Camp Life
So here's my home-away-from home. Our camp site lies between sand dunes and is a 1/4 of a mile or so off of the road. The road, by the way, at 40km or about 24 miles, is the longest road in Greenland. It leads from the town of Kangerlussuaq to the ice sheet. We drove there yesterday and again today to sample insects and to set up several experiments. I'll tell you more about the science later.
The domed social tent sports PolarTREC contest-winning flags!
I have my own tent and it's big enough for me, my suitcase, all my technology (computer, external battery, camera, satellite phone), and my boots. There are five people sharing this site, the scientist that I am working with, Christine Urbanowicz of Dartmouth College; her research assistant; and two other graduate students from Dartmouth who are working on other projects (having to do with soil and mosquitoes, respectively). We take turns fixing dinner, stopping at the warehouse for supplies, and shopping for fresh foods. In addition, we have a kitchen tent for storing, preparing, and cooking food as well as a social tent which is the domed tent you see above. Inside it houses a table and chairs, an exercise bike, games, toys, and musical instruments. So far I know that Wednesday night is game night, and Uno was played last night. I, however, crawled into my tent and slept very soundly after a day that started at 2:00 a.m. Greenland time (which was 6:00 a.m. Denmark time).
Inside the social tent with its camp-on-the-tundra décor
Dinner of gnocchi with tomato sauce is almost ready!
Our site, as I mentioned above, is very sandy. It sits near a river which runs from the ice sheet to the fjord and then to Baffin Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. If you look carefully, you can see the ice sheet beyond our camp; it's right there in view all day and all night long!
Look past the tent in camp to see the ice sheet 20 miles away.
Now that I'm finished writing, I will go sit outside with the satellite phone and email my words to you via the Iridium satellite phone network. Here goes ...
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