Tuesday, 25 September 2018

TUESDAY 25TH - OTTAWA



I appreciate that I skipped yesterday but it was a transit day in that we got off the ship at Kangerlussuaq Fjord, went on a post cruise excursion, got dropped off at the Kangerlussuaq Airport and flew to Ottawa where we will remain until 6:00am tomorrow when we fly to Mexico.

Unfortunately it is a miserable drizzly day in Ottawa so, although we have explored some of the nearby city, it is not a great day for walking.

Yesterday was interesting in that we saw two glaciers, the Rossiter glacier and the Reindeer glacier but they were completely different to the extremely productive glaciers we had seen in recent days. Unfortunately our glaciologist Colin wasn't with us so we couldn't get an explanation as to what was going on.
 
 
Far from producing large icebergs, these glaciers finished a long way from the ocean and produced only a modest stream of melt water coming from their bases.

The airport was interesting. It was built as an American Air Force base in 1941 but the Americans ceased using it in the 1980's. It is now the only airport (and large bit of flat ground) in Greenland capable of accommodating large commercial jets so it is a transit point where people flying to Greenland come there and then disperse to smaller airstrips in smaller aircraft. The town of Kangerlussuaq exists for no other purpose other than to service the airport.

Travelling day again tomorrow in that we take three flights to get from here to Leon in Mexico where we link up with Therese and Mario on Thursday morning.


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