I am in Greenland!
This morning Keith and I woke up at 0530 and went for a walk on the snow. Our body clocks are pretty out of whack after all the travel and the time difference. I was semi tempted to find an icy pool to plunge into, but didn't come across one. I settled for a hot shower instead.
Standing in the shower I tried to get my head around what lay ahead of me, but it was too overwhelming. I miss my partner so much, when i get like this in my head she can bring me back to earth. The thought of being reunited keeps me positive...
I headed back to my room and began to pack everything into dry bags.
We had lunch and a meeting then got prepped to be picked up. Before i knew it we were climbing up into the back of a big unimog, the drive was two hours long. Reality began to sink in as we drove across the snow, it was getting colder and colder. The snow and ice stretched on as far as the eye could see. Beautiful but daunting.
We drove past the Ross glacier, it was breathtaking, the tall ice walls thrusting up into the sky. I could have stayed there for hours exploring and taking photos, photos that would never do it justice.
Once we arrived at our start point we unpacked and geared up. Even once I had all my gear on I was still cold, I kept telling myself it was because I had been sitting still for so long.
We huddled together for a group photo, I could feel the excitement coming from us as a group, it was awesome!
We were off... sort of. We were all trying to find our feet with our skis on, stumbling and tripping, slipping and sliding. At one point my skis fell over and I ended up flat on my face!
It is so beautiful here, the white waves of ice shine translucent blue in the sun (Yes, the sun!). It doesn't get dark, this allowed us to walk until 1900 before we set up camp and cooked dinner.
For the trip we carry 25kgs of food, on the menu tonight was freeze dried pasta with pork, mmmm I love pork. We all ate together in one big tent then did our frost bite checks, Ears, hands, feet and toes.
I snuggled into my sleeping bag, tucking myself away from the -19 degree air. Today was so awesome, I feel great, I would give today 9.5 out of 10! The only thing being I miss Ngaio and I know that won't be getting any better.
Looking forward to getting back onto the ice in the morning!