Kuummiut

The little settlement of Kuummiut is a great place. I really enjoyed being there last year and enjoyed it just as much this time. The settlement is very small, just 329 people, with lovely warm, smiling people living there. Even though virtually no one speaks English they always had a smile and a "hello" for me.

I used Kuummiut as my base for exploration and when I found out that the freighter would be back in a week I decided to use it to get back to Tassilaq.
On arriving in Greenland a couple of things made me alter my plans. Firstly, the weather was definitely on the downhill slide and one of my concerns was getting back in to Kong Oscar Havn to return to Tasiilaq. A lone paddler travelling on 3 degree water needs to travel fairly conservatively, hence my decision to travel the last leg by freighter.

The second influence was the number of sightings of polar bears in the area over the previous month. There had been reports of 8 individual bears in various parts of the Ammassalik region and even though everyone I spoke to said "the ice has gone, the bears will be gone too" I had my doubts. As it turned out, there was one left behind.......  So I decided that I would use huts where I could.