GREENLAND JOURNEY 2003

At the end of March 2003 we travelled to Greenland together with Terje Thomassen and Andreas Thorvaldsen from the Greenland dog Breed Council. Andreas’ son Rasmus also came along on the journey.

The purpose of the tour was to study dogs, learn about the development of sled dogs and how the dogs are kept in Greenland, and to talk to people who use these dogs in their everyday life.

The trip was a fantastic experience that led to several hundred pictures of dogs and many hours of video film. We had also planned to be spectators at the Greenland Championship Sled Dog Race, but because of bad ice conditions the race was unfortunately moved to another time and place. Accordingly we were not able to attend the race, but we feel we got our share of experiences during our one and a half week stay anyway.

All flights to Greenland are with Air Greenland from Kastrup outside Copenhagen. (At least it was like this in 2003...). Our plane, a big Airbus, started the morning of Tuesday 25^th March. Four and a half hours later we landed in Kangerlussuaq. Because of the 4 hour time difference between Greenland and Denmark, the trip only took “a half our”.

The service on the plane was irreproachable with large amounts of well tasting food and drink (and it certainly should at that price).

One long hour after landing we climbed aboard a Dash 7 heading north towards Uummannaq. The trip took about one our with a fifteen minute intermediate landing at Aasiaat.

Uummannaq is located on an island 12 kilometres square. The airport lies in a village named Qaarsut. From there we had to take a helicopter to get to Uummannaq. This trip took about 15 minutes. On this trip we found out why the Greenland Sled Dog Racing Championship has been moved – the ice had just started freezing on the fjord.

We reached the city in early afternoon Tuesday 25^th of march. Andreas had organized sleeping accommodations at Børnehjemmet, the local orphanage. Børnehjemmet is a story in itself. We recommend contacting them at bhjumq@greennet.gl and also recommend ordering the video “Ice School”. It is made by a French film team and it is in English. The conversations we had with the employees of Børnehjemmet made a strong impression.

Uummannaq came to be a great experience. We surely had great expectations beforehand, but reality beat them all! This was a “typical” Greenland town (at least what we had expected a Greenland town to be like) with richly coloured houses clinging to the mountainsides and there were dogs everywhere. The weather was wonderful, clear skies and about 20º Celsius below zero.

Uummannaq is a typical fishing and hunting district, even if they have lost important parts of their means of a livelihood because of European and North American environmental activists who have no idea what consequences their actions have resulted in.

Many people think of this as the “real” Greenland. Most of the population is dependent of the primary trades and they use sled dogs in the same way they have been used for centuries. The city of Uummannaq has about 2.500 inhabitants. An equal number of people live in the 7 rural districts in the area. And there are about 6.000 dogs in the area…! Many of these dogs are excellent and there is a great variation among them - from very light dogs (nearly Siberian Husky types) to the types that we are most used to here in Scandinavia.

We found none of the old heavy show-type of dogs that were commonly found in Norway in the eighties, but most of the dogs were well built with nicely angled limbs and with good width in the chest. Most of these dogs would probably be awarded high scores at dog shows in Norway. And absolutely the majority of them were good tempered. We also experienced a lot of impressing dog mushing.

In Uummannaq we took a lot of pictures and several meters video film. We are definitely going back!!

We left Uummannaq early in the morning on the 27^th of March. Of course we had to go down to the sea ice to take some photos of the dogs before the helicopter arrived. We especially studied the dogs belonging to a man named Ole Quist. He is a former winner of the Greenland Championship in sled dog racing.

When we reached Qaarsut we had four hours at our disposal before the plane continued further south. The airport is situated approximately a 40 minute walk outside the village. All that was necessary was to walk into town to look at the dogs. And what a reception we were given:

Outside the first house we came to there were a lot of beautiful and likeable dogs. The Inuit who owned them came outside, said hello and played a little bit with his puppies. In the village we saw a lot of great dogs. They were first class both in build and in temper. We would have liked to stay here and pick out dogs to take back home with us! This was another great experience.

After a while the plane went further south and after half an hour we arrived at Ilulissat. It was still quite early in the day.

Ilulissat is Knud Rasmussen’s native town, and the third largest town in Greenland with about 4.600 inhabitants and around 10.000 dogs.

We would be staying here until our planned return to Norway on Friday 4^th of April.

The weather got worse and just after we arrived there was a blizzard and a large amount of drifting snow. We first went to the hostel, a quite all right overnight stop, and then went out on the town and into the drifting snow.

We had an appointment at the veterinarian clinic in the town. This became an unforgettable meeting where we immediately hit it off with the veterinarians Nina Jansen and Pia Bøgeskov Jørgensen. What great people! Talk and laughter were continuous and we were given a lot of valuable information. These two people became very useful (and nice) contacts for us.

Thereafter we had an appointment with the manager of the Knud Rasmussen Museum. This also became an unforgettable time where we spent time talking to the employees of the museum. We learned a lot about dogs now and before, about changes in the dog keeping, changes in the use of them and a lot of old truths were put to the test. Among other things they were incomprehensive to the “fact” that there should be any difference to the dogs of East- and West Greenland.

The day after the weather cleared up. We got the opportunity to look at the city, look at dogs and attend a “mother and child-sled dog race”. Incredible fun! Once again we were impressed about the standard of the dogs, especially the temperament. And we saw how the experts handle a dog-team. Actually there is no problem manoeuvring a dog team of 18 dogs through a crowd, other dogs and on roads full of traffic – for those who know how!

In the afternoon we visited Uno Fleischer and his wife Karo Thomsen and listened to stories and watched films from his fantastic expeditions, among others from Greenland, through Canada and Alaska to Siberia. By the way – he was also incomprehensive to the “fact” that there should be any difference between the dogs from East- and West Greenland. An impressive man who has accomplished incredible feats, anyone who happens to meet him should feel lucky. For us this was one of the highlights of the trip!

The day after, 29^th of March, we were offered a ride in a boat going to pick up a party of Danes in Ilimanaq an hour south of Ilulissat. In spite of the fact that we are live in the mountains many hours from the coast, we are very fond of the ocean. We could not pass this opportunity by.

So, while Terje, Andreas and Rasmus were looking at dogs in Ilulissat, we crossed Isfjorden making our way among fantastic icebergs. An incredible experience. Imagine sailing a classic cutter among drift ice and LARGE icebergs in March! Incredible. The amount of ice the glacier at the head of the fjord calves in one day equals the amount of freshwater used by the entire population of New York City in one year.

The tour was close to spectacular. For a while it looked like we might get stuck in the drifting ice and would have to call for a helicopter to get back.

Ilimanaq was in itself a great experience. A small village with less than 100 inhabitants. There were a lot of fine dogs here as well and we found a much greater variation in colours and types than we had expected in such a small and isolated outpost. They might actually have a larger genetic variation in the gene pool of their village dogs than the whole Greenland Dog population of Scandinavia.

Then came the day for the “big sled journey”, Sunday 30^th of March. This was the climax of the whole journey. We had arranged for 5 dog teams with mushers, but because of a mistake we were only given three. Terje rode one sled by himself (he is a little bit bigger than the rest of us), Andreas and Rasmus rode one, and we the third team, a team of 18 dogs. The tour lasted for a little over 5 hours and we experienced dog mushing on its most spectacular. Instead of trying to describe the ride, we rather suggest people visit us and look at our video and pictures from the tour.

Also the next couple of days were full of events. We visited Wille Siegsted, the man who won the Greenland sled dog Championship in 2002 (he got the second price in 2003), and we studied his dogs closely. He seemed to be a genuinely nice guy who had well built, but from our point of view a bit to light dogs, especially the younger ones. There was on the other hand a big difference between the two year olds ones and the three year olds. The older ones looked a lot better than the younger ones. They had a lot more mass in the bodies and heads. It looked like his dogs needed a few years to fully develop.

We also spent one day acting like genuine tourists, buying souvenirs and products made by sealskin, visited museums and just looked about the city (and not only looking at dogs), and so on.

We had to return home a day earlier than the others because of a death in the family. And for this reason we feel our Greenland tour had an abrupt ending. Early in the morning on the 3^rd of April we took a plane home. For us this has been an enormous experience, which really broadened our horizons. Quite a few old myths were put to an end, we got many new impulses, we established many good contacts, some of our hypothesis were confirmed and last but not least we got a lot of good pictures and video film.

We also learned that if you are willing to spend some money, it is possible to acquire the type of dogs we would like. That means dogs of the most excellent quality. We saw a lot of more dogs that we would have liked to bring back with us, than ones we would not want.

Greenland, we are definitely coming back!

You can find pictures from the tour in the Photo gallery.

Rita & Wiktor