Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
I can’t say that we set out at first light since I am not sure when the first light was as the sun never set during the endless polar days in Greenland. But it any case, let’s just say we were out early and hopped onto a boat, once again. But this ride would take us considerably further up north than our boat the previous night where we meandered about the icebergs not too far from the little town of Ilulissat.
On this ride up north through the famed North-West Passage, we were to get face to face with a massive calving glacier, to see the dramatic chipping and crashing of ice into the icy waters, rocking our boat in more ways than one. And when I say boat, I mean a steel reinforced heavy vessel, so you can imagine the force with which the ice was falling. These chunks of ice falling were the size of 10 story buildings and the glacier they were falling off from was wider than a city block.
After being dazzled by the Arctic’s elemental display, we had to walk the plank, but not literally of course. We had an immense gale coming towards us from the ice cap down toward the coast where we were. The guards gave us a helping hand otherwise we would definitely have fallen into the freezing blue & white waters below.
Upon reaching, we were taken to a warm cabin where we were given the keys to the greatest possible room with a view (and one that was somewhat affordable). Honestly, we are used to staying in some lousy places, since the rooms are not a priority for us, but this one had a view to die for – it had the view of the glacier. And remember you are in the Arctic and so here a ‘view to die for’ can quickly become a ‘view to die from’ (I am just being dramatic; it was very safe).
Then it was time to eat and we went into a very fancy restaurant, inside a warm cabin, not too far from our warm little red room. This fancy restaurant came as a major surprise to Richa and I, considering the part of the world we were at. This is the advantage of joining an expedition meant for the ‘almost’ ultra-rich. No expense spared, as spoke with aplomb the fictional John Hammond in Jurassic Park. We felt rather out of place actually and didn’t know what to order from the ‘Greek’ menu (saying so since it was all very Greek to us, being non-foodies as we are).
I think I had some ‘exotic’ reindeer and frankly it wasn’t that great as the meat was quite chewy. This may be one of the reasons why I am becoming more and more vegetarian as I am growing older. Richa, being a preferred vegetarian, didn’t have many options (she eats non-vegetarian only when there is no choice). While the world now is well past the stage that ‘fish’ is ‘vegetarian’ (that is a stereotype), but here the chef actually didn’t understand how we could ask for vegetarian food in the Arctic where they had no green fields and farms (remember, the word ‘Greenland’ is misleading). So, he actually suggested we have fish and then I had to say ‘no-meat’. Thankfully, because of the amount of dollars being burnt here by everyone, they actually gave Richa some sort of a purple-brown rice with lots of nuts, berries and some potatoes and I am quite sure it didn’t have any minced animal in it.
We had not imagined being in such a cosy cabin in the Arctic, since we saw some ‘real’ explorers getting off a pretty small boat and setting up camp before their push into the icecap the next morning – on their own without a guide. They needed all the gear and guts they could gather for their push for glory. We were happy in the fact that we didn’t want any glory and were in the safe hands of a master ice trekking – a Danish person named Mads. And this name actually means a gift of god, and not a person who has lost his marbles. For a while I didn’t know how to address him but he only opened up about how some rich Americans have a bit of a giggle when they hear his name. Good for him that we weren’t rich Americans.
So I can claim that our day-1 in the raw northern Arctic, away from habitation, was brutally difficult and that we set up base camp on the edge of the ice with the wind howling, but it just won’t cut ice with you, would it? The truth is that besides the wind howling, till such time we were either in the restaurant or the little room, we were snug and toasty and meals were not a concern either. We didn’t really have to hunt any reindeers, polar bears and seals as did the poor young man in Hollywood’s ‘Into the Wild’ (do watch this true story set in Alaska). We slept a good 6 hours that sunlit night and in the morning were ready to begin our push out of the coastal tundra and into the actual pack ice that covers most of Greenland. It’s what real explorers dream of, and for just a few days, we could daydream that we were real explorers with our crampons and hand axes, setting out into the unknown. We were glad Mads was just a few steps ahead of us, so that the unknown would greet him first.
(Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and is an extreme world traveller who has seen the natural world extensively and is often referred to as the ‘Most Travelled Indian’. He is on a quest to become the first person to travel to every major desert, forest, grassland & tundra on Earth, besides every country. Nitin has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet, holds National Geographic conservation certifications and loves Bio-Geography. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well.)
