Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
After signing the necessary declarations, we started our long trek from the tundra coast of Greenland to the Ice cap or the ice biome of the largest island in the world – and this ice cap was at an elevation of around 300 meters from mean sea level. The wind continued to blast from the previous day since there were no trees anywhere. Nothing to break the wind and the good part of this was that while it was making our trek slower, it was keeping the Arctic mosquitos are bay. Yes, there are mosquitoes, lots of them, in the Arctic during the brief summer months. They somehow make their way everywhere and a pro-tip for the Arctic is to wear a netted hat designed to protect your entire face and neck. Without it there would be pure misery should you visit the Arctic in the summer, which would anyway be sensible compared to visiting it in the mosquito-free winters. Else something else will get you.
Along the way our trusty Danish guide, Mads, took care of our tea, our meals and held on his back most of the heavy Arctic gear such as axes, ropes, harnesses, flares and the all-important satellite phone since here there was no wi-fi or data, should an emergency occur. Before making the final dash to the icecap, we simply took some chunks of Arctic ice along the way and put it in our tea pot which was in turn placed on a mini kerosene burner. The water boiled and we had some hot tea and noodles all the while watching a glacial lake. Richa also spotted a very rare and rather big Arctic hare and the strange part was that just 30 seconds prior to spotting the hare, Richa had just told Mads that she wanted to see some Arctic wildlife, perhaps the Arctic hare (knowing quite well that the Polar Bear was hard to spot here and avoidable too). And just like that came ‘the rabbit out of the hat’ and Mads probably thought Richa knew a bit of witchcraft.
After this little incident, we started our steep trek up and first entered a place that looked as bone dry as Mars (they conduct Mars simulations in such dry environments in the Arctic but these places are not red like Wadi Rumm desert, which only provide the Mars visual but not the really dry environment simulation). A while later we entered a place which looked like the lunar surface and now could see the icecap just in front of us.
At the edge of the ice, we noticed two Italian sisters, around 300-400 meters to our left, and they had come this far without a guide. In fact, Mads told us that these two were at the camp the previous day as well and that they had quite an adventurous story. The sisters had motorcycled around the world but even this dynamite duo wasn’t sure to step onto the ice without a guide since there was a real risk of mistaking the recently fallen snow for ice and to step on it and slip inside a crack or crevice that the snow was hiding. There would be no way back if you don’t have a harness on you. Finally, they decided to head back to camp but since we had Mads, we kept going.
He was constantly checking the solidness of the ice and once we were on it, we felt quite safe. Mads placed a tight harness on me and fixed the rope to two separate iron poles drilled deep into the ice as a back- up. Then he asked me to peep into the blue rivulets in the ice with the water gushing down inside the gaps with great force. The big ice thaw that I had read about in a National Geographic feature long back was now coming to life and I did feel like an explorer for a moment, even though the real explorer was Mads, not I.
The wind kept howling and frankly I have never heard such a sound in my life. I captured a bit of it on video just so that I could reminisce what it sounded in a land bereft of trees or shrubs or anything for that matter. Mads told us that we should feel privileged as very few people make it to the icecap and to this part of the world (even the Greenlandic locals don’t, due to the prohibitive costs of flights, boats and guides). And as far as he or his mates at the camp could remember, we were the first Indians they had taken to the icecap – and theirs is the dominant exploration company in these parts. We were quite pleased to know we had made it this far as most travellers reach Nuuk only, which is the capital towards the south and was the place shown in Hollywood’s ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’.
Once we had our fill of howling winds and blinding ice, we decided to make our way back to the tent which was half a kilometre from the start of the icecap. There we again picked up the ice chunks and boiled it for some hot tea and ‘ready to eat’ packaged meals (Trek N’ Eat was the brand; German I believe). They even had a vegetarian option for Richa, all thanks to the imports from mainland Europe via Denmark.
We had a very peaceful sleep that night and after briefly thinking of the endless ice, the warmth of the sleeping bag did the trick. We got an idea of what the great Arctic polar explorers from the past such as Henry Hudson, Fridtjof Nansen, Robert Perry, Matthew Henson, Roald Amundsen and later Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Mike Horn and Borge Ousland would have felt. The best part was that we could do it in relative comfort and safety all because of our own explorer, Mads, leading the way and showing two tourists what exploration really is. This is when you realise that we live in the ‘golden age of travel’, when ordinary people like us can see extreme parts of the world in one lifetime.
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.
