Travels of an Arctic Hare, Part Four: Dling Goes Off

Posted on September 4, 2013 by McPhedran

Dling, the Arctic Hare, drifted on his iceberg for days and days. It was always light.He was happy tucked alone into his icy alcove, watching the world drift past, but thought too much about what happiness really was and that made him less happy than when he had started thinking about it. The iceberg became caught on the rocky bottom and so Dling got off. The beach was long and rocky. Pieces of ice lined the sand. He sat in the sun, thinking, and the whole issue of happiness came up again, and so he ran up the steep sandy slopes to get his head to shut up. He scurried up through the Arctic Willow and Bearberry. He climbed and ran around the boulders and darted through a long line of oil barrels that went and found himself face to face with a wobbly looking old woman. “Hello, little bunny.” Dling shrunk himself down.

“You’re a funny bunny. A funny bunny! Don’t be scared, funny bunny. I’m your friend.. My name’s Maggie. What’s yours?”

“What you got there?” A scratchy squeaky voice asked behind her.

“It’s a bunny! A funny bunny.”

“Get him in here.”

“He’s scared.” She turned back to Dling. “Aren’t you?”

“It’s okay, funny bunny. You can come join us when you like. You can have some nice warm willow soup.”

Dling didn’t move. He didn’t even like willow soup. Maggie’s big face vanished. But Dling could still hear her whisper. “He’s scared.”

“Of course he’s scared, Margaret. He’s a rabbit. He knows we’re going to eat him.”

“Shh. You have to be quiet, Abraham.”

“I am being quiet.”

Dling backed straight slowly away and then realized he was trapped. The oil barrels were everywhere.

Travels of an Arctic Hare, Part Three: Dling Makes Haste

Posted on August 3, 2013 by McPhedran

Dling wanted to stretch out his legs, but he didn’t. He held himself tight. He was going to stay just as he was until he sorted everything out in his head. He remembered his search for Gigo. He had climbed up to Gigo’s special place for watching the ice fall but he wasn’t there. Dling climbed higher and sideways and then down again. That was when he saw the gray-tinged paw sticking out from the ice. Gigo had been crushed. Dling rushed down to tell the others and was shocked to see an eagle towering over Piff. Dling was about to kick rocks at it when he saw that Piff was feeding the bird with the red berries and sticky branches. And then Stub was behind him, kicking him down. This was where it became very difficult to remember. Dling jumped up the rocks. Stub punched his paws at him and Kijo was there too, her eyes red and crazy. The bird whirled up, swinging its great wings around and tore straight at Dling. Dling’s paws barely touched the rocks and ice as the claws caught his ears and shoulder and spun him upside down and down in fluffy, bumpy ball. He went around and around until he crashed into this place and stayed still, hunched and quiet. The shadows swirled over his head and the thumping of feet thundered all around, and then it was quiet. And he waited. He finally stretched out his legs and stood up on his hind legs. There was no one. No bird or hare to be seen. And the Great Water was just down below, an iceberg too. He went down to that and waited for the water to carry him off to a better place.

Greenland State of Mind

Posted on July 31, 2013 by McPhedran

The wide expanse of Greenland offers perspective. Cold and stark, vast and relentless, the ice and rocks render the observer smaller than small, the tiniest thing, nothing at all. The land couldn’t care less about politics, philosophy, rights or beliefs, nor even global warming or nuclear annihilation. It does not listen nor offer thoughtful looks. It gives no comfort nor acknowledgement. It will be here long after humanity has run its fretful cycle, long after the next bacteria has had its day. Everything means nothing, nothing everything. And as much vertigo and agoraphobia as this might inspire, it is a wonder to behold. It doesn’t matter what is thought, what is screamed; it will remain, silent, deaf and indifferent. And there’s peace to be found in that.

Rocks of Greenland

Posted on July 30, 2013 by McPhedran

While the ice-scape dominates Greenland, the rocks can be stunning as well. Churned up by the glaciers, left in the moraine, popping out of the sand, dotting the coastline, almost as if they are watching.

Rockwell Kent in Greenland

Posted on July 29, 2013 by McPhedran

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), an enigmatic artist from New York, spent an extraordinary year painting on a remote island in Greenland in 1931-32 and went on to write a book about his experience, Salamina. We went to see the country; I, to paint. (266) Painting; painting incessantly. Pursuing beauty in bewilderment at its profusion, greedy to get in one short year the whole of what might thrill a man a lifetime. (315) Let all your dreams have been of warmth and tropical luxuriance; let what at last is given you be bare, bleak, cold, in every way unlike your thoughts of earthly paradise, your chameleon soul cries out, “By God, I love this barrenness!” (22) One may speculate – I often do – on what we need, what human beings need, to be contented. On whether books and ark, or work, or leisure, or fresh air, or so many pounds per week of potatoes, oatmeal, meat, or love; what do we need? It would be good to know. (161) The beauty of those Northern winter days is more remote and passionless, more nearly absolute, than any other beauty that I know. Blue sky, white world, and the golden light of the sun to rune the whiteness to the sun-illumined blue. (197)

Silent Danger: Icebergs Calving

Posted on July 28, 2013 by McPhedran

We hiked along the Ilulissat Ice Fjord Trail on our third day in Greenland. We wanted to go down to a bay but were warned away. I considered this perhaps an overstatement – after all there were no glaciers here and thus no real sense of danger as that captured in this well-known Greenland tsunami video – but we nonetheless heeded the posting and continued along the ridge. A small trail then led down to a secluded cove filled with fantastically delicate forms. We couldn’t resist that. I broke off a piece and tasted the frozen water – cold and clean, a tad salty – and then we climbed a small cliff.

We hadn’t even time to sit when the water suddenly surged – not a tsunami, but a swell of several feet – and crushed everything we had just photographed. (The end of which I caught on video.)It remained silent throughout – except for the swirling water and ice – as the force that could have dragged us out into the cold washed back and forth and slowly abated. We sat and thought about that.

The WOR tourists of Greenland

Posted on July 27, 2013 by McPhedran

The biggest problem with tourism in Greenland is the price. A return flight from Reykjavik is over $1300, day trips average around $250 per person and accommodations are in that same range.Even the hostels are expensive ($60-75 per night) as are food and drink. The fallout is that the silence and beauty is only for those who can afford it, most of whom are white, old and rich, or WORs. While many of these people come across as adventurous and young at heart, there is a disheartening proprietorial sense, the 1% surveying the stunning ice-scapes as their exclusive right. All of which acts as a reminder for exactly why this planet is going to hell.

Paul-Emile Victor’s Arctic Garbage

Posted on July 26, 2013 by McPhedran

Although today’s tourists are well schooled on not leaving their trash behind, it certainly wasn’t the pattern of the past. Paul-Emile Victor led a number of scientific expeditions from the Eqi Glacier Polar Camp in 1947-51, during which he determined that Greenland was in fact composed of three separate islands, all hidden under the ice.Over the years, he and his colleagues left behind many reminders of their presence, including oil drums… sled tracks… other detritus…and of course the shed…now filled with graffiti of who has been there since.

Icebergs & Glaciers in Greenland

Posted on July 25, 2013 by McPhedran

80% of Greenland is covered by snow and ice. It is a mass so big that, if it were to melt, the oceans worldwide would rise seven meters, drowning many coastlines, while Greenland would actually rise. Ilulissat is on the west coast where many glaciers and ice flows meet the ocean, including the Ilulissat Ice Fjord and Eqi Glacier, both of which are major tourist attractions due to the melting ice. The Ilulissat Ice Fjord is densely packed with icebergs, moving gradually out to sea at a rate of 19 meters per day, producing 35 cubic kilometers of ice every year. It takes almost three hours to pass through the maze of ice by boat – a distance of 5 kilometers. The Eqi Glacier, which is retreating a rate of 15 meters per year, meets the ocean directly, with massive sheets and chunks of ice dramatically calving into the ocean several times every hour. It is a remarkable and sobering event to witness, the sound of which is reminiscent of approaching thunder or a massive door being slammed shut in an empty room.

Ilulissat, Greenland

Posted on July 24, 2013 by McPhedran

Ilulissat, a town of 4500 people, is the hub for tourism in Greenland; it sits at 69 degrees north, 120 miles above the Arctic Circle.The tourists come to see the icebergs which surround Ilusissat in the summer months. English isn’t commonly understood, although the youth appear to know a word or two. There is a stark aspect to the town – water piping strapped to exposed bedrock, sled dogs tied up everywhere and a dusty sports field at the center. However it’s the surrounding ice and the light that draw all of the attention.