I made some more photos in Thule, including an Airbus from Air Greenland, which arrived this morning. I also took a picture of the Herc. The flight to Alert was quiet, breathtaking views of Greenland and Ellesmere Island as we made up our way North. Surprisingly, the gravel runway at Alert was smooth as the tarmac in Thule. Some introductory words from a customs officer and we de-boarded the plane.
Finally I am in the northern-most permanently inhabited settlement of the world. Exciting 🙂 After a short bus ride, we had a warm welcome at the base, everybody assembled and clapping. Nice. As people departed right away – same thing, their names were read out loud, when people left. Brad, who runs the GAW lab welcomed me and showed me around – I got a nice room in the Vimy house of the complex. Bathroom on the corridor, but I have a sink in my room including TV and a DVD player. Everything is a bit older than at Thule, but nice and clean – comfy. First lunch at 82 deg North was excellent, including a salad bar and great views. At 1 pm there was a “Welcome briefing”, nothing surprising, mostly rules, but useful information. For the rest of the day I unpacked my equipment. I have a big table and everything should fit there, if I use the GC box as a table too. I am missing a power bar (make note for next time 🙂 but it should not be a problem to get one here. I have already set up the MilliQ unit and it is working well. None of my stuff is broken – everything looks alright including the GC.
Tomorrow I would like to get the GC online. At night the houses played a night of Trivia. Questions were announced over the local radio station and the houses phoned in the answers. We were leading until the last question and for that we had to bet some of our points and we chose all but one – and lost (wrong answer for a hockey question!), very enjoyable anyway.
