A warm welcome to Tasiilaq: The beginning of the Greenland adventure

A warm welcome to Tasiilaq

Volkert and Wouter finally arrived in the village of Tasiilaq on the east side of Greenland. After a flight from Amsterdam to Reykjavik and from Reykjavik to Kulusuk, they finally reached their destination. Unfortunately, they were somewhat delayed because of the thick fog in Kulusuk. The small airfield there has no beacons, so the pilot had to land on sight with a minimum sight distance of 2,000 meters. Fortunately, it was eventually possible to land safely.

A special gift

Upon arrival, Volkert and Wouter had brought a gift for us. Well, actually, they were my luggage pieces. Yesterday Marijke, Robert and I had already arrived, but my luggage had been left behind in Reykjavik. It was forwarded too late from Amsterdam. Fortunately, my luggage has now also arrived, including my skis, ski poles, first aid kit, pans and warm clothes. The rest of our stuff is still on the boat and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. Then we can finally begin our great adventure.

On the hunt for bullets

Before we leave, we need to hunt for bullets. We have a rifle with us, but currently we only have three bullets. I would like to have six bullets, just in case. So tomorrow we will go into the village of Tasiilaq to look for bullets. It becomes a kind of bullet hunting, rather than bird hunting.

Enjoying the village

Before we begin our great adventure, we want to enjoy the village of Tasiilaq. We will visit the nice little museum here and of course visit the store for our bullet hunting. It is good to relax for a while before preparing for the long trek.

Time difference and accommodation

The time difference with the Netherlands is four hours. At the time of writing, it is about 5 p.m. in Tasiilaq, equivalent to 9 p.m. in the Netherlands. We will eat in a moment, because at seven o’clock dinner will be ready at our lodging, the Red House. The Red House is run by Robert Peroni, an Italian who crossed the ice cap 40 years ago. It is nice to think that now forty years later we are going to make a similar crossing, albeit a little shorter. In fact, our trek amounts to 560 kilometers, still a respectable distance. Peroni’s was over 800 km.

On to adventure

We are happy that the whole team is now complete and the adventure can finally begin. We will enjoy a well-deserved evening meal and prepare for the challenges ahead.

🗺️ Our live position on Greenland.
📢 Read all previous posts.

Sign up for the Expedition Newsflash.

During the expedition, receive alerts of new blogs in your mail.
[mc4wp_form id=”4505″]