Finally it starts

The temperature outside is -48, but above the clouds the sun always shines. The inflight information presented on the back of the chair in front of me also informs me that we are at 38000 feet and traveling at a ground speed of 532mph. I glance out of the window on to the tops of a sea of clouds cunningly disguising the character of the weather below them. The dynamic map on the seat in front of me also informs me that we are about half way across the Southern part of Greenland. The pilot confirms that we are approximately 24 minutes from landing and that the ground temperature is a very comfortable 9 degrees. I had enjoyed the flight. I had nattered to the Danish medical student and her mother who sat next to me. We shared something in common, a relief that the man who had originally sat in front of me had been finally granted an upgrade. Living proof, if ever I needed it, that it does, sadly, pay to be rude and obnoxious at times. One can only hope that karma visited him later with the gift of food poisoning. The highlights of the flight were a half watched film staring Robert De Nero and a program on Greenlandic cuisine presented by an Australian using Lee and Perins Worcestershire Source. Very authentic. The best bit was when the Ozzy chef garnished his crab risotto with a huge crab claw and declared that now it looked "Chefy"!

As the aircraft descended, the clouds gave way to a spectacular view of the Greenland icecap. Melt water ravines, rivers and streams could clearly be seen as could the pools of every size and shape of still melt water reflecting the deep blue of the sky above us. As the glacier gave way to Arctic tundra, the realm of the muskox and Arctic fox, so did the clouds to reveal mile after mile of mountains, valleys and lakes. 
I stepped off the plane at Kangerlussuaq airport, an American relic of the Cold War and World War 2. Apparently the place has hardly changed since the Americans left in the 1990s and handed the base over to the Royal Danish Air Force.
The warmth of the air was a pleasant surprise as I stepped onto the tarmac and walked towards the arrivals office. No one checked my passport or my bags which in our post 9:11 world felt strangely reminiscent of that bygone era of air travel when everyone dressed like the cast of Madmen. I was also struck by the utilitarian appearance of the place. There is nothing here to justify the existence of an airport, let alone and international one. There is the airport and the homes of the people who work at the airport and that is pretty much it. You could not describe Kangerlussuaqu as a pretty place. There are no chocolate box little cottages. Buildings are built to serve a practical purpose and not to look pretty. Instead everything looks as though it was built up out of prefabricated units offloaded from the back of some transport plane. Thing is, that's exactly how Kangerlussuaqu came to be here. It feels like a frontier town that could so easily become a deserted ghost town overnight. The entire place could be packed up into half a dozen large transport planes while you slept. It would be like waking up in one of those Twilight Zone episodes. It has a temporary feel and you get the sense that the "locals" know this and are trying to make as much money as they can before the places is packed up and shipped out. I get that if stuff has to be flown in then there is a premium to pay, but these guys charge you the earth for stuff that isn't flown in. The fish they catch in the lake for example, one could be forgiven for thinking that before the fish is dispatched and prepared for the table it is given an opulent send off consisting of round the world air ticket in first class to say its fond farewells to all its fishy friends and family.

This is the start of the Arctic Circle Trail and while the tiny town of Kangerlussuaq looks as though it was knocked up in a welders workshop in Daganham, the surrounding scenery is truly spectacular in a barren sort of way. The Arctic Circle Trail runs from Kangerlussuaqu to Sisimiut on the Western coast. This is a remote long distance path offering complete isolation should you want it. Most people walk from Kangers to Sisi and then fly back to Kangers to catch their onward flight to where home is. With this in mind, wouldn't it be great if you could leave a bag with some clean clothes in somewhere near the airport so at least you could smell and feel clean before heading home? Space is certainly in abundance here and doesn't have to be flown in from anywhere. You can hire a locker at the airport for nearly £4.00 per day!! For a 2-week hike, that's over and additional £50 quid just to leave your bag! Clearly the staff feel that this is a bit steep too.  The lady at the counter told me that, as a rule, they charge a maximum of 200DK (about £24.00). Much more reasonable.  This, on top of some very restrictive baggage allowance provided by Air Greenland to accompany the very expensive plane tickets. Greenland has a lot to offer the adventure traveller, but if they are not careful, they'll price themselves out off the market.

I set my tent up on the only camp site in Kangers. Would it really kill them to build a toilet and shower block here? The camp site is essentially a patch of scrub land about 2 minutes walk from the back door of the airport.  It's now 7 in the evening and the sun is still really high in the sky. This is the land of the midnight sun after all. I have no idea how unrelenting daylight will impact on my sleep patterns. Inside my tent it's like a sauna which is weird considering I'm about 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. This has been a long journey and now it's time to try and sleep.

Shaving the weight off

Only 2 days to go until I fly out to Greenland to hike the Arctic Circle Trail. Today was a good day of packing, unpacking, re-packing and changing the way stuff is packaged. My buddy Daryl, who is a self declared kit junky, came to my house and helped go through all my kit. After much squeezing and pushing, we shaved off about 5kg and reduced the pack volume significantly. With all my food and kit, my hiking pack weighs in at a 30kg. My calorie count should be about 3000 calories per day but my current calorie count was about 2500 calories. So, I've bought some more high calorie snacks to make sure I have enough energy. Sadly, think an excess baggage fee is pretty inevitable.