Arctic #11

Arctic #11
We are in the airport waiting for our flight to Copenhagen. We have just had a driving tour of the area. Some interesting facts:
Airport -- abandoned in 1992 and sold to Greenland for $1.00.
Population of "town" -- 1000 in the summer and 800 in the winter. About 50 kids in the schools. One grocery/general store and one convenience store. Housing in apartments for airport employees.
Activities -- tourism (eg tours of the glacier), research, exploration, airport.
The river bed is a huge delta which is quicksand. River small right now. The water is grey with silica. Dogs can't swim in it as they get too weighed down .
Reindeer -- have a shortened life span here as their teeth wear down faster due to the silica dust on the plants they eat.
Lots of perigine falcons who will leave here in a couple of weeks. They eat small birds. The hares are too big for them. Muskox -- about 27 imported and now numbering 20,000. We didn't see any.Also reindeer.
Very pretty area with shiny glacier scraped rocks, small willows (1 to 2 feet high) turning yellow and some low ground hugging red foliage. It's in a wide valley -- hence room for an airport.
We had a zodiac landing today onto a dry dock. Our luggage came that way too. Lovely day with sunshine and no wind. What a treat!!!!
Much later: We are now in Copenhagen. The flight was about 5 hours and they gave us a good meal. We were well looked after at the airport, had a bus ride to the hotel and given our room keys on the bus. No need to stand in line at the check-in counter. It sure is nice to be on a package. We even know our transfer time to the airport tomorrow. In the morning we will see about booking a half day city tour. It is 11 pm here -- either 8 or 9 hours different from BC.