Day 1
I left Miami around mid-day for Newark and caught my connection to Copenhagen via SAS (6+ hours). The flight over was pleasurable, good food, movies, and even an in-flight monitor allowing you to view the flight from cameras mounted in the front and bottom of the aircraft. Each seat had its own TV screen from which you could select which camera you wanted to view. I waved at Greenland as we passed over.
In Copenhagen I switched to Greenland Air for the 4 hour return flight to Greenland into Narssarssuaq, a former US military base. Greenland Air hit me with overweight charges (I was considerably overweight with all the mining tools I had brought – but was lucky not to be charged the whole way). The flight touched down on-time and I was back in familiar territory. Peter (my partner in Greenland) was there to meet me. He was dropping off the two fellows from the first tour group as they were leaving on the flight I came in on. I got an opportunity to hear some of the war stories, and the enthusiasm and excitement over the finds they made – two very happy customers!
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Once my bags arrived we loaded up the boat and headed for Narsaq. All travel between towns is by boat as there are no roads except for in the town proper. The day I arrived was overcast and rainy - thankfully the last of the bad weather until the last day of my trip. Navigating the waters in the fjords requires a watchful eye - idebergs everywhere. Some are huge, while others are small and innocent (until they take a chunk out of your propeller).
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It was a bouncy one hour ride to Narsaq but I did manage to get a couple of pictures of the Igaliko Complex – one of those on my list to visit (but we never made it). The plateau in the foreground above is noted to be an excellent collecting area for smaller and rare crystal forms - maybe next trip....
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On arrival in Narsaq (“The Plain” in Greenlandic) we dropped the bags at the “hotel” (a very nice room in the basement of a little old lady’s house – complete with sitting room, kitchen, bath – all to myself). Then we grabbed a bite to eat (courtesy of Peter and his gracious wife Judith) – nothing special, just tons of fresh Greenlandic shrimp, snow crab, and smoked salmon – what a way to end the day! Narsaq is a pleasant little town of about 1,000 people right on the water - two stores, a gas station, and a marina. The Illimaussaq Complex can be seen on the left side of the picture above in the background. The mountain to the right towers over Narsaq and is an imposing landmark.
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Travel hours (on the road for 24 hours) caught up with me so I retired to my room to catch some sleep. Of course I was up at 4am (6am Miami time) raring to go. I wandered around the yard of the house I was staying at and found a few interesting rocks – they had obviously been collected from the Illimaussaq Complex. To my surprise, one of them was a 10 lb chunk of highly tenebrescent sodalite! There were also several rounded boulders of sodalite which glowed like orange balls of fire. A taste of things to come....
On to Day 2
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