Dit zijn de afstanden die er per dag gefietst zijn. Dag 4 was de rustdag.Dag 5 en 6 waren de dagen dat we rond hebben gereden in de Veluwe zonder bagage.
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South Greenland - Day 4 : Imagine
I woke up around 9:30, Dutch time. I was living somewhere in between Dutch and Greenlandic time zones by now. As it was continuously light out and I didn't meet any people time started to lose its meaning. After breakfast, packing, and brushing my teeth I started walking around 10:20. There was another large hill to climb.
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The route ran through a narrow valley with a river and some lakes, and therefore became easier to follow. It took some scrambling to end up in the valley and cross to the correct side of the river. At the first lake, I suddenly noticed a bird flying away just a few meters removed from me. It turned out to have a nest there. Later, I came to a short climb followed by a huge boulder field. For several kilometers there were only 1-3 meter large rocks. Walking over them was not too hard, but I needed to be careful not to lose my balance. I took a break at the end of the valley to eat and send my location home. Walking went a lot better than the day before, partly because I was now wearing my long sleeved cycling shirt instead of a hot winter jacket. Those long sleeves were mostly for protection against the mosquitoes, even in shorts and a t-shirt it was still warm.
It was time to climb out of the valley. At the top I arrived at 1055 meters of elevation, while the day before I had started at sea level. From there on I walked a short section over a mountain plateau covered in a thick layer of snow. A bit later I looked out over the next valley. Unintentionally I said 'my god this is beautiful'. It was one of the best views I had ever seen. I looked out over all the mountains and lakes I would be walking passed during the next couple of days, with behind them a glacial lake filled with icebergs and even further removed the granite mountains and Greenland's icecap. After the descent, I arrived at a lake which the map suggested as a place to camp. It indicated today's section would take approximately 6 hours, as I had done it in 5:50 that worked out nicely. It was only 16:10 I decided to keep walking a bit longer.
Then followed a lot of stumbling over another endless boulder field. According to the map there were many lakes here, but in real life there were hundreds more. At 17:40 I felt it was time to stop. It felt important to take it slowly the first couple of days, as if I needed to hike for another >3 weeks. I pitched my tent at a relatively large lake. Then it was time to countdown, at 18:00 it would be two days since I had seen another person. After cooking, sending my GPS location, and lying exhausted on my mattress for a while it was time to take a few photos.
Swampy area, the grassy bumps acted like sponges
Completely alone
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Meanwhile I listened to some music. While playing 'Imagine' I sat in front of my tent, enjoying the view. That felt really special 'can you imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can?'. Yes I could.
I had at least 40 mosquito bites on my feet and arms even though I constantly wore shoes and long sleeves. Inside my tent were also dozens of dead mosquitoes, although I hadn't deliberately killed any. I was curious how many of those died from old age, with so many that must be at least a few. Hiking was still going pretty well. The route and weather had been great thus far, I figured that as long as I wouldn't get too tired I would be fine.