South Greenland - Retrospective

This trip had gone extremely well. The daily distances, toughness, amount of food, batteries, and gas I carried had all been sufficient but not too much. My clothes and camping gear were also well suited for the weather. There were only two main things that hadn't gone according to plan.

 

The first was my packraft. Most of the rivers were easily crossable by foot, while the larger ones would have been too rough even with a packraft. The few times that I did use it were a lot of fun though. The second thing that had gone wrong was of course my SPOT-2 GPS transmitter. I currently use a Garmin inReach mini and have no complains about it.

 

In terms of landscape, this hike has been at least as nice as Iceland, but much more mountains and rough. In Greenland you really just don't meet anyone, period. For those inspired by this story, I want to emphasize that hiking there can be really dangerous and you shouldn't even think of going without a proper preparation and a good amount of prior experience, see my page about Preparing for a Hike for tips.

 

I can't say I missed people. After the first 1 or 2 days of being alone I entered a really nice and relaxed state of mind, I could really be myself on a deeper level than possible when being around other people. After a week in solitude I felt perfectly in tune with nature and very insignificant. 

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Back in the Netherlands, it took a while to get used to people again, to say the least. There wasn't really anyone who understood why I had been hiking for weeks alone in such a harsh environment. It was a bit of a pity to not have anyone to relate to, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss this trip for the world, nor have done it with someone else. This had been extra special because I had done it alone.