is nice, but I didn't pack my backback for a city trip. Air Greenland took us via Kangerlussuaq to Ilulissat, on the west coast of Greenland.

Greenland from the air...

Once we arrived in Ilulissat we started on our first trip: a small 3 day hike to get accustomed to the climate. We walked near the famous icefjord.

It didn't take long before we saw ice...

Greenland is rather empty, so there were no predefined campsites. After being amazed by icebergs the whole day, it was time to set up camp.

[ you just pick a nice spot and erect your tent... ]

We thought this spot was suitable enough...

>> Next day

Leaving..!

I'm leaving to go on a 2 week hiking trip to Greenland. Unfortunately there is no direct flight to Greenland from the Netherlands, so we flew via Copenhagen.

[ Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom... ]

After checking into a youth hostel we had the rest of the day to check out the city. So I'v tried to see all the touristic hotspots.

The little Danish mermaid...

>> Next day

Holiday..!

If things are a bit quiet here the coming days, it's because I'm out going for a stroll....

[ when I come back, I'll update my blog again... ]

Didn't I hate ice..?

Reading material

Eventhough I will have to carry this burden, I couldn't resist getting one: at 1:00 AM I will be standing in line to get the latest Harry Potter.

[ and when I've got it I'll be too tired to read it... ]

This coupon will magically turn into a book at 1:00 AM...

A mountain of food

Just finished some shopping: food for the whole holiday. Since I have to carry it around, it needs to be light weight and nutricious.

[ that doesn't leave much choice I'm afraid... ]

On the menu: hartkeks, hartkeks, hartkeks and hartkeks...

[ spam, spam, hartkeks, spam and spam..? ]

Received..!?

Tom is now the proud owner of a spiderman icecream! On his blog he makes an extensive report (in Dutch) of receiving his superhero treat.

[ or what is left of it... ]

Spiderman: flat and a bit sticky...

I received some comments of people wondering whether I really did sent an icecream by mail.

"You really didn't do that, now did you..? No seariously, you didn't.
Right..?!"

I know I have a weird special kind of humor, am (sometimes) unpredictable, but I'm not completely insane...

I deemed the chances of the icecream not surviving its trip and contaminating a whole bunch of mail too great. Since there are also people that sent serious mail by post, I didn't think its would be a good idea to coat these pieces in a nice, sweet smelling layer of spidermanliness...

Therefore I prepataed an envelope in such a way that it would give the impression of being the victim of a vicious icecream attack....

[ I ate the icecream myself, that goes without saying... ]

Tom, your mother was right doubting this story...

Will this work..?

This is bound to go horribly wrong, but you'll never know for sure until you try it...

How super hero iceream are you really..?

I would like to hear from the lucky recipient who is going to get this icecream by mail whether everything came through fine.

[ just pop it back into the freezer and enjoy... ]

First contact!

With a little help of a moving twig I was finally able to get close enough to pet Conny...

[ I'm now waiting for her to demand attention from me... ]

Stroke, stroke, stroke...

Balconny cat..?

I'm not sure if I can still call Conny my balconny cat after tonight...

The inside is more interesting than the outside...

[ curious animal, came in to sniff out my kitchen... ]

Superhero icecream

I have been falsly accused a couple of times of placing this childrens treat in the shoppingcar or basket of unexpected shoppers. When I finally saw them in the store, I had to buy them....

Spiderman icecream, red outside, blue inside...

There are 6 of them in a box, if you eat the icecream upside down, they drip less...

[ when the weather improves I can eat the other five... ]

Balconny cat (2)

I now know where the cat is coming from. I've spotted a kittylitter box on the balconny of my leftdoor neighbours (nr. 83). I also saw the cat (which I have named Conny) jump dangerously from my railing unto a ramshackle wash drying rack of the neighbouring balconny.

[ the jump didn't look all that stable, it's bound to go wrong one day... ]


I haven't been able to get close to Conny, I hope we'll become friends, because I see him/her on my side often now. I think the view from my balconny is more interesting.

[ all I have to do now is make the digging in my planters... ]

Balconny cat

All of a sudden I have a pet. When I was cooking in my kitchen a young kitten was walking over my balconny railing. I suspect it to be my neighbours cat.

[ or the little animal can jump really high... ]

I wonder if we are going to see each other more often...