A busy week lies behind Thomas and Konrad, travelling to major dust spots around South Iceland and collecting samples for the comparison with our main field site on Dyngjusandur. As these spots are not easily accessible, we cross rivers, swamps and travel many barely recognizable tracks. In particular the coastal sources of Landeyjarsandur and the estuaries of Kúðafljót and Skaftá are challenging, as they are partly under water after the heavy rain falls of the last weeks. And generally, they are not made accessible by roads. The GPS track must look like an ant track in search of food.
But in the end, by car and on foot we manage to collect 20 samples – all wet by now, but when dry, they will be of similar texture to our dust spot of the main field campaign – very promising.
So, everything done for the campaign. – – Oh wait, wasn’t there something missing, still from last year? – Yes, there was a baseline station shipped to some place and still waiting there – Greenland!
As the travel restrictions were lifted recently and we fulfill all the necessary Covid requirements, we decide that we should give it a try and spent the last week in Greenland for the setup. Everything starts quickly, flights are booked, tests arranged, and the poeple in Ittoqqortoormiit helpful in arranging the transport and lodging.
But of course, that seemed to work to smooth… And indeed, after a few days, Norland Air calls us back and informs that the airport in Greenland was closed due to rain damage. But they would be confident, that they would bring us there by another route or another day – let’s hope, that it is justified and we can successfully finish our task!