East Greenland: Final Day and Return

On the morning of August 19th the members of our NatHab group had a choice between a long, fast hike and a town-visit walk. Having done a long hike yesterday, Joan and I opted for the town visit.

We all started together, headed down the road towards Kulusuk. After passing the new cemetery, visited yesterday, we could see the town ahead.

Closer to town there was a fork in the road and the ambitious hikers veered off to the left. Taking the right-hand way we soon came to the old cemetery at the outskirts of town.

It was adjacent to the road.

The view towards town.

This house was on the other side of the road. Love the shade of blue.

Strings of seal carcasses were being kept nearby in the Arctic water for preservation.

First we visited a grocery store, and then a compact crafts store operated by the Danish couple that had accompanied us to the Inuit drum dance yesterday. There I took a photo of this explanation of the tupilak/tupilaq. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Next, we began to climb the hill above town.

Our chosen path took us by some young dogs, and of course we had to stop.

Here's a view from the top. Behind us is a communications tower, while the photo is looking out to sea.

After admiring the panorama we continued on, reaching a promontory close to the water.

Note the bust facing the water. It is of the famous preserver of Inuit tradition, Milka "Miilikka" Kûitse,

and was donated to Kulusuk in 2009. Miilikka was the mother of Anna and Anda, both of whom continued her efforts in drum dancing. Anda was the performer we admired yesterday. Note that Miilikka's hair is done with the traditional "heart" bun, which she was one of the last to wear.

My photo of the plaque didn't turn out well.

Then it was time to return to the hotel for lunch, and the short drive to the airport. The terminal was crowded -- it's not large -- but everything there went smoothly enough. We spent our last Danish kroner on headband for Joan, featuring a musk-ox, before we boarded the turboprop for Reykjavik.

Still blessed by the weather, I was able to get a few pictures through the airplane's window before Greenland faded behind us.

In Reykjavik the van first dropped off those staying at the Reykjavik Marina hotel. The drive through the city was congested, with activities going in virtually every open space. Today, it turned out, was the Reykjavik Marathon.

This has grown into an international event; on the plane back to JFK we overheard several marathoners chatting about their experiences.

After a forty-five minute drive the van dropped the rest of us off at the Park Inn, near the international airport (Keflavik).

When Joan and I were checking in for our flight home the next morning, the Delta agent had difficulties with the first terminal, and transferred her processing of Joan's reservation to another one. It was only some minutes after leaving the line that Joan discovered that her boarding pass didn't have the TSA PreCheck designation she was entitled to. This was worrisome because our connection in JFK was not generous, but we hoped that, with our Global Entry cards, we'd be OK.

Then, when boarding the plane, Joan was chosen for secondary screening. This was a random selection, but it didn't seem auspicious. We've learned that there's almost always something in Joan's duffel, or possibly because we always check in very early, that causes her luggage to get an inspection by TSA, with the obligatory search letter inserted.

After we boarded the plane the captain mentioned that he hoped to get away from the gate a few minutes early, to offset stronger than usual headwinds. However, Reykjavik ground operations didn't cooperate, and we were late pushing off. (Side note: Delta had two flights to JFK from Reykjavik within half an hour of each other. Go figure.)

We arrived at JFK 25 minutes late on a 2 hour, 10 minute connection. The long tromp down to immigration was shared with a flood of people who had just arrived from Paris. We nervously used Global Entry kiosks for the first time, but that worked well, although JFK needs more machines and more accessible machines. In general JFK is overwhelmed by traffic.

It took a while for our luggage to arrive, and we were anxious over two bags on the carousel that looked just like Joan's -- would anybody try to take these? I had one false alarm wherein I waved to Joan that she should check a fellow leaving the luggage area. His bag was much like ours, but not ours.

Then baggage recheck and through security again. More time was lost because we couldn't tell that the security cordon on this level had no TSA Precheck line. An attendant redirected us two floors higher up. At that security line, even though Global Entry automatically qualifies the passenger for TSA PreCheck, the personnel refused to let Joan enter PreCheck because there was no such stamp on her boarding pass. Fortunately we had sprung for business class and there was a short line for that.

Then we ran to gate B18 to hop onto the Delta jitney to Terminal 2, and dashed to gate C69. Joan and I arrived 5 minutes before boarding started. Without Global Entry we might not have made it.

We and our luggage both made it to Columbus on our original flight, but I hope to never use JFK for international arrival again! Even so, our Greenland Base Camp expedition with Natural Habitat Adventures was a highlight of the year.

East Greenland: Kulusuk

Joan and I lugged the packed duffels out to our tent's porch by 9am, and then we were off to breakfast. The morning activity would be a hike, or rather two, one a fast-packed and longer jaunt up the valley, and the other, moseying around with photography stops at any time.

But at the hike's start the groups were kept together, for there was a surprise. One of Julius' sled (and summertime bear-deterrent) dogs had puppies!

Mama didn't seem too concerned, Julius's dogs being very socialized for working dogs. She didn't even mind having her picture taken.

We were taken with the puppies. Or did they capture us?

We could even cuddle them. Can't take 'em home, though.

Mom got involved in a game: tug-of-war with Drew's glove.

We reluctantly left the puppies and began our walks. Joan and I went with the faster/longer group, and quickly put some distance between us and base camp dwindling behind.

The glacial valley had no particular trail, so Drew guided us through vegetation (the wild blueberries were delicious) and across or along watercourses and rocky bluffs.

After passing a series of lakes and pools, some of which contained arctic char, I took a photo looking back. Couldn't see base camp from here!

We returned to camp just in time for lunch. About 1:30 the helicopter arrived, carrying supplies for the next group.

The heli would make four trips to take fourteen people (twelve guests and Katie and Drew) plus their luggage to Kulusuk. Joan and I were in the first wave, and I was lucky enough to be assigned the up-front seat next to the pilot. The chopper covered the morning's hike in just a couple of minutes.

After cresting the pass our helicopter soon reached the ocean and flew over a series of islands and peninsulas.

Then the runway came into view, stretching from left to right.

Nobody from the hotel was at the airport when we disembarked. Drew made a couple of phone calls, and we waited only ten minutes before the hotel van pulled up. The Hotel Kulusuk was relatively close by, not in town, further away.

We were instructed to gather at 4:00 in the hotel lobby for a walk "with twenty minutes of sitting, so dress warmly." A mystery! A local Danish couple joined Drew and Katie to escort us to the new cemetery, near the top of the hill separating the hotel from the town. This view looks back the way we've come, before arriving at the crest. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

We paused briefly to peruse the cemetery, and then continued uphill.

At the top our four guides introduced a very animated and expressive Anda Kûitse,

one of children of the famous Inuit drum dancer Milka "Miilikka" Kûitse. He performed three dances for us:

• The Tale of Wonder. Don't puzzle over things such as your breath freezing in the air, just enjoy them.
• The Raven and the Goose. This is a love story gone bad whose theme was that sometimes two people can be so different that they cannot be together.
• The Bachelor's Song extols the virtues of the single life. In traditional Inuit life the single life would be rare unless a mother or sister were there to handle the women's jobs. A good hunter might have two, three, or even four wives!

This video clip records part of two dances. Can you guess which one the second half is?


Anda has toured in Europe as well, although he has a reputation for disappearing between performances.

We received departing gifts on the mountain, a carved tupilaq and a NatHab Base Camp patch. Earlier Drew had given each of us a hand-written card with a pressed Greenland flower in it!

The farewell dinner back at the hotel included an exchange of email addresses. However, today did not mark our last outing -- our flight tomorrow wasn't until the afternoon.

East Greenland: Tasiilaq via Kulusuk

After breakfast our Natural Habitat Adventures group, led by Katie Crafts, transferred from our hotel to the in-town Reykjavik airport. The flight to Kulusuk (Greenland) would be between 1½ and 2 hours and set our watches back by two hours.

Katie was checking us in as we stood around the modest airport lobby when a group of happy and inebriated young men entered. One in particular snared everybody's attention. He was dressed, barely, in a neon green onesie which was more of a "none-sie". He willingly posed for photos. Later we would learn that this was a bachelor party stunt.

Our group was still short by one, because Travis had been through air travel hell ... first, his flight out of San Francisco had been canceled due to fog. NatHab rebooked him with a JFK connection to Reykjavik, but then the flight from JFK experienced delays, so he wouldn't arrive in time for this flight to Greenland. (He'd make a later one.)

The weather was again sunny and cooperative as we landed at the Kulusk airport, constructed in 1956 by the U.S. military as part of the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line, and demilitarized in 1991. The runway is suitable only for short takeoff and landing aircraft.

The signage is in Danish, English, and Greenlandic.

We weren't here long. This was the view from the non-runway side of the airport, which is located perhaps two miles from town.

Once the IcelandAir plane took off again it was time to transfer to Tasiilaq by an Air Greenland helicopter, which would need more than one flight to take all our people and luggage. Fortunately each flight was only about ten minutes one way.

All the available space was used.

Flying out of Kulusuk.

We're approaching Tasiilaq, the largest town in east Greenland with about 2,062 inhabitants (2014 info).

Our chopper after landing. Here we met our other NatHab guide, Drew McCarthy.

We and our luggage soon arrived at the Hotel Angmagssalik, where we would stay for the next two nights. After a buffet lunch Katie and Drew took us on a hike up the Valley of the Flowers, or Floral Valley, behind town. Our pigs, Babelet and Ruth, stayed behind to enjoy the view from the window of our room.

On this day (August 12th) several species of flowers were still in profusion.

Here Drew is explaining some finer points of botany. On this hike we saw hawkweed, harebells, butterwort, fireweed, lady's mantel, alpine catchfly, cuckoo flower, and wild thyme, some in bloom, some not. Less profuse species may have been overlooked.

Our route started on a wide road, which near the beginning passed the local nightclub.

Early on we saw sled dogs, chained to await winter, in this case including unchained puppies.

Sled dogs are working dogs, not pets, and generally are not socialized to accept strangers. Don't get too close.

Then we approached the town cemetery. The bare area is soil brought in to allow expansion of the burial grounds.

This was the view looking down the valley towards town. Traditionally the markers do not name the deceased; this preserves the name to be used again in the family.

Under the sun and clear sky we warmed up from our exertions and packed away some of our layers, or wrapped them around our waist. Soon the road dwindled into a footpath.

It became clear that we were ascending through a chain of lakes.

We continued our march through the landscape of rock and water.

The shore of the larger lake was our turnaround point.

Back at the hotel it was time for a quick shower and the 6:00 buffet supper. The low light of the late Arctic summer made the town and a recently arrived cruise ship glow. Soccer matches were in progress.

The presence of two other tour groups made dinner as noisy as a trendy restaurant, but Joan and I were able to meet Travis, who had finally caught up to us, much to the relief of his mom, Candice, also one of our group.
 
Afterwards we adjourned to another room to watch a video of "The Wedding of Palo." This movie was made by the Danish/Greenlandic explorer and anthropologist Knud Rasmussen in this district, Angmagssalik, in 1934. It's a faithful presentation of the Inuit social customs, skills, and survival techniques wrapped with a romantic story arc. It was an engaging introduction to the backstory of east Greenland.


Our next day will be spent further exploring the area around Tasiilaq.