Bleak, sleet, cold; howling packs of half wolf hounds that have had their barks bred out of them. Black sand, with blue white icebergs as big as multi-storey car-parks, road bridges, office blocks. Their little relatives pecking at sand, littering the beach. Each of these unliftable baby ‘bergs look like something. A chicken. A swan. A turtle.
The dogs are everywhere, chained, wet, wild. I see a mother with two unchained puppies strangling herself to try and reach a huge hole another dog has dug himself, all the other dogs wailing and straining towards it. The dog in the centre has caught one of her puppies. I walk away feeling ill and deeply domesticated.
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KT and Luke on the shore in Qeqertassuak. Photo: Nathan Gallagher.
It appears that virtually none of us aboard the Grigoriy Mikheev are early risers, so Cape Farewell captain David Buckland made sure to inject his 7 a.m. wake-up announcement with a little info that he knew would have his troops on their feet in a heartbeat. “If you look outside of your window,” he began, “you’ll see a pretty big iceberg.” Minutes later, the cafeteria was abuzz with the din of excited artists and scientists getting their morning tea and coffee before boarding the zodiac rafts for shore. It was the first time any of us had set foot on dry land since Friday.
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We just passed the 48-hour mark of our 10-day journey aboard the Grigory Mikheev. We’ve traveled north from Kangerlussuaq to Disko Bay, and en route, heard from the two groups of scientists on board – one of which is mapping the West Greenland current and the other, characterizing sedimentation in the ocean bed in order to reconstruct historical sea levels.
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Our first good look at icebergs.
Photo: Nathan Gallagher
Vanessa Carlton arriving in Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn).
Photo: Nathan Gallagher
