The journey always begins before reaching the destination. Choosing where, browsing forums and blogs for information, designing the itinerary, reading the guidebook at night… Some might find all this preparation ritual tedious. However, we already feel on the road long before landing.
In June 2010, we set off for Alaska with Condor, a low-cost airline from Frankfurt. And in mid-flight, we were surprised to fly over Greenland on an especially clear day. And I say surprised because at no point during the trip preparation had we stopped to think about where the plane would cross. Thus, we savored those aerial views of the world’s second-largest island, after the Australian continent, even more.
At first, mountains and glaciers followed one after another, but as the plane moved forward, an immense white desert was revealed for hundreds of kilometers. Around 80% of the territory is covered in ice, even though climate change is determined to reduce this proportion.
You feel tiny up there. Your imagination spreads its sails and makes you sail in awe in the middle of that absolute nothingness. Your dazed eyes would like to spot from the heights an impossible polar bear wandering the ice or hunting a seal.
It is impressive to see the polar ice caps breaking off the coast, drawing strange floating geometries on the sea. During the summer, the rise in temperature causes significant melting that is increasingly extensive and lasts for more days.
And once in Alaskan territory, shortly before landing, we enjoyed perhaps the most beautiful landing experienced to date. Meandering glaciers welcomed us to the destination that we would travel across by campervan for the next three weeks.
That day more than ever, we reaffirmed that the journey always begins before reaching the destination. More information: Practical guide to Alaska
