Friday 5th August - Adventure in the wilderness with Jens-Pavia - Day 1

In May 2022 I received the disappointing news that my 3 day, 2 night wilderness camping and kayaking tour, the final hurrah of the holiday, had been cancelled, possibly due to lack of numbers (minimum 6, maximum 12). The immediate alternative was a day tour from Kangerlussuaq, meaning an extra two nights in Kangerlussuaq. As you will have picked up from previous pictures, Kangerlussuaq is a little short in the entertainment stakes and I simply couldn't bear the thought of ending my holiday there. However the wonderful Charlotte at Travelbee came up with an alternative:

"So I’ve spoken with my favourite guide in the area and he can offer you a private hiking tour into the wilderness with camping.  Jens-Pavia is an incredible guide and you would learn more about his life as a wilderness guide and hunter and stay with him in simple camp (outside toilets and cooking). It is true wilderness and one of the highlights from when I went on my Greenland trip."

This sounded incredible and I leapt at the chance. There was a small extra added to the bill, but when the total bill is this big (whatever you are thinking, double or triple it), there was no way that I was going to compromise on a relatively small extra. 

BEST. DECISION. EVER.

I was due to meet Jen-Pavia at the hotel reception at 8:00am, and, bang on 8:00am, as I approached from the rooms corridor, a tall bearded man carrying a huge rucksack walked up the stairs from the airport.  "Jens?" I asked. "Jens-Pavia," (he corrected me - Jens is a common name, particularly it appears, amongst Greenlandic guides). "Are you Cicely?".

The best picture I could find on the internet of Jens-Pavia. Although his former company, Greenland Outdoors, has a website, the outdoors is clearly far more important to Jens-Pavia than the internet and social media. He's only just acquired a smartphone (like my previous one - donated second hand by a friend that couldn't believe the stone-age technology he was using).

After some brief introductions and discussions about what I needed to bring, we went to meet our transport outside the hotel. Jens-Pavia's main mode of transport is foot (or dog-sleigh in the winter) so he outsources vehicle transfers to Albatros Arctic Circle, which arrived 100% punctually both for the departure and our return 2 days' later. 

We were a little surprised that our transport for the two of us was one of the huge lorries used to for the previous day's icecap tour (on return we were picked up by the chief executive of the company in his SUV - whoever's available!), however 30 minutes later or so we said goodbye at the end of a dirt road in the middle of the tundra.

The 'before' photo at the drop-off point .. but you could use it for the 'after' photo as well

From there, we started on our our 14km hike to the campsite which Jens-Pavia had prepared the previous day. Although not living up to Kangerlussuaq's 'Miami of the North' nickname, the weather was perfectly fine for trekking. A very light rain, quite a stiff breeze and not too cold.

Jens-Pavia is the ideal guide and companion, walking at a speed which seems perfect (without having to ask) and easy to chat to, whether about his childhood in Nuuk or how to sex a musk ox skull (it's all to do with the head-butt padding!) and everything in between including our shared lactose intolerance and the politics of hunting and colonialism. We quickly settled into a comfortable rhythm, chatting or simply walking, stopping to look at animal remains and working out if they had died from hunting or natural causes (all depends on the distribution of the bones), learning (in my case) to distinguish musk oxen from rocks (not that easy...), with short breaks for a snack or to ditch clothing as it got warmer.

(Left) a mature female musk ox skull, (centre) a young male skull. The head padding was insufficiently developed to protect from the violent head-butting that would be required for a mature animal. (Right) With the full skeleton in place, the male musk-ox would have died in this position and not from hunters who would have selected the meatiest parts to transport. Moving a 1 tonne whole musk ox is not an easy task.

 Views of the wilderness we trekked across, with our first sighting of musk oxen (right) and Jens-Pavia describing the geography on one of our breaks, with an intimate knowledge of every hill, lake and river.

After about 4 hours, the tents came into view, with Jens-Pavia admitting some relief that they hadn't been blown away in the night. He'd discovered just days earlier, that his usual camping spot was being used by a group training about 10 of tomorrow's Greenlandic wilderness guides so he had had to search for an alternative. Finding a dry and flat patch, with a view and access to a good water source takes some doing, so we were camped at the top of a ridge about 3km further than the original site, which was a little breezy but nonetheless very toasty once inside the tent.

Once we'd dropped off our rucksacks, we took a quick walk to the top of nearby hill to survey our surroundings before a welcome pre-dinner nap.

(Left) a view of my tent looking back towards Kangerlussuaq with the lake that would be our source of water on the left, which (like most of my accommodations in Greenland), had a great view of the ice, in this case the ice sheet. (Right) Jens-Pavia preparing our delicious dinner of fresh musk-ox stewed with dried vegetables and coconut in a sheltered hollow a little distance from the tents.

From his spot in a lee a little way from the tents, Jens-Pavia rustled up a delicious stew of fresh, and extremely tender, musk-ox in a creamy coconut sauce using firewood from the dwarf willow that we'd picked up along the way in a very efficient wood burning camping stove. Some years ago Jens-Pavia discovered Maggi's coconut milk powder in a store close to his in-laws in Denmark., An extremely versatile ingredient, particularly given the increasing incidence of lactose-intolerance, he returns to the store every time he's in Denmark to stock up as it's difficult to find in Greenland or (his current residence) of Norway. I've discovered that it's in UK supermarkets (in the 'World Foods section) and will be adding it to the weekly shopping list! 

I popped down to the lake to fill the water bottles, and we finished dinner off with a cup of freshly brewed tea and energy bars, hordes of which I'd brought from the UK and not yet used, before Jens-Pavia did the washing up sparingly using the remaining hot water.

Knowing that it was pretty chilly that night, I snuggled into the beautifully warm and cocoon-line sleeping bag provided in the tint dressed up in my thermal long underwear and T-shirt, only to have to discard the leggings due to being too hot. It's amazing how a lightweight tent and sleeping bag can provide so much warmth.. I soon drifted off to sleep lulled this time not by the calving glacier, but the wind against the tent.