We went to work out before breakfast in the fitness room, which was quite well equipped and made us feel very virtuous. It was cloudy again, and rain was a possibility. After breakfast, Dan did an interesting lecture about some field work he did in an extremely remote island in the Russian Arctic, where they uncovered evidence of a group of people living there who subsisted entirely on female polar bears, the only bones found there. Hard to believe, but apparently polar bears (and other marine mammals) have a lot of Vitamin C so people in the Arctic do not get scurvy. Their conclusion was that the polar bear cubs were traded to get other items they needed, and possibly were traded on to become exotic and prestigious gifts, one had been discovered given as a gift to a leader in the Middle East. The second lecture was on lichens and other ground lands, but I had to do some client work so was in the room doing email while listening to the lecture.
After lunch, it was time for a hike on a boggy area in Qoornguatsiaq Fjord. This is in the Sermersooq municipality, which at 205,368 square miles, is the largest municipality in the world. Vast areas of it are uninhabited of course - a municipality in Greenland is more like a state in the US, as there are only seven of them in this giant island. The hike was through a slightly melted area of permafrost so rather boggy, and several times we had to cross little creeks. It was warm so we shed a layer, and the mosquitos were vicious. I am so glad we got the mosquito nets, although they look rather ridiculous they are a lifesaver. I would have been eaten alive without the net. We saw two caribou skulls with antlers, and an Arctic Fox skull smaller than my hand. The focus of the hike was vegetation, and we saw many of the plants mentioned in the various talks over the past few days, including some bright and apparently somewhat poisonous mushrooms. This was by far the most strenuous hike we had, and I was very glad we both had our hiking sticks, we both fell only one time each. As we were somewhat late getting back to the ship, I ran up to get Barney some cookies from the afternoon tea. We were both quite sweaty from the hike and needed showers. It was still quite warm outside, so we sat on the balcony, I finished my book and Barney read as well. Refreshed, we went to dinner and had a nice time, going up to the lounge afterwards for more wonderful conversation. Barney and I are discussing future trips, as this is as far as had planned anything. There are so many interesting places to go.
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