Authentic Arctic Crime books and Thrillers
I’ll let the pictures do the talking for this one.
But, when paddling with my colleague, Dan, I discovered I was a noisy paddler. 🙂
I was slow, too. But the views made up for it.
Of course, they were the same views from the house, the school, and the store, but it was fun to paddle where we would soon be walking when the ice returned.
Chris
It’s a tough life! We took our first sea kayaking trip in our own backyard, putting the kayak into the water on the slipway beside the hospital – Jane’s workplace, and simply heading south.
One of the best campsites we found is at the bottom of Salliaruseq Island, about 25-30 km from our house on Uummannaq Island. There’s a lovely little bay of sand and tiny lumps of gravel and a semicircle of granite protecting the campsite. You still have to drag the kayak a fair way up the beach in case a wave from calving iceberg drags the kayak out to sea. But otherwise, you’re good.
Fresh water is a million or so years old, and easily plucked from the sea as brash from the same icebergs that we paddled past. And entertainment is provided by the birds nesting in the rock walls. Of course, when something “bigger” comes along, the birds give you a heads up to grab the camera.
Life is tough and I miss this life!
Chris
We dubbed our double kayak Bombus Polaris, after the Arctic bumblebee. Yellow was our preferred colour, with the idea that if we got into trouble we would be easy to spot.
Unfortunately, the hull was black, so if we capsized, we would be nigh on impossible to find.
Hmm.
We decided not to capsize.
But that’s another story for another blog. The top photo is a sneak preview from one of our summer trips – more on the way.
Oh, and if you’re counting the kayaks, we had three in Greenland. And we built all of them in the living room, just for fun.
Chris
I warned you about the deluge of kayaking photos coming your way. Remember? I did. Honestly. Well, I’ll start you off gently, as gentle paddling was what we did at the end of May when there was still plenty of ice about.
These colours though – I’m not manipulating the photos at all. It’s like everything else about Greenland – a land of contrasts and opposites. I always found it odd to think I had been running dogs across the ice where I was suddenly sitting in my kayak.
Damn, I miss it!
I’ll just have to go and write another book!
Chris
Seasons change. If you’re following this blog you’ll have been bombarded with winter pics these past few months. Well, with the break up of the ice, the dogs could enjoy a summer off, and I switched to a kayak to explore the fjord and to go looking for whales.
More … lots more… kayak photos on the way.
You’ve been warned. 😉
Chris
Jane and I spent our summers paddling in Greenland. We bought a folding kayak from Folbot. It was their “Greenland II” model. So, naturally, we sent photos of the Greenland II in Greenland.
The photos went down well. 🙂 Here’s another:
So, when I decided to do a solo kayak expedition for a month in Uummannaq Fjord in 2010, I wondered if Folbot was interested in sponsoring the expedition with a solo kayak?
Absolutely, was the answer, or words to that effect.
Knowing that delays were the norm in Greenland, we agreed they would send the kayak a year early. So in April 2009 it arrived!
Folbot kayaks and folding kayaks like them are inspired by the traditional Greenland qajaq – a traditional skin-on-frame kayak. The frame was typically built from driftwood (no trees in Greenland!) and bound together with sealskin cord. Binding it allowed the frame to flex in the waves, absorbing the shock and allowing a qajaq to cope with more turbulent seas than the hardshell kayaks made of fiberglass and plastic today. The skin was sealskin, stitched to fit the frame.
The Folbot kayak – the sponsored model was the Kodiak – also absorbed the waves, but whereas a qajaq is super light and super fast, the Folbot wasn’t. 😉 But then I didn’t need it to be fast, I needed it to carry me and a month’s worth of gear, which it did admirably.
I took it out for a trial run in July 2009 – sneak peek below:
There’s a reason there’s a camera is strapped to the deckbag. More on that later when we get to the summer months!
Chris
P.S.
If you’re following this blog, you’ll know I’m digging through the hard drive and pulling out photos from the same date in Greenland, Canada, Alaska … even Denmark!
P.P.S.
Folbot, sadly, doesn’t exist anymore.
P.P.P.S.
Damn! I miss Greenland!
