Aug
12 - Qeqertarsuasiat – zodiac ride & village visit
Qeqertarsuasiat is a small settlement with approx. 200 residents,
mainly living from hunting and fishing. Visit the small mine and learn more
about the extraction of precious stones.
We
woke to a total white-out of fog. It cleared up while we were having lunch.
At
8:30 after breakfast there was a lecture called Glacier by Dieter. Just before
lunch we attended another lecture by Bernd on Inuit Culture.
After
lunch we arrived at Qeqertarsuasiat. There were no tours today as it was a
small village with no vehicles or roads. To not overwhelm the town, they took
half of the passengers ashore and took the other half of us on a Zodiac cruise.
When time was up, they switched us. Our group started with the village.
It
really was my favorite village of the trip. Not many people out and about, but
they truly live by hunting and fishing, and it was quite interesting to see them
drying skins on clotheslines and seeing boxes of hooves and parts put out as
trash. We were free to walk around as long as we wanted.
sailing into port
arrival at the Zodiac dock
walking to the church
pile of skis
only a few people were out and about
the display of antlers are a sign that a great hunter lives there
carcass
trash by a house
the antlers still had the velvet
ravens
Greg climbing to the top
Greg on the platform
views from the platform
The
Zodiac cruise was very productive. We saw the Sea Eagle (fish eagle) and some
Arctic Foxes in their summer color. Last year in Churchill (Hudson Bay) we saw
a couple of cute ones in their winter white. We watched them for a long time
The Zodiac driver was more into the geology and kept taking us to places and
talking about rocks and one lady said, “could we go back and watch the foxes?”
It was reported that 2 young ones were now there. (I didn’t see those) He
remarked “rocks not your thing I guess”. Later we saw the Sea Eagle and there
was debate was it just a rock or a bird when it flew off and I said, “the not a
rock just flew off”. He had used the phrase earlier and he said, “I knew that
would come back to bite me”. He was looking for more wildlife for us despite
his interest in the rocks.
leaving the island for the cruise
our Zodiac
we had to look at some rocks for the poor guide who was eager to show them
Arctic Fox in summer fur
you can see the foxes were pretty far away
more rocks for the guide...lol
not great photos of the White-tailed Eagle - he was very far away
White-tailed Eagle perched - you couldn't really see it with the naked eye
whale skeleton just under the surface of the water
there were some furs on land
Dinner
this evening was a BBQ on the Pool deck. (just like the one on the Iceland
cruise) We had another evening of great weather. Everything was delicious and
fun with the music.
me waiting for the food stations to open
After the BBQ we had a recap of our day and the port talk on Nuuk. (pronounced something like NUKE with the OOH sound kind of drawn out)
Later was another movie night (with popcorn) and it was a movie called Sume. This one had English subtitles and was done in Greenlandic. It was about the band Sume that was popular in the 60’s and much like our radical 60’s they were lashing out against Denmark’s treatment of Greenland and were very popular. It followed their career and the reactions of various Greenlanders and Danes. Very good musicians no matter which side you were on.
sun setting
No comments:
Post a Comment