.................A New Life, a Sustainable Life, a Exciting Life, Living Aboard The Golden Cloud..................
This Summer Sailing Around the UK Raising Money for RNLI, and Isle of Wight Society for the Blind,
Commercially Sponsored by The Muck Boot Company
Donate at:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/wales2wight
And so on came 3 months in Greenland. I arrived with 3 gentlemen from ITN News producing for Channel 4 about the recent low sea ice and high
melt of the Arctic Ocean and Greenland. It was a fantastic experience for my
first few days as not only did it take the focus off me but also it meant it
was all recorded for showing friends and family when I got home!
Channel 4 News Footage (via youtube)
Sailing in the High Arctic is something quite amazing,
through the 500 odd miles I clocked up on the 47ft Gambo, the 3m rib and the 4m
hovercraft we cruised through gigantic ice sculptures the size of towerblocks,
and hugh pads of sea ice. Temperatures down to -29°c added to by icy cold winds off the ice
sheet, and the towering Store and Lille Glaciers, the brightly coloured Inuit
settlements delicately placed on stunning mountainsides, the quietness of the
long winter night. It is defiantly something I’ll never forget.
Arctic Fox
2 arctic hares (photo: James Killingbeck)
I saw the beautiful Arctic Fox, Arctic Hare’s bouncing off
on a ridge above the ice sheet as we went to check time-lapse cameras above the
glaciers, striking white Tarmagan flying up from the snow, a Minke Whale diving
just infront of the Gambo, as well as our gorgeous and cuddly Greenlandic Dogs
(like husky’s) Ukioq (means winter in Greenlandic), Nuliaq (means wife, she was
an old moody female so fitting), Tornalique (sort of means spot the dog :P),
and Qoorka who we never found what his name meant but he was a lovely cuddly
mess!
Ukioq (photo: Alex Baubin)
Nuliaq
One of my best memories of my time in Greenland was taking a
walk along a snow covered ridge with Ukioq, I fell into a snow drift up to my
shoulders. Whilst I rolled out to try to get my legs back from the snow, young
Ukioq jumped down onto my chest to save himself from jumping in the snow too,
he then proceeded to roll up and fall asleep on me. I thought that was taking
it abit far, and we had plenty of walking still to do, so I tossed him back
into the drift and walked on! He stared up quite confused, but then gleefully
ran on.
Another was of the fantastic Northern Lights we had during
the deep dark winter, one night with them gleaming and dancing like never
before in Green and shades of red and i think even purple, I got out my sleeping bag on the
deck in minus sixteen and watched them till I fell to sleep. The skys out there
were stunning, the stars so clear, the moon glistening at times all “day” and
all night, and shooting stars flying almost constantly. On the journey back to
civilisation I think I may have even seen a supernova (star exploding). Looking
up at the stars one suddenly blew up, sending a bright white flash across the
darkness, and almost as quickly as it started it was gone. Speaking to friends
who think they know science and astronomy they tell me a supernova would have
taken longer than the seconds of this, but perhaps it was a shooting star
heading straight towards me. Either way it was pretty special.
In Early January it was time to come back, and so we got the
Hovercraft out and sped across the sea ice toward the replacement crew. After a
few days of failed attempts we finally, safely met up, and back I went. It was
quite overwhelming getting back to the Tiny fishing settlement of Ikerasak,
after 3 months only seeing Cpt. Nolwenn and crewmate Alex, so many people! so
many houses! Then onto the Metropolis of the tiny Uummannaq Settlement, and
then the Citadel of Ililusat with its 4000 inhabitants! Every step back to
normal civilisation was quite intense but also taught me what I’d learnt about
even more than before wanting to live simple, live sustainable, and live
resourcefully with what I have, that I didn’t need capitalistic, buy now think
later anymore. For the last 4 months I’d washed myself and my clothes using a
saucepan on a small hob, rinsing in seawater. Every drop of drinking water from
November mined from icebergs, every ounce of food even fresh veg and eggs had
been brought with us, so I’d learnt of how to ration and eat reasonably, how to
store food for a long period (admittedly in an environment like a freezer). So
back to the Golden Cloud I go with new knowledge of how its done!
Now as I know its what everyone wants to see... Pictures
Midday in the winter night!
Warning Sled Dogs
Planking in Illulisat Icefjord
Alex and Nolwenn on the Hovercraft
Base Camp
Capt. Nolwenn
Windows from the inside
The Arrival of the Food Container
View across the sea ice.... notice wolffish skin drying
Working in Base Camp (Photo: James Killingbeck)
The Sea Ice First Forming
Going Fishing in the ice (Photo James Killingbeck)
Ukioq looking over the anchorage (Photo James Killingbeck)
Ukioq in the Snow (Photo James Killingbeck)
Frozen Ice Waterfall (Photo James Killingbeck)
Gambo pre seaice (Photo James Killingbeck)
Ukioq the crazy puppy (Photo James Killingbeck)
Me on an iceberg (Photo James Killingbeck)
Me helming gambo infront of store (Photo James Killingbeck)
The icebergs at sea (photo Alex Baubin)
Kayaking infront of Ikerasak (Photo James Killingbeck)
Ikerasak Harbour (Photo James Killingbeck)
Whale Meat (Photo James Killingbeck)
The ice in Lille/Store Fjords
Me infront of the ice sheet (Photo James Killingbeck)
Dr Alun Hubbard walking across a frozen lake (Photo James Killingbeck)
Ukioq on the Kayak (Photo James Killingbeck)
Gambo in the frozen anchorage (Photo James Killingbeck)
Santa's holiday house
Lille (little) glacier
Gambo anchored off Ikerasak (Photo James Killingbeck)
Me taking C4 out to film (Photo James Killingbeck)
The Fish drying in rigging and ice
C4 filming
c4 news team
Kangerlussuaq Airport sign post
Vietnam type Bell Utility Helicopters we used (yes i did listen to Jimmy Hendrix on my ipod whilst on this)
The ice in Lille fjord
The Very James Bond looking plane at Kanger
Me at Illilisat Airport
Me with precious onions (Photo Alex Baubin)
Sea ice forming
Ice ice baby (Photo Alex Baubin)
Fingers of ice coming down the mountians
The town of Uummannaq
The town of Uummannaq
Ukioq
Lille Outlet Glacier (Lille means little!)
Store Outlet Glacier (store quite rightly means big)
Flying down the motorways of Denmark we started to realise that time was running out. We had about the same amount of driving to do as time before our flight and we hadnt slept properly for 24hrs. Enroute we decided to try our luck in the town of Arhus for
a ferry to cut the corner to the island with Copenhagen. On arrival we found
the ferry not too dear, and one leaving that evening, added to that as a cargo
ferry you got a Free Cup of Coffee, and so into Alun’s primordial soup of a
thermos flask went 2 free coffee’s!
With a few hours before the ferry Alun and I made our way
into the town centre, and via chatting up the receptionist, we both had
15minutes in the most gorgeousHotel
toilets I’ve ever seen, in the Gold, Brass and Marble encrusted Royal Hotel.
After this we walked the gorgeous streets between stunning old buildings, and then downgraded
slightly and went to McDonalds for dinner and free wifi!
Back to the van and we waited till our mid night ferry by
cleaning the van and swapping gear from bag to bag to even everyone out to 20kg
for the Flight to Greenland.
I was amazed to find how little alun took with him, but
little was I to know how much he stored in a container in Uummannaq, another in
Kangerlussuaq, on Gambo and at Uummannaq Polar Institute, and his reputation
for travelling over-light, for example once camping on an ice sheet with a
childs sleeping bag!
Cleaning out and packing the van on the dock of the bay
We boarded the ferry to find ourselves the only non-commercial people onboard, I went upstairs to stretch my legs while Alun went to sleep in the
van. Upstairs I found only one member of staff who seemed incredibly amazed to
see anyone walking upstairs on the ferry, I think I startled her quite badly!
For a while she even followed me, I think checking I wasn’t a ghost!
I then found a lovely sofa and slept till we arrived on the
otherside. After allowing the boystrous lorrys to get off the ferry first, we
drove on through the darkness, to make a final assault on Copenhagen!
We were definitely parked on the front right corner beneath those lorrys
I soon returned to my slumber only waking as Alun parked the
van in a random suburb of Copenhagen (I eventually found out it was the street
on of Aber Uni’s Doctors had once lived in, and thus he felt he could trust the
neighbourhood). Soon we were back asleep for the 2hours before we had to get
the train to the airport. And so we jogged from the van left in this sneaky suburb... the bikes were unlocked so we presumed we could trust it.... and jumped onto the first train. About 5 minutes later we arrived at Copenhagen Central, this big bussling central station gave us little clue of where to go but we soon found a platform. Here we were told by a couple of people that the train was running very late and we should get the metro. Having no idea where to get the metro from we waited for the late train.
Alun Confused by Copenhagen Central's dissy lights!
And then we were there at the airport. We sat down sadly the cafe's weren't open in time for breakfast, and I had a coke while Alun raided the Duty Free for the Winter's supply of alcohol! As we approached our departure gate we met up with Tom Clarke of ITN News and his film crew. They were joining us in Greenland for the first week to make a special report for C4 News. We said our hello's and then boarded the plane....
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