Every day the midnight sun makes a cursory dip towards the horizon like a plane tilting its wings in greeting to people on the ground before rising once more. It can therefore be challenging to sleep. It is like going to bed in the middle of the day. Nevertheless, I get used to it and try to maintain a regular sleep schedule. Today, I go on a hike in the hills a few kilometres away from Kangerlussuaq with a local guide and two other tourists from Denmark. We walk for hours in the mountains and at the end of the afternoon I feel like I have hiked 20 kilometres, although it was only 10. The air is
brisk and fresh. A light breeze blows the mosquitoes away. We take our time as
we step through the semi-arid landscape that abounds with Arctic flowers,
shrubs, dwarf trees, edible mushrooms, fragrant herbs and lichen. Tufts of muskoxen
hair as soft as angora hang on the branches.

Along our
way we see antlers that caribou have shed. We also see ATV tracks. Our guide
tells us that it is illegal to hunt using ATV’s but the law is not properly
enforced. It takes years and years for the delicate slow-growing Arctic
ecosystem to re-establish itself so the tire tracks will remain for a long
time. It is also illegal to hunt more muskoxen than the annual quota permits but
that is not enforced either. The result? It has become harder to spot muskoxen.
At least live muskoxen, because we see several remains of dead ones where the
meat has been removed and the skeleton and head are all that are left behind. We stop for lunch on a hill overlooking lovely Lake Ferguson and eat homemade buns with homemade muskoxen liver pâté. Yum!Not long after we resume our hike we spot a
caribou. When it notices us, it decides to try and follow us. I guess it is
lonely and looking for a herd to attach itself to. After a while it realises
our little party of four humans is not the right type of herd to follow and it
runs off in the other direction. Later on, we see a couple more caribou.Later on, we spot a solitary muskox grazing in
a valley, its soft dreadlocks wafting slightly in the breeze. It does not see
us. We lie down flat on our stomachs and watch it for a long while.

Here is a Lapland Longspur watching one of its friends coming in for a landing:

At the end of the afternoon, rosy-cheeked and exhausted from the abundance of fresh air and exercise, I part ways with the others in the group. They assure me that when I get to my next destination, Ilulissat, there are pretty amazing things in store for me – among others a UNESCO World Heritage Site.