I slept on a bench that had a window that was at eye level when I laid down. And as with every night so far the moon rose flooding the night sky with cold white light at around 21:00 and made its way in a high ark taking the same path as the sun. Chasing each other like Tom & Jerry, night after night! At around 01:00 I woke up and my eyes were drawn towards the window and there dancing green and pale purple were the Northern Lights. We both jumped out of bed and went to stare, mesmerised by the ever changing light show. Obviously I took photographs and as with all cameras the colours and intensity are far more intense than the you can see with your naked eye. Eventually the cold got to us both as we were only dressed in our long-Johns and down jackets…
Day 5: The morning started like all the others, nearly cloudless with the sun rising over the mountains. We packed and left separately as we often do and the terrain was similar to yesterday afternoon’s. The river crossing that we’ve both read so much about loomed at the far side of a wide reed and birch scrub covered valley. I got there about an hour before Stephen. The crossing didn’t look too bad, just over knee height, it has been known to be chest height at times of flood, but it was still running at a fairly brisk pace. The shallow rapids ended with a broad deep pool, before the river continued down towards the fjord.
After much consideration neither of us got our feet wet crossing this stretch of water as we decided that the offer of a lift to the far bank in a boat by a family of local hunters was by far the more sensible way to cross!!!
The hunters were a local family, three children, the youngest, a boy, who appeared to be the most industrious, was about seven years old. A young girl, who spoke perfect English and on the odd occasion corrected her Fathers grammar, who was about 12 and an older boy who was about 15. As well as their Father, their Uncle and Grandmother were there. Apparently the 75 year old Grandmother never misses a hunting trip! They were hunting Reindeer and had a license to shoot 20, but after eight days had only managed to bag 14. So they were moving downstream to try their luck. It was fascinating spending an hour talking to the Father and children. The Father was a helicopter engineer in Nuuk and spent his holidays hunting as his ancestors did and he was hoping to pass on the tradition to his children, although he did admit his daughter preferred to spend her time indoors, apparently she was not so keen on the outdoor life!!! I’d certainly like to give a big thank you to them for the lift across the river.
The afternoon consisted of a boggy walk on burch and willow scrub and cotton grass as a gentle rise took us away from the valley and fjord to tonight’s hut. Slightly larger than last nights, nestled in a valley over looking the Maligiaq Fjord, again a bedroom with a view. It’s not a view ‘to die for’, no vista is worth that, but definitely a view to savour whilst taking in the last heat of the afternoon Arctic sun.
An early finish has meant there’s been time to dry out wet socks and hopefully boots as well and, of course, 40 winks for two old men!
Day 6: Stephen and I walked separately all day. He’s like Jeremy he can talk to strangers and they seem to like to talk to him. I spent too many years walking with Uncle Les. He would divert off a path to avoid anyone that was walking towards him, although as I’ve said in my blog about the Wales Coast Path, I am getting better, Jeremy is working hard to improve my sociability. During the walk Stephen and I keep in touch using our Garmin InReach so we’re reasonably aware of each other’s positions. I know that today Stephen spent quite sometime talking to a local hunter, that he met on the trail, so his eta was going to be a couple of hours after my arrival.
Today’s walk was gentle in many respects after an initial 350m ascent the route stayed high for a few kilometres then descended into a valley which we followed until the hut was reached. The valley path was wet and boggy, fortunately still partially frozen making what would be an extremely wet route, just a wet route. As with every other day my boots and socks are wet through! So it was good to reach the hut. There’s a hunter staying here for the week and is very house proud… the place is spotless, the only downside is that he never stops talking, but to make it worse he doesn’t stop talking when an answer is required… he just talks over you! But after saying that, I’m learning how to butcher a Reindeer and cook it ready for storing. So it’s quite interesting if not a little gory!
The scenery is changing slightly as the surrounding mountains are getting higher and have snow covering most of the summits and the small ice sheet of Aqquititsoq is glimpsed tantalisingly in the distance.
Stephen had the same issue I did with the digital route map… it basically took you the wrong way! It happened at exactly the same place. I was a little concerned where the gpx route was taking me and checked the guide book and realised the digital routing was either corrupted or wrong and I altered my course accordingly… Stephen, however, didn’t realise and crossed a fairly major river and went up onto a hill, the opposite side of the riverbank to where he actually wanted to be. Now as compensation he did get some great photographs! The down side was that he had to wade back through the river and make his way to the correct path. These few short sentences of mine have not really told the gravity and the possible consequences of such a miscalculation in this environment. I walked into camp at 15:30 and Stephen walked in at 19:15. He should have walked in at about 17:00… two hours is a long time to be off route, especially when you are tired and hungry. I was getting very concerned about how long it was taking him even though we were in contact through our Garmin InReach.
Stephen and I generally walk at different paces and we therefore rarely walk together unless safety dictates otherwise. We are both experienced at solo walking, but sometimes relying on a purely digital method of navigation can cause serious problems and we are both very capable of reading and interpreting the paper maps we each have with us as a backup. I know there will be people out there who say that you should always stick together, but we both love our ‘me’ time, and we are both fully aware of the possible consequences.
