May 23, 2025
Daily photo from Greenland
Daily photo from Greenland
The more I think about it, the more I realise the town (big village) of Upernavik really made an impression on me. It is an island, and I was used to living on an island, but it had a different feel. Whereas the roads and “urban” areas of Uummannaq Island stretch around the island, Upernavik is more compact and built on gentler slopes.
Of course, here, in polar bear country, the graves are built above ground because of the rock upon which the town is built. The graves have been plundered by hungry bears in the past, and that makes for fun stories like The Perfect Grave.
Ah, you see what I did there, don’t you?
A not-so-subtle segue from talking about Upernavik to pushing a story about Petra and Luui and plundered graves in Upernavik.
Shameless, of course, but I think that’s the point. Often, when a story idea starts bubbling, and I’m wondering where to set it, Upernavik pops into my head and it just feels right.
Upernavik is also the island one lands at when flying to and from Qaanaaq in the far north. It’s interesting that the route takes one close to the American Pituffik Space Base, and if we encountered bad weather (not unlikely) or experienced technical difficulties, we were supposed to divert to the US base. Which is when my problems would begin, as the base is considered American soil, and being a non-Greenlander and not even a Dane, I would need a visa, which I didn’t have.
Yeah, I didn’t like the prospects of being ‘stranded’ without a visa with the Americans.
I was just flying home.
So every time we lifted off from Upernavik, and the pilot pointed the nose of the de Havilland Dash 7 in a northerly direction, I hoped for clear skies.
Eight days…
Wait? Really?
Yes, you guessed it, I’m plugging Target Greenland again today. ;-)
But I’ll be brief.
Wish I was there! 😍