After seven weeks aboard the icebreaker Oden, tourism entrepreneur and reindeer herder Erik Sarri is back in Sweden again. He has been on a research expedition to northern Greenland.
– This is something you can write about in a chapter in the book of life, this is such a journey that is very special, says Sarri.
“Did not see a single human being”
The goal of the research expedition led by the Polar Research Secretariat was to reach the unexplored Victoria Fjord and the Ostenfeld Glacier. The aim was to investigate how climate change has affected the area.
– We were almost seven weeks in northern Greenland and we didn’t see a single person during that time, no ships, just animals simply.
Polar bear watcher and mammal observer
Erik Sarri’s job included protecting the expedition against polar bears and documenting marine mammals.
– So it was everything from seals, narwhals, birds and even polar bears. So it was many hours that I was on the pier scouting around the area with binoculars.
“It’s a polar desert”
Even though Erik Sarri has the mountains as his main workplace on a daily basis and is used to barren environments, he thinks that Greenland is a bit more barren than what he is used to.
– You can almost say that it is a polar desert, there is not much vegetation there at the top of Greenland.
Sarri tells us that the musk oxen that live there do not have much to eat. Reindeer would never have managed there as the grazing supply is too poor, he continues.
But despite the barren environment, he had not hesitated to come along again.
– Had Oden turned north again, I could have imagined going along, it was such an experience, says Erik Sarri.