Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The abandoned village of Kangerdlugssuaq Fjord

While kayaking in Kangerdlugssuaq Fjord we stopped off at the abandoned village.

This is a collection of maybe a dozen huts was once a living community before the settlement was abandoned, too remote to be sustainable.

Having said that it could be argued that "abandoned" is too strong as these huts are still at times occupied by hunters and the Navionics chart describes them as "Traveller's hut" which is more accurate - or at least would be if in the plural.

There was a sad, desolate feel to the site, with its faded wood and rusting ironwork merging into the surrounding landscape.

Inside the accommodation was basic, often just a raised sleeping area:
What was most remarkable was the amount of debris nearby, making the village look like a rubbish tip, with everything from broken toys to bullets to shoes.
In fact there were a surprisingly large number of shoes:
With the slow rates of decay this garbage will be there for decades and I had a strong urge to get busy with black plastic bags - if only to collect it all into one compact area.

But then I got distracted by the view again.

Maybe that's how the local s feel too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Modern society has a fantastic propensity to litter everywhere. It's such a shame. I suspect the original Inuit inhabitants would not do this?

Were the cartridges spent?

JP said...

No! Live cartridges!

I don't know if there'd be much garbage in traditional Inuit culture, but in the book I was reading about a modern reconstruction of a Viking journey there was a description of a clean up operation in one of the communities on the west coast.

Apparently the problem is it looks ok during winter as the snow covers the rubbish so a chuck it away approach works for those months. However when it melts.....