Ali and Si, following their epic trip to Greenland in 2007, tricked myself and Mike Scutt into coming with them in 2008. We set out from Narsarsuaq in South Greenland on our 75km journey to get to the fjord where the river flowed into. This journey took 4 days, most of the distance was covered sea kayaking in our loaded kayaks but there were 3 land crossing which were very tough – one in particular involved shuttling our kit over the first hill and then slogging over shallow lakes and mosquito infested marshes, bashing down a stream to finish off a 15 hours day. The last 10 km sea crossing was-non stop as the wind was heavily against us.
We re-supplied with food in the town of Sletten for 9 days and managed to get a motor boat the 22km to the back of the fjord where the river came in. It was 2 days shuttling our kit to base camp where the river split into two. Another 2 days of slogging our boat up the glacier (we returned in base camp each night). We found 10km of incredible white water and slides. From base camp back down to the fjord we did very little paddling. The few bits that weren’t mental were not worth the mission to get to which was a bit of a shame. We run out time time/food/energy to explore the other trib but from google earth it looked to loose all the gradient in a few places!. We paddles the 22km back to Sletten.
We spent a day or 2 looking at a hydro electric dam in the next fjord and them got a speed boat to the town of Qaqortoq where we hung out with the local kayak school and the only chap in Greenland who still makes the boat in the traditional way. We got a ferry back to Narsarsuaq.
Please read my article in X Sport link in the Media section
The Crew – Mike Scutt, Si Tapely and Ali Marshall
