Saying goodbye to Greenland

This morning, lying in our tent at the top of the Hann Glacier we heard the familiar whup-whup of a helicopter heading our way. Our taxi had arrived. We jumped into action, threw sleeping bags in sledges and dismantled our tent in short order. Helicopter pilots do not like to hang around in the cold just in case their birds don’t start again. This would be embarrassing.

I am now safely back in the relative comforts of Tasiilaq, wading through email while Ben has been joyfully reunited with his music collection after forgetting it for the second expedition in a row. Tasiilaq has changed since we left, to be accurate it has melted, and the mountains across the inlet from my hotel room are perfectly reflected in the still water between us. I would say the view was stunning if beauty did not seem so commonplace here.

We are due to fly (via helicopter, then fixed-wing) to Iceland tomorrow before heading back to London and the myriad glories of Kentish Town. Apologies that I wasn’t able to blog from the ice, but we had a little trouble getting my shiny new version of wordpress to work with the home-made software we use on the ice. I hope to make up for it in the near future.

I will do a proper review of the expedition at some point, though, if you haven’t already, check out Ben’s site for the unfolding action. For now, I am relishing getting water out of a tap without having to dig and then melt ice, I am loving that I can have a shower and feel truly clean for the first time in weeks, and I am slightly worried about the colour(s) my face seems to have gone. I have posted a bunch of photos to the Gallery page, if you fancy a squizz at expedition life.