| Stranger
in the ice
After four
days of paddling, we reached the Equi glacier. The final day
wore us down as we had to force our way through a compact
sheet of ice debris that became denser as we got closer to
the glacier. On this day we had lunch on a rocky cape. As
Per was fishing I searched the ice-sheet with binoculars and
suddenly... a kayaker surfaced, heading right towards us.
Climbing
the rocks next to the Equi glacier. Everything was enormous
and this image surely fails to show it. Without embedding
a good reference in the image it is hard to convince people
this ice sheet is at least bigger than 10 football fields,
or maybe even bigger than Texas for that matter. Nikon D70,
Sigma 15mm fisheye, 1/2000 sec f/6.3.
The
frenchman, Xavier, who had paddled for 2 1/2 months all the
way from Uppernavik down to Equi, embarked. Happily, he satisfied
our giant stereotype of French people by immediately rolling
out a baguette from a red, white and bleu piece of fabric.
He pointed alarmingly to his barometer and said "The pressure
is zinking.." Soon after he left the cape, heading southbound.
Massive
icebergs got stuck in an iceberg traffic jam in Kangia Fjord.
Nikon D70, AF Micro Nikkor 105mm. 1/60 sec, f/4.
Overnight
our sunshine vacation was transformed into a cold hell. The
sun disappeared from the sky. Clouds, with and without disc
shapes, filled the sky. The winds increased in strength and
the mercury fell to the bottom of the thermometer. The boundary
was exact: from great weather everyday to really bad weather
at all times. The amount of drifting ice increased. We realized
soon that the Northern Wind had arrived and summer was definitely
over. Wet, sick, and demoralized, we followed Per's philosophy:
we drank all the remaining liquor and slept the rest of the
day. We decided to go back to Rödebay.
The
next two days were hard going. We woke up at 5 in the morning
to avoid the worst winds, paddled three long legs and took
shelter. At this point we had quit fishing. We lived solely
on oat porridge and coffee. Luckily, we still had some sugar.
Per
enjoying his fine serving of oat porridge. Nikon D70, Sigma
15mm fisheye. 1/80 sec, f/2.8.
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