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About Greenland



Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and later Denmark) for more than a millennium. In 2008, the people of Greenland passed a referendum supporting greater autonomy; 75% of votes cast were in favour. Greenland is, in terms of area, the world's largest island, over 3/4 of which is covered by the only contemporary ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of 56,370 (2013), it is the least densely populated country in the world.

We all had a good nights' sleep in Qaqortoq and met Frank at the docks at a specific time in the morning. Timing travel for high tide is critical in these parts as we soon learned. We loaded up the boats and headed out for our long journey. This time we were accompanied by Frank's assistant guide Knud, and Inuit who Bill affectionately named 'Knud Dogg.'

Like yesterday we passed lots of icebergs and were treated to quite a show along the way. The ride was long, and uneventful. We saw no muskox but we did see a few reindeer along the way.

We also saw several seals and lots of bird life. But the most remarkable thing was how consistent southern Greenland looked during the entire drive. There are no trees in Greenland, and the landscape is mainly rocky. Some high mountains could be seen in the distance and islands are plentiful. To our north was the ice cap but down in the south it was largely green and barren, similar to the Northwest Territories only without a lot of bushes.

We knew we were getting close when we passed through a makeshift gateway flanked by two reindeer antlers. From there it was an additional hour before we reached Knud's father's camp. It was warm, dry and quite comfortable with all the amenities except electricity and indoor plumbing. We had a flush toilet that drained out into the Fjord provided you poured saltwater into the bowl after each event. It was better than I expected and far more comfortable than I dreamed for such a remote hunt such as this.

Each of us stowed our gear and had an hour to kill before David, our camp cook, would be serving dinner. So Bill Gunther and I decided to climb to the top of two mountains we called "Teet Mountain" since it resembled two female breasts. From there I pulled out my Minox APG binoculars and started spotting muskox. By the time we climbed off Teet Mountain we had counted several dozen muskox just across the bay from camp. This area was loaded with them and that was a welcomed report for Neil and Gary back in camp.

Tomorrow we start hunting.

Traveling to Camp



From Qaqortoq the ride was entirely by boat following Fiords and inside passages that quite often were within site of the North Atlantic. It took us approximately five hours to reach camp with Frank's boat.