We needed to soak up every last ray of sun in October before it left for the winter.
qaanaaq
A snowy day in October
You know “winter is coming” when it’s beating down the door!
And under the door.
But the hares don’t seem to mind.
And the sunset – just a couple of weeks before it disappears for the winter – is, as usual, stunning!
Chris
I’m a noisy paddler!
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
Qaanaaq in September!
The light is failing and you get a real sense that winter is coming. Yeah, I know, that line has been taken, but it was true. You could really feel it in the air.
These slightly fuzzy photos are taken in Qaanaaq during our second year in the far, far north of Greenland. I’ve described the green police “houses” many times in my books, this is one of them. Qaanaaq was also one of the few small villages to have two police patrol cars! There was only one police officer, but he had help from a local police reserve/volunteer.
The father and daughter climbing the stairs on the left of the picture are going up and over the water and electricity cables that run above ground. They are insulated inside long boxes made of wood with bitumen roofs. The “boxes” are the length of the pipes and make fabulous arteries the kids run along… even though they are repeatedly told not too. 😉
Oh, and some icebergs.
Chris
My kind of beach
There’s no dock in Qaanaaq. So the forklift truck drives into the sea to pick up small containers off a small pram sailed into the beach from the supply ship. The supply ship comes once at the end of July(ish) and again in the beginning of September. The Christmas trees – from Denmark – are on the September ship.
The trees are sold in a lottery – first come, first served – and then kept in storage. You can imagine what happens when you pick up your tree at the end of November… as soon as the heat inside the house hits it, all the needles fall off. We did not buy Christmas trees while living in Greenland. Also being delivered is the new ambulance – the bright yellow van at the bow of the ship.
But the beach is the most exciting thing about this whole operation – all those lovely growlers and bergy bits just… beached! Love it!
Ice is a fantastic thing, and these lumps of ice are impossibly old, straight off a glacier.
But we’ll finish off with another photo of the ship!
Chris
Neighbourly inspiration!
After two years of looking out the kitchen (and living room) window, it’s no surprise I ended up writing about the police in Greenland! 😉
Chris
