On Tuesday 12 June 2007 Sir Wally Herbert died. I met Wally a few years ago at his house in Scotland. Wally lived on Greenland’s west coast not long after I was born. He saw a different world.

I asked Wally many questions but one sticks out. I asked what he looked for when selecting dogs. He said, “Gary, invariably it was dark so I’d have a torch. I’d shine it on the dog. If it had four legs that was good enough”.

It meant so much to have met him and I was about to write to him again about my starting life in Greenland. Wally was a very special person and in his final years I only hope he knew it. I told him but I don't know that meant much coming from a puppy like me.

Mid-June was the last time I saw a dog team on the sea before the ice broke up.

It might rain a couple of times a year here. It did this month. Kids walked around with bin liners for raincoats. They looked so well fitting as if tailored. Clever mums.

I bought a little boat with a 40 h.p. motor. It enabled me to explore a little into the fjord. From home, 200 metres from the ocean, I can see 25 miles across the mouth of Scoresby Sund, the world’s largest fjord system. Darker sea offshore indicates bigger waves. Ice near shore keeps the waves down but snags nets set for narwhale.

Unless you want burnt retinas or snow-blindness sunglasses are mandatory here. I wear CEBE Cecchinel and Spot sunglasses for protection against blinding water glare.

Standing up in my boat I’m on the sharp lookout to determine a route through pack ice. Iceberg ”feet” are many times bigger than what’s seen on the surface. They’re propeller wreckers. With Zeiss 8 x 32T FL binoculars I survey anything suspicious, judge distance and make decisions to survive.