Duplo's blog

Hi All

Welcome to the final duploworld summer adventure update. It has been a loong series of updates and the last post is certainly not the least impressive I think.
We got up early, had our breakfast and started to prepare the bikes and luggage for the daytrip.
It would be 40-50 kilometers of mountain biking and 10-12 kilomters on foot in between, add steep terrain and seriously bad Roads or tiretracks and you got one fun trip
However it would also mean that we would only be bringing an aboslute minimal amount of gear, aside from water and food. Thus my D3 and all the big gear were left behind, favouring my tiny Pentax *istDS and 3 Pentax Limited Pancakes, this trip made me appreciate them in a whole new way as we needed to be able to move freely on the bikes.
Sugarloaf

Is the name of the hill where we had our first waterbreak.
Fair to say it was beautiful there. I have often heard talks about how much location means to a house, well the people building the house in the photo above really had a pretty decent understanding of just that.
Form here we continued another good 15 kilometers towards our goal.
The last two were both the funniest and most strenuous, it was 2 kilomters of soft silt, which would be equal to mountain bike in the soft sanddunes of sahara. Not an easy task, but it sure was fun.
When things got too steep to bike, we ditched the bikes and continued on foot.
On foot again

It was a long and warm walk, Kangerlussuaq blessed us with clear blue skies and surprisingly warm temperatures.
And after a while we finaly arrived at our goal. only to find a couple of...
Mindless turists

Above is from the moraine area leading up to the russel glacier and the wall in the background is actually a mix of indland ice and silt.
Now let me explain what is mindless about these turists...
You see those tiny white iscubes they are walking around just, in front of the glacier river?
Well they were dumped off from the active glacier wall they are standing right next to!
I mean if the glacier would feel like calving again, that area is not where you would want to be... to me that is mindless, but luckily nothing happened.
As we walked a little further we finally were able to take in the view of the Russel glacier:
The face of the Russel glacier

The ice lying in front broke off just before we got it into view, however we managed to see it calve 3 times after that and I tell you a calving glacier is something that is amazing to experience up close.
The sound of the ice crashing onto the mountain floor and glacier river is something you do not easily forget.
As we continued along the glacier face, we got to another of natures small wonders.
The Glacier bridge

Well to be honest I like this photo better than any of the other photos I have of the glacier bridge itself.
Seems that mother nature knows how to build bridges entirely on her own
Now from there we continued up towards the upper part of the glacier river.
it was simply amazing.
Taking in the glacier

Now as I think you can readily tell from these photos, the Russel Glacier is smaller than the glaciers we expereinced further up North. We actually even debated whether to go to the russel glacier at all... But we were all very glad we did.
While a small glacier, the Russel glacier has its own unique look and characteristics.
Unlike the "dead" glacier we visited and actually got to touch, the russel glacier is active and the fact that it spills out onto the mountain itself provides for very real feel of just how powerful mother nature is.
One thing is for sure. It was not my last visit to this glacier.
Now I did call it a small glacier, but the photo below should provide you with an idea of just how big a small glacier is:
Turists at the russel glacier

The hike back to the bikes and the ride back was good fun, especially because it was more down than up
Not to mention that we knew getting back meant dinner and after a long day out dinner counts for a lot
We were all pretty bashed that evening and as it was our last and there really only was one thing my brother had not experienced yet... anyone care to guess?
When we looked up towards the stars that night, as on command...
Return of the auroras

It marked a perfect ending on a perfect trip and more experiences than I have ever had in such a short timeframe.
I sincerely hope you hav enjoyed following this story, even though it has been long and picture rich.

Thanks for reading and do take care

Thomas