Duplo's blog

Hi All,

And welcome to a hopefully long awaited Duploworld update.

I have been away for quite some time again, not necessarily because I wanted to, but the real world has been keeping me so busy that updating this blog has been difficult.

Fair to say though that since my last post, my life has been turned upside down, pulled inside out and I am currently feeling better than I have done in years

A large part of that reason actually grew from my visit to the peak of Sermitsiak, but I will save that particular story for another day

I have been hiking extensively, travelling both in Greenland and an extremely beautiful part of the US, not to mentioned passed over Denmark a few times, so I have been a busy and happy boy for a couple of months now

The US story and the trips to Deer Prong Mountain and Qingaaq, I will save for another post later this week, The focus of this post will be to share a round of summer photos and stories from the very beautiful Ilulissat.

The most beautiful place in the world?

Ilulissat, may or may not be the most beuatiful places in the world, but The Icefiord, where above image was captured, sure must be among them.
It has recently been included on UNESCO's world heritage list and that fact alone tells a lot about the unique nature of this place and the stunning beauty which can be experienced here.
Golden Ice

A visit to this area during daylight, impressive as it is, is nothing compared to what happens here when the last days of the midnight sun, starts its game during night.
It gave me a whole new meaning to the term "Golden hour", here it is a powerful and 2-3 hour long experience where colours are changing rapidly in an aboslutely amazing display.
Iceberg

I have never made a secret out of my fascination with this area of Greenland and each new visit seems to bring with it a better understanding of its truly unique nature and stunning light.
Summer is a fantastic season to experience this area, as is winter, autumn or spring.
Amazingly enough there is so much more to this area than shown above....
Fin Whale

Another popular sport is whale whatching, there are an abundance of different whales up along the Greenlandic Coast. the Fin Whale shown above (estimated to a little over 20 meters by the captain) is somewhat rare to see and extremely fast. from a visual point of view it is impressive, but not as fun as the humpbacks, as it rarely shows its tail. But an amazing experience none the less.
Oqaatsut (rodebay)

Oqaatsut is a small settlement a couple of hours (by boat) North of Ilulissat and having the chance to stop by there was an interesting experience, save for it being an odd location for a gourmet lounch restaurant during summer, it is a native fishing and hunting comunity and probably one of the most relaxed places I have ever been.
By the soccer field

The people living here, lives by the hand of nature, hunting and fishing from either boat or dog sled.
It is a settlement so small that no roads exist, there are small trials from the harbour to the houses and dog yards, but aside from that it is basically a small number of woodenhouses situated in the middle of nothing but amazing Greenlandic nature and the Disco Bay.
Nattoralik, by Sermeq Kujalleq

Sermeq Kujalleq or the Icefiord Glacier, is a stunning and dangerous place.
Only way to get there is by helicopter and the ride in there is an experience that I am not likely to forget ever, a truly stunning display.
It is however a glacier that one does not want to walk. more than 7 kilometers wide and moving at a speed of 20 meters per day, means that Sermeq Kujalleq calves off approx. 20 million tons of ice daily and makes it responsible not only for all the icebergs in the icefiord, but also 10 percent of all the icebergs in Greenland.
Sermeq Kujalleq

To understand the kind of force it takes to move all that ice is almost impossible to comprehend, and the endless view amazing. the photo above really does give no clue to the size, but i was simply unable to find a way to display its massive size and beauty.
What an experience it was though:)

Well that comcludes some of the impressions from the trip to Ilulissat.
I am in the process of updating the "Greenlandic Summer Photos 2009" album with a bunch of images as this post hits the blog, so go there if you have not had enough already.

an unusual iceberg

Above is th final image in this post and with that I will head for some sleep.
More posts to come over the next days, both from "Deer Prong Mountain", "Qingaaq" (another mountain) and my trip to the US. So do stay tuned for more in the days to come.

Thank you for reading and do take care:)

Thomas

Hi All,

Actually feels a little odd writing a Duploworld update again after more than two (almost 3 actually) months of absolutely no activity on this blog. Something I am not very proud of admitting as I actualyl quite like community here and the people hanging around here.

I promised back then, that i would slowly be comming back and then stayed away for nearly 3 months, something that may actually not make a lot of sense, but there has been plenty of good reasons for it.
I do not really owe anyone an explanation, but I will at least try, without getting into too many details.

What really matters to me

Is what you see above, being out there in the rough arctic nature, camera in hand or on tripod and just taking in the solitude and magnitude of my northernly paradise.
I have been doing it when ever time permits and since my last post here, walked litterally hundreds of kilometers in the mountains and this ofcourse is largely an explanation of my absense from this community, I am out there where my passion lies - the arctic nature.

Ice covered fiord

Now to get to these places travel is often required and I do travel a fair bit around in Greenland and will be doing it much more durign this summer, I got another 10 days scheduled in the area around the disco bay, where the first photo in this post are from and thus marking the beginning of the "Greenlandic Summer Photos 2009" album.
The photo above is from the fiord in kangerlussuaq, all covered in ice during late spring, ice thick enough to walk on and too thick for any ships to reach the harbour. Winter has been long up here only, the last 2-3 weeks has marked the spring and the arrival of summer.
I have by the way updated the "Greenlandic Spring Photos 2009" gallery with about 20 new photos, the one above being one of them

The magic of the midnight sun

Now most you probably remember talks about a wedding and a move back to Europe and New adventures ahead.
Now it is no lie that this year so far has been new "adventures", it has formed nothing at all like I had imagined and I will cut the story short by saying that in many ways it has been perhaps the most difficult year for me emotionally ever.
Status is that for now i am staying where I am, in my arctic paradise. I am back in charge of my own life and while it has been difficult, it has also been and still is a completely new beginning.
A beginning where no things are being taken for granted and where my sole focus is on taking in as many adventures as I can possibly manage.

The downside is that my posts here are likely to stay somewhat irregular in pattern and at times a little far in between. It will also mean that I will be a rare guest on the blogs that i like to read, but you are all in my thoughts and I will do my outmost to follow up on what you are doing, even though it will not be on a regular basis.

What I can promise though, is that you will still be able to enjoy images of my arctic paradise on this very blog, photography has proven the one consistent part of my life and who I am.

Iceberg at night

So with the photo above I will end this very personal, yet probably incoherent update on what has been and is going on in my life.

Thanks for reading and as allways do take care

Thomas

Hi All,

And welcome to part 7 of the duploworld update on my summer adventure.
Part 7 takes its beginning on our last full day in Ilulissat. The first part of the day I spend on some semiwork stuff, while miss Duplo and my brother went on a small hike in the area.
However it was a day that made quite an impact on us. first we set of on another boat trip.
Iceberg

This time on a larger boat with a couple of turists. Regardless it was an amazing trip and for miss Duplo her first among the huge icebergs.
Compared to the tiny boat we fared in on the first ride, the larger boat gave for a very different feeling when sailing there. We were still close to the large icebergs, but yet more "distant" than the first trip. I was quite surprised by how different it felt. But it did not matter much as the views when sailing the icefiord is absolutely amazing.
Gulls

A fun thing, I do not think I have mentioned earlier, is the huge amount of gulls that are around the icebergs. Probably due to both the ice being convenient Stopovers and the relatively large amount of fishing boats working the waters around these icebergs. The gulls are as much a part of the environment up here as the whales, polar bears, ice and humans are. And they serve as a good warning sign to the rest of us, because if there are gulls on an iceberg you are out of immediate danger.
Greenlandic Sled dog

Ilulissat if I am not mistaken is know as the sled dog capital of the world.
And for a good reason, I would guestimate that in this town dog outnumbers people 2 to 1. They are simply everywhere. Now when we visited Ilulissat they were probably at their ugliest, as they are in the midle of the transition from summer to winter fur. so if the fur looks odd, torn or mistreated it is simply due to the fact that they are slowly getting into their winter coats again, not in anyway mistreatment of the dogs. But I am getting ahead of myself here
As we arrived back on shore EA gave us a most generous offer. We were invited to help him feed his dogs (all 30 of them). we could nothing but accept this offer and the chance to learn more about the dogs, and how sled dog owners in Greenland work with and see their dogs.
A sled dog lot

The photo above shows one of the myriad of dog lots in and around Ilulissat. Each dog slead owner, has been assigned a confined lot to keep his dogs on, when they are not in front of a sled. They look like messy worn out areas, but from what we saw they seemed to work pretty well. The weatherworn sheds, is where the sled dog owners store food and supplies for the dogs and the small dog houses function as shelters for female dogs with puppies.
The lot above by the way is just a random lot and thus not belonging to EA.
Sled dogs or Wolves?

I may have told before, but Greenlandic sled dogs are of a very special breed, they are the only kind of dog allowed North of the Arctic circle in Greenland and even if taken south of the arctic circle they are not allowed back. All done to keep these working animals true to their ancient nature and to keep the race clean. which judging by the look of them is equal part wolf and equal part dog to me. They sound more like wolves than dogs too
They vary a lot in size though, from dogs tall enough to look me in the eyes when standing on two legs, to dogs a fair bit smaller.
EA with one of his young dogs

Now you will hear a lot of stories even in Greenland about mistreated dogs and such. While I am sure some stories are true, then my general impression was that the dogs are treatet just fine, at least the ones I saw.
In EA's case each dog has a name and he was easily able to tell them from each other and seemed to know each dog pretty well. quite impressive when you think of that he has 30 of them.
That said, they are working animals up here and treated as such. They are brought up in a way unthinkable to most of us living in more civilised and less desolate parts of the world.
Yes at first the treatment of say two dogs fighting in a pack seems brutal, but when coupled with the warm and caring way EA generally treated his dogs and the fact that when out and about during winter, the dog sled drivers life depends on these dogs, the picture of it all changed.
An example would be the fact that you in Ilulissat have a full time employed Sled dog hunter. Which sole function is to hunt down and shoot stray dogs.
This may seem like abrutal way to enforce the word of the law, stating that all dog above 6 months of age, must be chained at all times when not in front of a sled. But if one consider that such stray dog may actually inflight serious harm on other and chained dogs and with the huge number of dogs around it is the only practical way to handle things.
I guess I came to accept that the desolate and tough nature as well as the close bond between dogs and owners, along with the deep dependcy of eachother to survive when riding during winter, is a unique set of curcumstances. These curcumstances simply calls for a different behaviour than what at face value seemed acceptable to me.
I am not sure above makes any sense at all, but I sincerely hope so...
a heartbreaker

Is the only fair way to describe the almost newborn puppy EA showed us. Having just opened its eyes for the first time, it was absolutely adorable and the tiny pup almost immediately caught the full attention of miss Duplo. Well the rest of us too to be fair.
All in all I am extremely thankful for the chance to join EA and get the chance to meet his dogs. Above all though I am thankful for the chance to get a tiny glimpse into the culture and life around dog sledding in Greenland and the Greenlandic sled dogs.
This visit marked the perfect ending on our stay in Ilulissat, a stay that I will never forget.
The day after we did a hike of the area again and shortly after flew on to Kangerlussuaq.
To round up this post is another photo that remains a favourite of mine.
a bond of trust

thank you all for reading this lengthy post.
Next up is "Part VIII - the ancient fiordbed and Point 660"

Do take care you all

Thomas

Hi All,

And welcome to part five of the Duploworld summer adventure.
Unstable internet connectivity and travels has delayed it enough, now it is late monday evening, I am dead tired and probably suffering from jetlag, so do try to read around the typing errors and my poor English

the last view towards Eqi

On a very early morning a group of six hikers headed out on a two day hike.
The route we were to follow to the Indland Ice would be along the trails of Poul-Emil Viktor, a French arctic explorer, famous for his explorations of the inland ice in the 1920's or so.
Back then they used tracked vehicles to get there, however we would befollowing their trails on foot.
First part of the hike took us atop a 600 meter tall ridge, where we had our first water break. It also provided the last look towards the Eqi Glacier and what a view it was...
It was amazing just sitting there taking in the Eqi area seen from above.
From here we hiked a large plateau, before finally reaching a tine melting water lake that had enough protection from the surrounding ridges to shield us from the fierce winds that often rage at night near the inland ice.
Hiking towards the "dead glacier"

Having set up a camp and now carrying a little less weight we set off towards the Inland ice, but first we made a "slight" detour to the area where Paul-Emil Viktor originally had his second camp, a place with a wonderful view of the "dead glacier" seen in the photo above.
I guess I do not have to say that it was an amazing place to have lunch but it was
From there we hiked upwards again towards the 600 meter ridge that also marks the entry to the moraine area always found in front of the inland ice and dryland glaciers.
In this moraine area we put on an additional layer (or more) of clothes and prepared our selves to enter the frozen world of the Indland ice. In August the inland ice has already got temperatures below 0C, so extra clothing was indeed needed.
We also went over the security precautions necesarry when hiking on the inland ice.
During summer the area where we would enter, are full of large melting water rivers and lakes, but this late on the season the ice has begun freezing over again, thus lakes and rivers are all covered by a layer of ice and snow, however not thik enough to hold the weight of a person walking trying to cross. Making Indland Ice hiking a potentially dangerous affair.
Entering the Inland Ice

As we were about to clear the Moraine area, we were graced with a sight I will probably never forget.
Part of inland ice had thrusted through the final moraine ridge and now provided a perfect ramp for our ascent to the inland ice (click here for a different view to it)
The muddy grey water colour btw is due to the extremely high content of silt in the water. Silt is rock crushed to fine dustlike particles by the ice. It was an "out of this world" experience to walk up this huge "ramp" of ice and I do not think any of us were prepared for the sight that graced us as we cleared the final moraine ridge....
RM navigating the inland ice

An endless field of pressure ridges, streatching for 150 kilometers before the preasure takes off enough for the ice to settle into the smooth uniform surface people usually thinks of when talking about the inland ice
This area is one of the high preassure zones on the inland ice and we passed an abundance of rivers and lakes covered by ice and fresh snow, thus extreme care was to be taken. our destination was one of the larger ice wells in the area.
The ice well

Ice wells are what the inland ice rivers empties into. I think the best way to describe them is as large holes running the full depth of the inland ice and leading water out near the bottom of the ice.
The one seen above, is a large one and it was amazing to just lie there on the edge with head and shoulders (and camera in my case ) staring down this huge ice well. the colour transition you see is determined by how compressed the ice are, thus you will see it transitioning from white near the top of the well, into bluish deeper down.
the camp

From here we returned to the tent camp, where RM started to prepare a huge pot of rein deer stew.
The rest of us, made ourself useful gethering water and other stuff.
I think it is fair to say that sitting in these surroundings, with 5 wonderful people must have made up for pretty much one of the finest dinners I have had in quite a while. We had a good talk about the hike planned for the next day and the things experienced so far, along with stories from past adventures.
Not to mention the best instant coffee I have ever had (well make that the only decent tasting one )
As the sun set and day turned to dusk, my brother and I did a quick dash up the ridge behind the camp to get a view of the destination for the next days hike...
The "dead glacier" at dusk

More stories about this glacier to follow in part VI, but there just is something about the glooming softness of the light at dusk that I really think fits this glacier well... or at least how I felt while standing there.

Thank you for reading (if you actually made it to the bottom of this ) and do take care
I expect to have the next update up within a couple of days.

Thomas

Hi All,

This Duploworld update is Part III of my Greenlandic Summer adventures and will primarily be on hiking the Ilulissat area, it will also include one of my all time favourite photos.
Hiking in solitude?

Hiking the Ilulissat area was a different experience from what I have come to know from Nuuk.
Mostly due to the high amount of visitors and hikers. In an attempt to preserve the nature, 3 marked routes has been established and any hiking is confined to these 3 paths.
It took away one aspect of hiking that I truly adore, the unmarked terrain and the feeling of being "on my own" in nature. However whatever was taken away hiking a well trotten path, was made up for by the visual impact of the outlet from the Ilulissat Icefiord.
The Icefiord

Above is an atempt to show the size of this place. Now there is actually a fishing boat in it as well, do you see it?
If not go take a look HERE
See it now?
This place is huge and so ice the icebergs floating here. taking in the grand vistas and extremely beautiful nature was a simply amazing. Walking along this huge fiord and equally huge Icebergs really set things in perspective. SOmetime being in this huge nature is a great help reminding me of the vastness and rough beauty of mother nature.
Lunch by the Icefiord

Having followed the icefiord for a while we decided to break for lunch and found a rock (which obviously was pretty easy )well elevated over the icefiord.
Just sitting there with my brother enjoying our humble lunch of blackbread and cheese was a lot more amazing than it sounds and I dare say that it was probably one of the best lunches I have had in quite a while.
And just as we were about to resume the hike, we hear a strange sound, not the loud almost thundering sound of ice against ice, but a swooshy sound far closer to shore...
A humpback whale in the Icefiord

Two humpback whales were slowly making their way up the icefiord. The photo above serve as a pale documentary shot, the actual experience of whatching th two whale making their way up the icefiord left the both of us speachless and we spend another half an hour just whale watching. Not bad for a lunch I think

Form here we set our route past a native settlement and back into town, just in time for dinner at a local café.
A well deserved one I would like to think, It was a long day of hiking, but also a very beautiful day.

Now rounding off this post is what perhaps is my favourite photo from the trip. So without further Adoo.
Rock - Ice - Water


Coming up soon is part IV, which includes the first of 2 visits to the Greenlandic Inland Ice and a calving glacier.
Thanks for reading and do take care

Thomas