Pole Position

We were headed for Nalunaq, located at the southernmost tip of Greenland, a spit away from the Arctic Ocean, where the population is, well, zero. However, as our ship entered its berth, it was heartening to see a couple of human forms running about with ropes ready to tie the ship. Later we discovered that our excitement at entering Nalunaq was matched by the excitement of the people receiving us8212;the place receives only four ships a year! And the folks on land were mostly residents of Nanortalik, the nearest inhabited town, and a quaint place of 300 inhabitants, who live in colourful, extremely well-insulated houses. They were in Nalunaq to work in the newly discovered gold mines.

We got our gyan about Greenland from Cowen, a Scottish ice expert, settled in Canada, whose self-confessed fascination for ice saw him specialising in the Arctic region.

The lore of the early Norse settlements, said Cowen, a regular visitor, was as fascinating as the beauty of the icebergs. 8216;8216;No two icebergs are the same,8217;8217; said Cowen. The Vikings believed in a higher world8212;where dwarves, elves, giants and gods fought ceaseless battles. The stories span the Creation of the World, the Gods and Man, to Ragnarok8212;the Coming of the End of the World.

The Vikings first reached the island in the 10th century from Iceland. Danish colonisation began in the 18th century and Greenland was made an integral part of Denmark in 1953. The island was granted self-governance in 1979, though the Danes continue to exercise influence over it.

The ground in Nalunak was covered with a moss-like growth and our feet seemed to sink into the ground as we walked. We were in Greenland in June and the foothills were bereft of ice. But there was evidence of powdery snow on the higher reaches of the island.

We wound our way down to the mines where local workers with flushed-red faces waved at us, and then fished out their cameras! We took their pictures, they took ours.

Nuggets of information about the place also came from the jovial Peter Buhl, a Dane turned Greenlander. Proud captain of the tug Viking Naja, Peter has been in Greenland since 1989. He came to Greenland on a diving assignment and decided to stay back, settling down in Nuuk, the capital, five hours away from Nalunaq.

Peter8217;s not an exception. Despite the harshness of the country8217;s climate 81 per cent of it is ice-capped the desire to migrate to, well, greener pastures, is not common, even among the youth. What is far more worrying, said Buhl, is the alcohol addiction, rampant amongst Greenlanders, a result probably of the significant unemployment that exists in the country.

But Greenland8217;s social set-up is more egalitarian than a lot of other countries, helped possibly by the low population. People convicted of a crime in Nuuk are asked to spend a specific amount of time at a government-run house. The length of stay is commensurate with the type of crime. In many cases, the wrongdoers are allowed to work during the day, but forced to go back to their 8216;cells8217; for the night. People who commit serious crimes have to get involved in community work.

Our departure from Greenland was pretty nerve-wracking. Our ship had to avoid about 50 icebergs and a brooding fog made matters worse. It had taken us two hours to dock at Nalunaq, it took us 20 hours to exit.