Had quite a good day. Woke up to the sound of the helicopter taking John and Dick up to Brødretoppen at 10:30. Jen told me I was supposed to stay in camp and get nine samples of Upper Zone A for Dick. Fine by me. I was done by 3. Had lunch with Rune - pate, caviar, chicken, sardines, butter!, tea, etc. Then went over to the drill camp and helped set up tents there. Then got quite domestic and cleaned up the cook area. met Troels Nilssen - nice guy. Time to start dinner now.

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Cold hands now so this is going to be messy. Not much more happened today. Dick came back with a sore knee - abrasions and probably he'll have stiffness tomorrow but considering he fell about 6 inches from the edge of a cliff, it could have been much worse. All conversation tonight was about food - we're all anxious to start eating for real again.

Not much happening today -- packing and getting ready to leave. This is how it will probably work: 3 helicopter flights tomorrow, one to take Dick, John, and Jim to Douglass Plateau, one to take me, Jen, and Rob to Sødalen and one to take Rune and a slingload to Sødalen. On Saturday, Dick, John, and Jim will get picked up from Miki's Hus and be brought to Sødalen. So we'll play it by ear and see how this works. I think later today I might go gold-panning with Rune in the delta north of Forbindelsesglescher. Sort of foggy and cold today, not a nice day to do much at all. More later.

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Well it's later, much later. Let's recap what happened in the past few days. On Thursday (17th), did go gold panning. Found lots of magnetite, but no gold. It's a lot more difficult than I had imagined. KILLS your back.

Then spent the rest of Thursday in my tent, sleeping, reading, packing. Normal evening except Dave Lambert finally broke down and brought out his Irish Whiskey (as Jim had been hinting at for WEEKS, what a mooch). Then, Friday (18th), woke up early and packed, then waited for the helicopter (pilot's name I finally learned is Hans Hammer, from Denmark). First flight was to Douglass Plateau, then the rest pretty much as scheduled. Got to Sødalen and wrapped samples all afternoon. We made a deal with Bob - we helped crush rock and cut core samples and he'd give us the use of his platform tents and our meals. Great!! So I cut a lot of cores. They are long (meters) cylinders of rock that have to be cut into quarter-rounds. Took showers too. Then today: did more Sødalen work and finished packing. And then waited for the plane, about 3-4 hours late. But instead of going through Kulusuk as we had thought it would, it went straight back to Akureyri, in the north central region of Iceland. So we ended up getting in just a little later than planned. Interesting flight with the bathroom fiasco (the guys had been drinking coffee all day waiting for the late plane, finally on the flight they needed to pee and had to resort to bottles since our tiny twin otter charter plane didn't have a lavatory) and Hans wanting to catch another plane. We got cleared for a VERY quick landing.

Hans was the last to board his plane to Reykjavik, he's off to Kobenhaven tomorrow and starts work again monday (flying in the military service). A man named Friedrich met us in Akureyri, took us to a nice Gasthaus and then we went to dinner at a restaurant. Culture shock. Tomorrow we're going to Myvätn, Monday to Reykjavik.

Woke up with a sore back after sleeping on what felt like the most comfortable bed of my life. But the soreness quickly went away. Took a bus to Myvätn this morning, stopped a few times along the way including once because the bus broke down. Incredible how green Iceland is. The contrast from Greenland is throwing off my vision. Stopped in a town called Reyklalið (I think), on Lake Myvätn (stands for Mosquito Lake, but the mosquitos are out of season now). Hiked around a bit and went to a hot pool - found a natural hot pool but it was more like lukewarm, so we didn't stay long. I am exhausted today, and it's just 8:30. Tomorrow we have an 8am flight to Reykjavik.

Woke up early to catch plane from Akureyri to Reykjavik, of course the plane was leaving late. Got to Reykjavik, said goodbye to Rune - he had a flight this afternoon to Copenhagen - and just spent the rest of the day puttering around and sleeping.

Going home at last! Have been sitting around all morning, just WAITING to go... and now we're at the airport and our flight has been delayed. Original time was 4:25, now it will be 5:45. Coming in from Luxembourg, let's hope it isn't any later.

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Now about 6 and the plane is still on the ground. I'm in the second to last row, smoking section was all that was available. But I've got a window seat, and I'm sitting alone (with nobody I know). That's a good thing, since we've all just about talked each other out. We now have a 25 minute delay due to "technical difficulties". Aargh. So that means the earliest the plane will leave is 6:30, with 5.5 hours flying time the earliest we'll get to NYC is 8pm local time. And with taking time for customs and car rental etc we probably won't be back in Binghamton until 3am or so. Ugh.

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[2004: And there ends my saga. We did get back to NYC absurdly late, and Dick and I alone did end up driving right to Binghamton that night. Traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge slowed us down even more. It was my job to help Dick stay awake while driving, but I don't think I was much help. At Kennedy airport, the skycap who helped us with our bags asked "whatcha got in here, rocks?" Well as a matter of fact, yes.]