Of Feast and Planning

Bren: Tonight we took part in a traditional Greenlandic feast. It was scrumptious, with some surprising new tastes that might need to grow on a person to fully enjoy them. I think the polite terminology would be "an acquired taste". Here are some of the items served: poached trout (as big as a coho), many types of salmon, halibut, scallops and muscles, muskox and reindeer carpaccio, three types of whale (including 'white whale' and 'Greenlandic whale'), with a wild Greenlandic blackberry cake for dessert. I think we'd call these blackberries huckleberries or wild blueberries in the pacific northwest. I declined to the whale, but did enjoy trying the other unique offerings.

Earlier in the day we went on a Muskox viewing tour but were shut out. There is a large group of people who arrived on a small cruise ship earlier in the day and our guide theorized that the sheer number of tours may have driven the muskox further into their range. It is hard to describe the enormity of the landscape here - if you think the "big sky" images you may have of Montana, where the mountains and valleys and ranges continue for as far as the eye can see, it is a similar scope. However the scenery itself is so unique, I have a hard time relaying words to descirbe it. I could imagine a brontosaurus wondering on the hills outside our hotel and it would completely suited to its landscape.

We spent some time this evening doing our pre-flight inspection of MDS. We're pleased to note that we've been burning on average a litre of oil every six hours of flight. We topped it up tonight for our long journey tomorrow. Tomorrow we fly to the other side of Greenland, fuel up and strech our legs, then push onwards to Iceland. I will try to post as soon as possible when we arrive, given the unreliability we have been experiencing with SPOT, and how that has risen the blood pressure of a few of our friends and family. Here is our plan for tomorrow. We'll be wheels up at 9am local time. We expect a low pressure system in Iceland to be clearing in the early afternoon.

Sandrestromfjord to Kulusak (343 Kt m) + Kulusak to Reykjavik (408 Kt m) = 751 kt m
Routing: Sonderstromfjord (BGSF) to Kulusak (BGKK) via W28. Kulusuk (GBKK) to DA (Waypoint) to 65N30W to Gimili to Reykjavic (BIRK).

Next blog from Iceland!