Friday 22nd May

Up early for a swim and a brisk walk across the city to a school where we have a meeting with the headteacher. It all works rather well and she kindly offers to accommodate the whole expedition in the classrooms on the way there and back! Bingo! Its close to the airstrip so we will get a coach from Keflavik to there and then the next morning just walk to catch our flight to Greenland. On the return we will reverse these plans. Finally it seems that the logistics are starting to drop into place.
In the afternoon we catch the coach for an hour to get to Kefleavik and by 9pm we are at Heathrow. Its been a fast 10 days but we have covered a lot of ground. Can’t wait to be back in Greenland again – there are going to be some great adventures for us all.

Thursday 21st May

5am – up, packed and off to the heliport! In usual Greenland style we arrive to find that the helicopter is delayed – come back at 11am but you can leave your bags! We return for a couple more hours sleep, a last wonder around town and then on to the delayed flight. This leaves us just an hour in Narsarsuaq to check in again for the flight to Iceland, meet with Jacky to talk boats and try and locate a lady who runs the local ‘klub’ – a community centre where we can stay. Before we know it all meetings are complete, we board the plane and promptly snooze for the 2.5 hour flight to Reykjavik!

Food and a sleep – that’s what we need and that’s what we have.

Wednesday 20th May

A day of meetings! We have 101 jobs to do – mainly a meeting with the tourist office who are helping with advance party logistics, sourcing fuel for boats and stoves and all kinds of other little jobs we cant do without a translator. It’s a busy but fruitful day – the last day in Nanortalik, icebergs are still floating by and we are preparing for an early flight tomorrow to Narsarsuaq then on to Iceland.

Tuesday 19th May

The weather has changed! Its rained through most of the night and it looks set to remain for the day. We force ourselves out of bed knowing that this is the last day in the fjord and we need to get west along the valley to the Norse ruin and to check out the glacier as a possible site for the glaciology fire. As usual it sounds worse than it is. Getting ourselves organised we have one person outside the tent in waterproofs and two inside packing kit. Having all kit in coloured stuff sacks makes life much easier.

We head west and notice how there is fresh snow on the mountains – we must be just below the freezing level at base camp. There is plenty of willow scrub to work our way through and it takes longer than anticipated. Gaiters are essential kit and in the summer we imagine there will be no shortage of mozzies too! After about three hours of walking we get to a Norse ruin overlooking a marsh and in view of the glacier. It’s a dramatic location with a 360 vista – we pause and contemplate what life must have been like in times gone by and how people survived living here in such a hostile environment.

The rain has eased off and we stride back to the fjord side knowing that we have a pick up scheduled in a boat and can’t be late. Three days away and it feels like three weeks – we are refreshed from the time but definitely not smelling fresh! With regret we leave the fjord but there is some comfort in knowing we will be back in two months – fabulous. The journey back is dominated by conversation of what it will be like when the whole expedition arrive at base camp and how the science sites will be ideal. Returning to Nanortalik feels like returning to a metropolis – what will it be like to be back in Heathrow in 2 days time?!