Our day started at 12:19 am when those five magical words were uttered – “The Northern Lights are visible!”. In 11 minutes, we threw on our outdoor clothes, gathered camera equipment, and found a spot away from light to take pics and enjoy the show.
Take note that “outdoor clothes” doesn’t say “we layered using our warmest clothing”, which we felt after about 7 minutes as the windchill was -13 Celsius. But, it was worth every freezing second we were out there. The lights move, get brighter, get darker and fade, changing shapes along the way. It’s fascinating and mesmerizing!
Here are some quick photos, hopefully we’ll get better/cleaner tonight.
Our guide told us later in the day that we’re north of where the lights are best, based on the magnetic pole the lights center around. That’s all fine and dandy, and we’ll be south in a few days, but we saw the Aurora Borealis in Greenland!!!!
We were back in at 1 am, so we spent about 30 minutes outside. We were a bit amped up, and kept checking out the window to observe the status of the NL’s and around 1:30 am, they were nearly nonexistent. We were so, so lucky that we looked out at 12:19 am!!
Thankfully today’s excursion was to start at 9:45 a.m. so, while we were still short on sleep, it was a good day to have a late start.
After six hours of sleep, we were up and at ‘em, ready to go! Today’s adventure was to a small village north of Ilulissat called Oqaatsut. It takes 20-60 minutes to get to Oqaatsut by boat. Twenty if you’re on a fast boat and sixty if you’re on a leisurely Sunday cruise as we were. The boat held 12 passengers and had observation areas in both the front and the back of the boat. Keep in mind that it’s about -6 Celsius, so who knows what the windchill was while cruising through Disko Bay!?
It was sunrise when we left the hotel, but the sun hadn’t made a full appearance until we were leaving the harbor. This gave us a good opportunity for some sunrise pics!! Below are some of the pics on the boat ride north to Oqaatsut.
One exciting moment was when the boat captain spotted a seal. He immediately stopped the boat and backed up, leading those outside wondering what the heck was happening! While we were never close to the seal, he was behind the boat enjoying his Sunday swim. Certain seals don’t swim in groups, so it is normal to see just one seal rather than a herd of seals.
We pulled into Oqaatsut, knowing only that it was a small, inhabited village. The population was declining in the early 2000’s and Greenland’s millionaire (note that is singular – one millionaire) opened a fish factory in Oqaatsut. The population is now 48-50 inhabitants and 80 sled dogs. It is remote, there are no roads (dirt paths) and no cars (just ATV’s).
Just the week before, they had harpooned a whale. The remnants of it’s carcass was still on the shoreline where they had drug it out to clean it.
As we pulled up to the dock, we noted that yes, once again the walkways were covered with frost and ice, and great care was needed to disembark and generally move around.
This is the boat we came in on, docked at the dock next to the H8 restaurant (explained below)…
We spent an hour walking through the village, learning about their way of life. There are currently 5 school aged children, they have a new school teacher, and a new school is being built. The school has been located in several buildings – school has been held in what is now the teachers’s home, the church, and is now in the community building. Education is free in Greenland, so spending money to build a new structure, possibly adding modern conveniences like a flushing toilet and new technology, is not uncommon. Kids attend the village school until around 8th grade at which time they go to ‘boarding’ school in Ilulissat, which is also free.
Here are the various buildings around the village:
This is the temporary school until the new school is completed.
And in the middle of town, there is a fish drying station, where residents can dry their catch (for preservation). While they are hung to get air-flow for drying, they are hung at the height that they are so that if a sled dog gets loose, it doesn’t eat all of the fish.
And of course they also hang skins to dry, such as this seal skin (below). You can see stones in the bottom, that are used to weight down the skins and thus stretch them out.
This is one of 2 buildings that water is stored in for people to come get the water they need. (Only 3 buildings in the village have water plumbed to them, all of the rest must carry water needed to the house from one of the 2 water locations.)
This is the village playground, however, the children we saw were playing with a soccer ball in open areas rather than here in this playground.
The door on the left is the health care center, manned by a lady that has some moderate skill (but not trained). If they need a nurse or doctor, they video conference them in for advice and direction, or if they need the direct care itself, the patient must go to Ilulissat.
Below is the water generation plant, which takes seawater and with reverse osmosis converts in into potable/drinkable water.
This is the electricity plant for the village, run by diesel, and it runs 24/7 to generate the electricity for the village’s needs.
Lastly, here is the post office (on the side of the village’s shop).
We knew in advance that lunch was scheduled at H8 Restaurant in the village, and thought that was a weird name for an eating establishment. Turns out, it dates back to WWII, when after Germany occupied Denmark and thus cut off the existing supply chain, Greenland turned to America to provide supplies. (This agreement was how American air-bases got approved/built in Greenland.). The numbering served as a type of postal code. Air drops were made to villages, so a huge letter/number combo was painted on the top of a building in each village so the military would know what to drop where. They started with “A1” in the south part of the country, “H7” was Ilulissat, and they were on “H8” when they got to Oqaatsut, hence “H8 Restaurant”.
The boat crew doubled as the restaurant crew. We were served a delectable muskox & reindeer stew with a rich brown sauce, complete with homemade crusty bread rolls. This would be a fantastic meal for a snowy afternoon in Kansas City, with exception that we can’t get muskox in the US!
On the boat trip back, we struck up a conversation with the young boat pilot, Nick. We joked earlier in the day that he looked like a freshman in high school, so we had to find out his actual age. He’s 23, has been piloting boats for 4 years, received his first boat at age 15, and now has his own boat. Impressive!!
We also conversed about hunting. Hunting is the only way many Greenlanders survive, and they are very much a ‘tip to tail’ society. Nothing goes to waste. He bagged his first seal at age 6 and his first caribou at age 10. The first caribou is a big deal and offers quite a lesson. Nobody helps you with your first kill. You have to haul the entire thing back to town. It doesn’t matter if you have to make 4 trips, and doesn’t matter if you’re 10 miles out of town. It’s your caribou and is your responsibility to handle start to finish.
Nick was seal hunting yesterday and bagged two seals. He keeps the ribs/rib meat and gives the rest to his friend who has sled dogs. His friend keeps a particular cut and the dogs get the rest. (Did we mention this is the norm for sled dogs? Seal is a normal diet for sled dogs. This includes skin & hair, which provides vitamins sled dogs need to maintain their thick fur.) It’s a win-win situation. Nick has seal meat in his freezer and his friend’s sled dogs are fed for free. He mentioned caribou hunting last week was a bust. He spent 3 days and over 30 km, with no luck. He already has a freezer full of caribou, but sharing with the community is part of their society so others would have benefitted had he bagged a caribou. Extremely nice, polite, well-spoken young man and we enjoyed his company.
There are not a lot of dinner options in town, so we again had an impromptu group dinner. Our tour leader made a reservation at a local restaurant around sunset and we walked to the restaurant. It’s in town and we’re on the edge of town, so we again walked downhill, past the dam, past the harbor, and around the curves as we’ve done a few times now.
The restaurant was the same that prepared our stew earlier today, so we knew the food was good. It did not disappoint. Muskox medallions with a demi-glace similar to what we had at lunch, grilled butternut squash, and creamy rice. Don’t knock the rice….. the flavor was like stroganoff sauce with chicken stock.
The plan was to get a taxi or bus back to the hotel, but the bus service had ended and everyone started walking back rather than wait for 3 taxis. It was 11 Fahrenheit with windchill, but we didn’t notice any wind. While it wasn’t horrible, it’s uphill and is a bit exhausting. We made it back, laid out all out warm weather clothes, and changed all the camera settings, on the chance that we see the Aurora Borealis again tonight!
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