Up at 0600, down to the best breakfast so far, lots of good stuff.
Walked 5 minutes to the airport, checked in then joined the longest security queue I’ve ever seen – they must schedule all the flights to leave at the same time. Luckily it was pretty efficient and we were through reasonably quickly.
Got to the gate early, and gradually more and more people arrived – I thought there would be about 5 people and some chickens flying to Greenland, but the plane was a 737 and was nearly full. The population of Kangerlussuaq is about 499, so every flight increases that by a fair amount. There is only one flight a day, but no flights out of Kangerlussuaq to Illulusat till the following day, so you have to stay overnight. It’s a bit of a racket because everything is very expensive – the return flight from Copenhagen to the final destination of Illulusat (about 5. 5 hours total) cost as much as the return from Melbourne to Europe.
The flight to Kangerlussuaq was about 5 hours; 5 hours of hell.
Screaming kid to my right, screaming kid behind and a woman in front doing horrendous farts. We had to keep getting up and walking to the back of the plane to get some peace and be able to breath.
Looking out of the window as we came into land, it was very hilly with patches of snow everywhere and quite a few small lakes and one massive one. For some reason I expected the landscape to be flat. Needless to say there wasn’t much except rock and a short scrub grass.
The airport was in a valley so we came in surrounded by the hills either side.
Quickly off, lots of people taking photos – it was quite a sight. Going through the arrival tunnel, there were tons of mosquitoes. Luckily I’d read about them before so we were prepared and brought repellent.
The hotel was part of the airport and the room was basic but better than you’d think considering where it was, the only downside was that the internet cost a lot, and since we were only here for one night decided we could go without it. The next hotel has it. We saw a mosquito in the room but it was quickly dispatched by Song.
It was only 11:00 so we decided to go for a walk into the city (OK, village) it was sunny and about 14C, and pleasant, only wore a t shirt. Yay for global warming.
Loaded up with sunscreen and insect repellent, headed out into the wilds of Greenland.
The ground was sandy, which I wasn’t expecting, with lots of dry grass and small bushes. I imagined it would be more rocky.
The area next to one side of the airport and town was a river and lake, the water a muddy brown, running through the middle of a wide gully which I imagine would be much fuller if it rained.
Got to the town, constantly battling mosquitoes which were everywhere, hardly anyone around, a car passed every 10 minutes or so. The only people we saw were other tourists, the place was like a ghost town. Song said it was like an outpost. The buildings were rectangular blocks, different colours, and there were shipping containers turned into storage dotted around.
Walked along the edge of the town, and saw a pizza / grill / Thai restaurant so thought we’d have a look. As we approached a bunch of American blokes came out, which reminded us that this was also a US military airport, and we saw a few military cargo planes taking off.
Didn’t like the look of any of the food so carried on down the road to a bridge over the river. The river fed into a massive lake that disappeared into the distance, with patches of dried up areas. We climbed a hill up the road and got an amazing view of the lake, the snowy peaks in the distance, the town and the airport.
Still no one around except the odd passing car, decided to give the town a miss and go back to the hotel where they had a canteen and restaurant.
Walked back the way we came, went to the canteen and I had a roast beef roll, Song had a salmon and shrimp sandwich. The roll was pretty good – lots of beef, plus pickles, tomato, cheese and other stuff. Song liked her sandwich, came to about 22 AUD which was good value. We had a look at the restaurant menu and that was about 60 AUD for a main.
Went over the road to the supermarket and bought some provisions and were pleasantly surprised that stuff was not expensive – we’d been led to believe that everything here cost a fortune. Maybe when we go north they will be.
Went back to the hotel and relaxed – we were still on Copenhagen time which was 4 hours ahead, so by 19:00 Greenland time we were pretty tired but didn’t go to sleep early to avoid waking up in the middle of the night.
Woke up briefly at 03:30 and it was light – we’re so far north now the sun doesn’t set. We slept with eye masks on because the curtains let most of the light in – you’d think that would be something they would get right.
Finally got up at 06:00.
