April 29th (Day 28)
It snowed last night – but it sounded more like rain falling on the tent. True enough, in the morning we emerged to find our pulks covered in that nasty wet type of snow we expect in the UK – but not in the Arctic.
We skied for the first hour before breaking out into a line again to chat for the rest of the day.
In the morning I noticed black lumps on the ice – from a distance they looked like rocks. But after a couple of minutes I realised that they were seals resting by their breathing holes in the ice. All through the day we saw seals basking on the frozen sea and occasionally dropping back through the ice and into the water below.
Later in the afternoon we passed some huge icebergs. By this time the weather had warmed up and I was getting dehydrated. My water for the day, made from boiling up snow this morning, was quite salty because the sea ice had clearly leeched its salt into the thin snow covering we had to use.
We finished the day just 14 miles from Grise Fiord! With binoculars we can see some outlying buildings but not the town itself - not yet. Tomorrow we hope to cover the final miles and complete our month long journey. Let’s hope for another day of good weather, but even as I write this I can hear that the wind has picked up again...
It snowed last night – but it sounded more like rain falling on the tent. True enough, in the morning we emerged to find our pulks covered in that nasty wet type of snow we expect in the UK – but not in the Arctic.
We skied for the first hour before breaking out into a line again to chat for the rest of the day.
In the morning I noticed black lumps on the ice – from a distance they looked like rocks. But after a couple of minutes I realised that they were seals resting by their breathing holes in the ice. All through the day we saw seals basking on the frozen sea and occasionally dropping back through the ice and into the water below.
Later in the afternoon we passed some huge icebergs. By this time the weather had warmed up and I was getting dehydrated. My water for the day, made from boiling up snow this morning, was quite salty because the sea ice had clearly leeched its salt into the thin snow covering we had to use.
We finished the day just 14 miles from Grise Fiord! With binoculars we can see some outlying buildings but not the town itself - not yet. Tomorrow we hope to cover the final miles and complete our month long journey. Let’s hope for another day of good weather, but even as I write this I can hear that the wind has picked up again...
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