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Thursday, August 27 - Back to the future

With a delay of 24 hours our planes, taking 24 of us, finally were set to depart from Saglek this morning. Following the beautiful night we were not disapointed by the sunny weather so our journey could continue. After the short boat ride to the airstrip we spent our time waiting for the arrival of the planes with exploring the old abandoned US barracks associated with the NORAD radar station nearby. The empty building with the spooky atmosphere inhabited not only abandoned machines and items from the former usage but also constantly added garbage. Even a broken down Zodiac and rather new looking car batteries had found their way in. Fun fact: when the radar station up the hill was build, the construction workers eventually stayed in the area of the basecamp. Trying to build a road from the camp to the station they were stopped in the middle of construction by an insuperable cliff. Nowadays the remaining trail is called the road to nowhere.

Finally the “Twin Otter” took off and carried us to the direction of Happy Valley Goose Bay. Thanks to good weather conditions we’ve got amazing views out of our small airplane windows: from the old Moravian settlement of Hebron over Nain Bay to the forests of Goose Bay. In Nain we stopped for fuel so that we could have a second glance at the old village. The tower of the church in the harbour is clearly visible. I regret that we should not have enough time to visit the place of worship erected in 1771 and burned down and rebuild in 1923. Back in the air we enjoy the view onto the rich landscape.

Early afternoon we arrive in Happy Valley Goose Bay. Since we were unable to catch the ferry as originally planned we got emergency accommodation in the barracks of the NATO base. Later, the 6 remaining members of our group join and we are complete again. With our stomachs filled with the last freshly grilled char we enjoy ourselves in good community and another day of our journey ends sooner than I would like to admit.

Georg Sebastian Völker

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Abandoned US barracks at Saglek airstrip.

Labrador’s landscape seen from our plane.