SOMETHING DIFFERENT #8 : The life of Tioralak, artic bush pilot - Part 2 - Eastern & Northern Greenland

[jean marc 1,718]

Something Different #8 : The life of Tioralak, artic bush pilot - Part 2 :  Eastern & Northern Greenland - Thule - Ellesmere

 

Link to part 1 : https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/174300-something-different-8-the-life-of-tioralak-artic-bush-pilot-part-1/

We left Nuuk in May 1988 to spend a few years on the Eastern Coast. It was quite a new world as the language is slighly different as well as the weather ! 

 

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I arrived by the magnicent fjord of Kangertittivaq

 

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... and my family by boat along the coast...

 

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I was as an "Upernaviit", "a Man from the Spring", the name given to the whalers coming back every year when the sea was less iced...

but I did not come to Scoresby Sound to fish whales but to fly from fjords to mountains or from habour to remote villages,...

 

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I had the luck flying the mail route and tourist flights all around, shipping scientific teams or supplying food and equipments on these very isolated settlements...

 

I had the huge pleasure to fly over the place where Commandant Charcot and Lindbergh were boarding, over the Ammassalik area (Tassilaq) and the remains of the old hut of Paul-Emile Victor and Doumidia...

 

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One day, having to fly to the Sermilik Weather Station, I had a few hours free and I met Doumidia in its small village ... she was a venerable lady at this time (she was born in 1915)... Dear Doumidia, wonderful character of "Boreal"...

 

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Sometimes I had to fly over the huge Inlandsis...where are the paths of Courtauld, Victor and Gessain, the Eismitter of Wegener,...

 

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All Inuits villages have always been very isolated and sparsely populated...And this low population has survived during about 4.500 years, despite starvation periods and illness propagation since the arrival of the Europeans with Frobisher, Baffin and Ross exploration (1818 first historical contact)...

 

Greenland (native name is "Kalaallit Nunaat" - "the land of the Kalaalit", the inuit people living on the western coast) is inconceivably large, the world’s largest island, with a population of only 55,847 (2016) spread out over 2,180,000 square kilometres. That corresponds to 39 square kilometres for each Greenland citizen and a population density of 0.025 people per square kilometre, world’s least densely populated nation...after is Mongolia...

 

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Holidays ! For the first time, we were going back to the North Western Greenland, our native land.

 

We stopped first at Upernavik, the village where were living my parents since 1968... old viking settlement and one of the first Danish Trading post...

 

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Flying north to my dear country.

 

All my family has left the village, Siorapaluk, close to Thule, in 1968,  after the bomb lost, afraid by any possible contamination

 

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Thule ! So many memories are still present here ... I went with my parents on dog sledges, with Malaurissuaq, followig the coast, sometimes upto the "other land", Ellesmere ... looking for Elisha Kane or Francis Hall camps, Knud Rassmussen first expeditions paths,...

 

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All of this was true only upto 1968 and the disaster, the end of our world ... The beginning of the end started in 1959... Ultima Thule...

 

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Let's fly to Ellesmere Land, Nunavut, Canada, which was the favorite place of my family to hunt in summer...

 

We will land at the Alert Airfield, the northernmost airport in the world, located approximately 520 miles south of the True North Pole - near are the starting point of Cook and Peary to the Pole...

 

Flying over Fort Conger, the base camp of Greely, we will talk about the Greely expedition tragedy ...

 

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The Greely Tragedy...starting at Fort Conger, east coast of Ellesmere Land

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Alert Airfield : it is not possible to land more to the North, and the magnetic compass declination becomes very problematic...

 

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Cook or Peary ?

In term of exploration method, inuit relationship and personnality, choose to follow Cook !

As well as according to the good feeling of the great Amundsen and the critical analysis of Jean Malaurie ("Ultima Thule"). 
(Mark Twain wrote about the lack of proof on both claims “The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and a seal”)

 

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SEE nextly PART 3... : the complete journey upto Alaska and Chukotka ... following the path of Franklin, Amundsen, Back, Mackenzie,... with Knud Rassmussen...and the Caribou Inuits, ...

 

Hoping you liked - do not hesitate to write any comment : it is encouraging to the next 

[ikbenik 1,291]

Amazing how you manage to extend Pt1 on a relative short time. Again a lot of history, geography and plane-diversity. Congrats for this supurb addition fellow countrymate

[Stillwater 9,476]

Another epic post with outstanding screenshots, photos & stories combined. I particulary like the history lessons here.

Thank you for this great weekend work, Jean Marc!

[Kev D 930]

Amazing......so complex and informative.  Great stuff.

 

Kev

[Jack Sawyer 32,308]

I have no idea how you do it Jean Marc but it’s incredible.  You could use these as a teaching aid.  How in the world do you find the time let alone the patience?

[jean marc 1,718]

On 30 juin 2019 at 4:48 PM, ikbenik said:

you manage to extend Pt1 on a relative short time. Again a lot of history, geography and plane-diversity. Congrats for this supurb addition fellow countrymate

Thank you Ikbenik  in fact all the long strory has been started all together since April...I have already the probable last shots (would be in Chukotka Russia) but I need more time to insert text and to arrange a narrative to introduce the shots...so the gap between parts is not the Time to do it  but to try to finalize 

 

On 30 juin 2019 at 5:22 PM, Stillwater said:

Another epic post with outstanding screenshots, photos & stories combined. I particulary like the history lessons here.

Very happy you had pleasure to read it, Gerold 

[jean marc 1,718]

On 30 juin 2019 at 5:33 PM, Torchy821 said:

Amazing......so complex and informative.  Great stuff.

You are very kind - thank you 

 

On 30 juin 2019 at 8:18 PM, Jack Sawyer said:

 

I have no idea how you do it Jean Marc but it’s incredible.  You could use these as a teaching aid.  How in the world do you find the time let alone the patience

 

Thank you Jack  

Started 3 months ago ... A few evening per week and a few hours during WE and that's done  

But I am a bit boring for my family as I speak a lot about Artic for months ... So many unbelivable facts and amazing inuit world details to tell 

(Will be a break at present : I am learning chinese basis for next holidays )

[BradB 16,513]

On 6/30/2019 at 11:18 AM, Jack Sawyer said:

I have no idea how you do it Jean Marc but it’s incredible.  You could use these as a teaching aid.  How in the world do you find the time let alone the patience?

+1 -

 

John

[Ben77 140]

Absolutely fantastic post Jean Marc, and only part 1

 

[olderndirt 5,453]

Fascinating - so much information so beautifully presented.

[adambar 7,661]

Extraordinary post once agaun Jean Marc, well done!

[jankees 1,739]

Wonderful post!

[jean marc 1,718]

22 hours ago, BradB said:

+1 -

 

John

 

21 hours ago, Ben77 said:

Absolutely fantastic post Jean Marc, and only part 1 

well part 2 already  but you can read 2 and next 1  

Thank you Ben for your enthousiastic comment it is really welcome 

 

20 hours ago, olderndirt said:

Fascinating - so much information so beautifully presented.

Greenland and inuit culture are so great ! Very glad you liked OND 

 

[jean marc 1,718]

18 hours ago, adambar said:

Extraordinary post once agaun Jean Marc, well done!

again a very very long story  ... as it is a so long journey upto Chukotka (and will be also through Svalbard & Jan Mayen with Nobile...)  

Many thanks for your comment Adam

 

4 hours ago, jankees said:

Wonderful post!

Happy you liked it Jan  

... And you will see some great planes liveries that you will surely recognize 

[olderndirt 5,453]

3 hours ago, jean marc said:

 

well part 2 already  but you can read 2 and next 1  

Thank you Ben for your enthousiastic comment it is really welcome 

 

Greenland and inuit culture are so great ! Very glad you liked OND 

 

Spent two separate years '60-61' and '82-83' at Barter Island on the north slope of AK.  The local Inuit village, Kaktovik changed so much over that twenty year span.  They even had an indoor community swimming pool - the water was used for village fire emergencies.

[jean marc 1,718]

On 7/3/2019 at 3:37 AM, olderndirt said:

Spent two separate years '60-61' and '82-83' at Barter Island on the north slope of AK.  The local Inuit village, Kaktovik changed so much over that twenty year span.  They even had an indoor community swimming pool - the water was used for village fire emergencies.

wow excellent to know that OND. surely I would like to spend such long stays in these remote places ! You had a work bythere ? Great to know their life during one full year !! I've been in 1991 in Churchill but never far in the North...I will think to add a step through Kaktovik in the story (I had already screenshots+pictures of Old Crow, Artic NWR and Ivvavik NP...)

(Part 3 will be issued only in August as I have plenty of work to finish, chinese  to learn for coming holidays in Yunnan)

[jean marc 1,718]

well back from holidays : ready to continue this long flight crossing artic areas...  for any possible last readers ... before part 3 coming soon...

[wain71 904]

great shots and a huge amount of fascinating info...really enjoyed it so well put together....

[jean marc 1,718]

On 8/15/2019 at 4:59 PM, wain71 said:

great shots and a huge amount of fascinating info...really enjoyed it so well put together....

thank you very much Wain. Fascinating artic world 

[jean marc 1,718]

here is the link for part 3 : Ellesmere & Baffin Islands (and Inuit culture and artic explorers events...) 

https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/182067-something-different-8-3-the-life-of-tioralak-artic-bush-pilot-part-3-ellesmere-to-baffin-island/