Greenland (Sailing from Qaqortoq to New Places - Day 2) August 17th - 19th 2012

Warning: More photographs that might be to graphic for some who are against hunting in nature for food. Do not post anything negative on my blog about this. This is a way of life here in this country.

August 18, 2012

Today we got up not to early and started our day. Torben had already been up for some time and had checked the salmon nets and removed the salmon caught on the nets and cleaned them and prepared them for freezing or another process where he fileted the meat off the bone and put them in a type of brine solution for soaking. I'm not sure how long this process last but I'll probably inquire into that at a later time.

I am so amazed by how these people in this country live their lives. Most live it simple and with less extravagance to those that live in United States. Yes, my country although I'm not against having some extravagance within reason anyway. It's just that these people are happy with their way of life and this happiness trickles down into each generation from the oldest to the youngest. I have to say that I find them quite refreshing and kind. It's like when they invite you out on outing or dinner or fishing or whatever, they just expect you to bring yourself. I am learning this myself because I'm so used to having always had to pay my own way for every thing when I was invited out for an outing or for dinner or whatever. It just amazes me how unselfish most are here.

So after we had breakfast Torben went hunting again with some other men that had arrived the night before in a boat too. There was three of them in fact sneaking up the side of the mountain because they had already spotted reindeer coming down the side of the mountain.

Hanne and I found a good spot to watch this and sat down so that the deer didn't notice us watching them. The deer came all the way down to the smaller lake and it was too funny how they all got in the water to have a morning bath and then got out to shake themselves off. Then they started moving again and headed in the direction of the three men that had continued to a good location while stalking their prey. There were five deer in this group slowly moving their way along the side of the mountain.

I was just in awe of this whole thing because when watching a distance, there is this group of deer moving right towards the hunters totally unaware that they are about to become somebody's next meal. Once the deer were in range the hunters took down four of the five. The one remaining deer had run in another direction but it was strange to watch him because he kept stopping and turning to see what was going on behind him. This gave the hunters time to reload and try to get off a shot at him but he was just to far from them and that gave the one deer left a chance to escape from becoming supper for somebody. LOL

Over all the four taken were healthy and there seemed to be some age mixtures in this small group. There was a older buck that had quite a huge rack on him in comparison to the other three.

So Torben and Hanne butchered 1 ½ of the four deer taken down that day. The rest was divided up between to other two men who would take their meat home to their families. As I said in my previous blog, two deer can feed a family of three or four for an entire year. The racks that were on the deer were put in a place so that when the year was up, one of the hunters would return to pick the horns up for processing into jewelry and other types of things that people use everyday here. Most of it though is used for jewelry and knife handles and things like that.

When Hanne was butchering the deer she gave me a small part of the spine and a small part of one of the legs so that I could take it home to give to Ichi. I have given her the spine already and she spent about three days enjoying the raw meat and bone. Very nutritious for dogs. I put the leg bone in the freezer for future snacks for Ichi.

So once all the deer was cleaned, butchered and moved to a rocky area near the water, we went and had lunch and then I went exploring while Torben and Hanne went kayaking for awhile. Once we all returned, Hanne continued butchering the deer meat and prepping it for bagging and placing on the boat to take back home for more cleaning and freezing. All of the butchering is done on rocks. It seems to keep the meat fresh and free of bad things.

On another note, Torben took down some foxes as well. It seems that the Kommune will give a monetary reward for every fox tail that is turned into them. They then send the tails off for testing due to rabies and it's potential to become an issue. Things are done so differently here at times.

I have to say that every time I go to a new place to explore I end up in more awe. Nature had created so much beauty here and it's so untouched by the rest of the world mostly. Each day is different in some way or another. I love sitting in the sun and taking in all the breath taking views. The smell of pure air is intoxicating and makes me not want to ever leave. Today when I was exploring, I was sitting on the ground taking in the view, inhaling the clean fresh air, listening to the sounds, feeling the slight breeze on my skin and the warmth from the sun. It was so relaxing that I fell asleep on the ground for awhile and woke up a while later.

I also spent some time picking Greenlandic berries as well. I just cannot put into words just how beautiful it really is here or how it feels to be sitting here taking in all the views and enjoying the smells, and the sounds. Just everything about it is alluring and relaxing and well Kusanaq!!!

Stay tuned for day three of my sailing trip along with a recap blog as well of more photo's that I want to share.  I hope you enjoy the photo's as well as the blog. I believe this country is so beautiful and I can't imagine anyone not seeing it's beauty and all that it has to offer. :)