Day 35 - June 9 2006

In the morning, Dennis and I went to the airport restaurant with JP, Andreas and Simon where we ate breakfast with them before seeing them off. While there, JP told us that he had heard from Dorthe via Iridium phone. The new group had all made it back to camp on the Skidoos and all was well. She also reported that the lemming had moved from under the boxes on the food line to the trash bags, where it had chewed numerous holes and helped itself to leftover scraps, before building a new nest and making itself right at home underneath the weatherport where it would be warmer and next to the center of activities (and food).


A sign in the Kangerlussua airport showing distances and directions to various destinations.

Meanwhile, a large Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) Airbus, that was to be their flight home, had arrived earlier from Denmark and disgorged some 300 passengers, mostly tourists or Greenlanders returning home. While standing outside on the observation deck after breakfast, JP saw a lady who looked familiar. When he approached her, she looked puzzled at first, but as he introduced himself and talked a smile of recognition came over her face. It turned out that she was JP�s first girlfriend from high school back in Denmark. They had gone their separate ways and had not seen each other in some 20 years. She had been teaching in Greenland and was also returning home. Their crossing paths in such a place proves that it's a small world!


Saying goodby to our friends of the last month in Kangerlussuaq airport (left to right) Bruce, Simon, Dennis and Andreas

A few minutes later, we said a heartfelt goodbye to our Danish friends, hoping we would meet again soon and extending invitations to each other to come visit at our respective homes and institutions. Dennis, Chandini and I then drove JP�s truck up the dirt road along the river that fed into Sonderstrondfjord about 20 km to the edge of the ice sheet. It was nice to see plants and birds and other forms of wildlife, as well as streams and lakes not covered with snow and ice.


A river valley above Kangerlussuaq formed by one of the glaciers that feeds the 105 mile long Sondre Stromfjord, one of the longest fjords in the world.

That evening at the KISS hotel, we ate pizza that Robin Abbot of VECO had kindly supplied, and we chatted with other scientists staying there about the different projects they were involved with in Greenland. We turned in about 9 pm in anticipation of an early flight to Scotia, New York.