"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking, we are cruising at 23,000 feet, just crossing the coast of Iceland heading for Constable Point Greenland. We should be arriving in 59 minutes and the temperature there is minus 12 degrees". We were on our way to Greenland in an Air Iceland Dash 8 aircraft with 25 other passengers.
A magnificent sight greeted us as we crossed the coast. It was difficult to see where the ice ended and the land begun. We landed at Constable Point on a frozen runway. It was a little disorganized, for us anyway, not knowing what to do - do we collect our luggage, where to we go for the helicopter. Aaron asked and we found we were on the last helicopter to Ittoqqoormiit, just the 2 of us and cargo, comprising boxes and suitcases of some of the passengers who had caught an earlier helicopter. So we had about 2 hours to wait while the helicopter made 2 other trips - 15 minutes each way. Finally we were on our way. Aaron was in the front left seat next to the pilot on the right. I was in the back with the cargo!
What a magnificent flight - it was worth the journey here just for the helicopter flight. We flew over flat snow covered ground, frozen rivers and over high mountains; all the time no higher than about 50 feet above the ground. The white of the ground and the blue sky was brilliant. It was a perfect day not a cloud in the sky.
A short flight and we were there. The heli-port was on a hill overlooking the settlement of about 250 people on the edge of the frozen Scoresby Sound. I know I have used this before, but the whole scene was breathtaking.
We were met by the lady from the guest house and driven by snowmobile to the accommodation.
Where we're our bags? We had wondered as we hadn't seen them loaded on to our helicopter. Apparently they had gone on an earlier flight. Aaron's bag had strangely ended up in one of the local's houses but was quickly recovered. Strange things happen in Greenland.
We were then taken to the tour operator and issued our overalls and boots.
Tomorrow we are off dog sledding; or as they say here "dog sledging".
We are in Greenland!
The photo shows us coming in to land at the settlement of Ittoqqortoomiit.
We had met the other 3 dogsledders at Reykjavik airport; Narelle and Kel a couple from Bundaberg, and Linda a young lady from Denmark. They booked through the same travel agency in Denmark but did not know who the others were. So with both of us we made 5 - a nice size. As the other 3 would make it to Ittoqqortoomiit before us and the guesthouse where we were staying for the first night was self catering, they had decided to do some shopping for the whole 5 of us. The main store at the settlement closed at 1pm - well before Aaron and I would get there so it was very nice of them to include us in their shopping.
After the tour introduction at Nanu Travel we returned to the guesthouse and had a nice afternoon and evening getting to know everyone.
It was a cold and cloudless night.
At about 9pm the word went out that the Northern Lights were putting on a show. What a fantastic show it was too. They were dazzling across the sky. Blue, greens, whites and yellow "dancing" and swirling. We walked behind the guesthouse, out of the few street lights in the settlement and had a beautiful view. This is what we have seen on postcards. Simply magnificent. A great welcome to Greenland. Tomorrow dog sledding begins!