No sooner had we switched off our laptops from writing blog post 1…that we received a message to say that the ferry was cancelled due to continued bad weather, and that we would leave the following morning. Fortunately, Sømandshjemmet had another room available and we were able to stay the night without too much moving around town.
Staying a little longer was no bad thing – we had recently met an employee from Tele Post who had invited us to their party in the town to celebrate the internet expansion. They had set up a big marquee outside the large Tele-Post office, and there was free coffee, cake, biscuits, jelly beans, and pens. Everyone knows that an academic loves a free pen! Not to mention coffee and cake. A lot of people from the town had arrived, including the police officers, Royal Arctic Line staff, school children, grandparents, and construction workers. We met a nice Greenlandic lady who was asking us about our favourite football teams – she seemed to like Manchester United.
While we had time to spare, we helped the hostel staff take delivery of a treadmill, went for a walk and met a husky puppy, wrote a conference abstract, and went to peruse the local shops.
Before we knew it, the morning had rolled around and we were waiting at the harbour for our boat. It was much smaller than in previous years, but it was very new, with comfortable seats and a radio. It was quite a rough crossing, with lots of waves crashing against the window, so we were glad for a seat indoors. We met a local Greenlandic man travelling with his guitar from Aasiaat to his home town of Qeqertarsuaq, to play a gig in a bar. He asked if we’d join him for a dance – can’t wait for that this evening!
It was good to finally arrive on Disko! Lots of beautiful icebergs in the bay and snow on the plateau. We quickly disembarked the boat, and made a customary stop at Pillersuisoq to pick up some cinnamon swirls, before making the trip across town to Arctic Station.
Much of the town was just as we had left it four years ago – with the addition of a new bar (maybe that’s where our friend will be playing…). Walking up over the bedrock ridge and seeing Arctic Station sat nestled at the bottom of the plateau was a great feeling (especially seeing as it was raining and we desperately wanted to eat the cinnamon swirls). We were greeted by Akaaraq, who had been one of the logistics managers at the station during our previous visits, and it was so nice to see him again!
We are now fully installed at the base chatting to the other researchers, with cinnamon swirls and coffee, and ready to start our fieldwork at last!
Arctic Research Blogs 