So after a night in the house of Jesus (who showed me this paddle that he turned into a light – the paddle had been used by the company’s owner, Ramon, who went on a trek from the south of Greenland, through to the north, and then to Alaska!), we hiked back to Qassiarsuk taking a slightly shorter route along the road.
After a day and night without running water, everyone was excited for a shower, particularly since we would head to the dome tent camp for three nights with no running water again. As we had a firm leaving time of 10:45 on the boat, we walked quickly to get to the hostel in time for nine of us to use the one shower.
Neal, the boatman, picks is up to float us over to Narsaq where will have lunch and tour the town before heading to the dome tents.
Narsaq is a settlement of 1,500 people. And just as we approached the harbor, we ran out of gas. The boat does have paddles so we could have made it the rest of the way on human power, but luckily we don’t have to try it because there was just enough gas on one of the containers on board to get us to shore. I was picturing some Panamanian gas siphoning action…but we didn’t have to resort to that. (I realize that statement means nothing to most of you, and I am okay with that.)
It is here that my group first experienced the Greenlandic supermarket.
It was life changing.
Well, that might be overstating it a tad, but it was an experience that became a guide for the rest of our time together.
You see, this group enjoys wine. So having access to a store that sells this was pretty exciting.
After lunch and town tour (did you know that the houses are different colors for a reason? Different colors symbolize different functions.)…we headed to the grocery store.
I think everyone purchased at least one bottle of wine; I bought a box. Mainly I bought a box because you get more wine for the weight, and if I have to carry my gear, less is better!
We piled back onto the Zodiac, this time with JJ as our captain and headed to the glacier front.
Amy Oswalt 