From Huddersfield to Greenland

At aged 18, Holly left the familiarity of her home in Huddersfield to volunteer on a WorldWide Volunteering expedition to Disko Island Greenland.

As I left my auntie and uncles house in London to set off towards Heathrow airport, my heart was beating and I’d never felt so nervous in my life. I remember looking across at my mum thinking “oh god, soon I have to say bye, and then I won’t see you for five weeks!”  That thought terrified me! When we got to Heathrow Airport and I found my fire group, my nerves settled and I began to relax.  As I said bye to my mum I knew it was the start of a whole new journey and a whole new chapter of my life.  It was then that I began to feel excited and knew I would enjoy it.

We flew from Heathrow to Iceland and then from Iceland to Greenland and stayed the night in Kangerlussaq. Kangerlussuaq is a small and colourful little town, each house and building is painted a different and bright colour. The following day we got a flight from Kangerlussaq to Aasiaat, where we then caught our ferry across to Disko Island (Disko Island is just off the coast of Greenland). The journey was well underway!

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During the first week, we stayed on base camp for about four days to go over survival techniques and how to use radios and all the basic knowledge we would need while out in the wild! I was secretly praying however that I didn’t have to use one of these survival techniques throughout the course of the expedition. Learning these techniques made me realise that what we were doing was serious and it was vital I knew these. It made me realise that the expedition was going to be far from a holiday.
 
On day five we set off on our expeditions through Blaesedalen Valley, which we named ‘death valley’, as our fire group went missing in it for a few days, but only because we had problems with the satellite phone and because we found a little wooden ski shelter that we liked so much we decided to stay in it for a few nights. We finally arrived at boat camp and had a much needed rest before setting off for Science camp. We travelled there by speedboat and each got a turn to drive it. Driving the speedboat was a really real sensation that made me think, “yes I am on this expedition and yes I am doing it” it made me think that in all aspects of this expedition the leaders were going to make the young explorers feel they are in control as much as possible.

At science camp we researched the intake of light on different types of terrain on a hill.  We also tried to find out which types take in more light and which types reflect more light. We found that darker grounds absorbed more light and reflected less. The next day we collected moss samples and looked at them through a microscope to see the Tardigrades and Nametodes that live in the moss.

 From science camp we set off on our most difficult and heaviest phase, the ice phase, during which we attempted a peak and did some abseiling down Mulans.  Of course we then had to ice climb back out! I’m sure that was in the small print! I had done some climbing previously and thought that ice climbing would be a similar experience. Oh how wrong! I was!  Ice climbing turned out to be much more difficult than I had expected. I lost all feeling in my hands; they went blue and had a block of ice shatter over my head after I dislodged it with my ice axe. Thanks to my trusty helmet, no damage was done! Another highlight was seeing a helicopter up close.  It arrived to pick up one of our team leaders who had injured themselves!

We started the walk back down to science valley and got the boats to boat camp for a day’s rest before being taken out to the Peninsula where we were to start our last phase. On this phase we walked through a valley and met spot many heights. Spot heights are marked peaks on a map.  Some of the spot heights included climbs of 650m, 715m and finally 717 metres. From spot height 717m we then began to make our way down to Fortune Bay also known as Godhavn (pronounced Godhaven). Once we arrived at Fortune Bay, there was an overwhelming feeling of excitement and completion. The feeling was fantastic. The hard work was done, and I had done it despite being adamant in the first few difficult days that I couldn’t do it. I did! I felt amazing, and feel I grew up a lot, emotionally, mentally and physically. I think I can speak for all of my team when I say that our endurance levels were pushed to the limit.

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Back at Qeqertarssuaq, we sorted out all our group kit, pots, tents and stoves, and handed them back to our team leader. We had a “last night on Disko show” which contained daft songs, silly quizzes, and fun upbeat dancing! The next day we set off to catch the ferry to take us on our journey home.

Our last night as an expedition group was spent in Iceland, annotating our HUGE maps and saying our goodbyes, exchanging numbers and just enjoying ourselves. On this night I got to see the Aurora Borealis, which was totally breathtaking. The sky was bright green and completely overwhelming. A perfect end to the expedition!  It felt so surreal.

On arrival at Heathrow, and after collecting our bags we said our final goodbyes. It was very emotional; our team members had been our friends and family for the last five weeks. It was time to meet our families. Once I found my mum, older brother and uncle, the feeling of completion hit me and it was very emotional once more but was fantastic to see some of the faces I had missed the most! Now that I’m back home, I want to say a BIG BIG thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout the whole experience. From the people who helped me to raise money, to the people who took me to Greenland and the people that picked me up when I was a little down, when my dream looked to be fading.

 Picture: An interesting name for a school (Coffee with milk).

About: Holly travelled with WorldWide Volunteering, a non-profit making organisation whose aim is to make it easier for people of all ages to volunteer. They provide instant access to information about the widest range of volunteering opportunities throughout the UK and worldwide. The WWV database enables volunteers to build an on-screen profile of their ideal volunteer placement which is then matched against the requirements of over 1500 organisations with more than 1,000,000 placements each year throughout the world. For more information, visit their website: www.wwv.org.uk

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of the author expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Diverse Traveller. Unless otherwise stated the copyright for this article and any accompanying photos belong to the author and / organisation. Diverse Traveller is not responsible for the content of any external websites.

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