Thursday, March 12, 2009

Illorsuit - where kayaks are born!


In connection with planning the expedition I have been surfing the net a lot and I have discovered that the settlement of Illorsuit figures heavily in kayak lore. Rather than repeat the kayak history of Illorsuit I would like to write a little about my experience there and encourage you to follow the links below to read what others have written so well.

You can find plans and photos of replicas of the Illorsuit kayak at Bryan Hansel's website here and further information about the history behind the kayak and the Greenlander who built it in Duncan Winning's article on Seakayaker here.



My own visit to Illorsuit was far less interesting and far quicker than any that have been described in the links above. My wife and I were on our way from Uummannaq to Nugatsiaq and Illorsuit is the settlement where we were to have a mini-layover of 15 minutes or so as post and passengers were loaded and unloaded. We met a some of my students from 10th and 11th grade while we waited at the grass and gravel helipad and admired the view.


When I return in 2010 I plan to explore the settlement properly and hopefully get to know more of the people and learn more of the history of Illorsuit. As I intend to write much more about the settlements at a later date, this will just have to be a "teaser" until then.

Posted by Chris
12. martsi 2009

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