Sunday 24th July - Preparing to leave

It's the Sunday before the Tuesday morning that I leave for Copenhagen en route to another Arctic adventure. Thirty-seven years after my BSES trip to Iceland, I'm now off to Greenland, but this time by myself, a great deal older and creakier, and quite a bit pricier!  Having spent about 2 months in the planning, 9 months in excitement and anticipation, a little bit of apprehension is now beginning to creep in as I pack my rucksack.  

New boots on the left, old boots on the right.

In 1985 we properly wild camped for four weeks, and I think I took a pair of walking boots (only retired last year), 2 pairs of walking breeches (one of which I can still fit into!), 2 lumberjack shirts (where are they now?) and a couple of pairs of long thermal underwear. This time, with only 3 days of wild camping, I'm conscious that I may be in polite company at times so may need a couple of changes of clothes, but also aware that the temperatures are unlikely to get much above 10 degrees C.. Trying to choose which jackets to take is doing my head in!

The weather in Nuuk is changeable and unpredictable.

On top of that I've been recommended to bring walking sticks which were simply not a 'thing' back in 1985 and I've never actually used before, energy bars for the various treks I have planned (Greenland is extremely expensive, best not to have to buy things there), and a 1l water bottle. And all this within what is well-known to be an extremely strict 20kg limit as Air Greenland flies out freight with its passengers.

The internet is also notoriously slow and expensive in Greenland, so I invested in printing up my full itinerary, directions to locations, travel and insurance documents into a nice little booklet.  Aren't I clever? With a three-day ferry trip planned, I've downloaded a couple of long Audible books onto my phone (in case seasickness discourages me from using the Kindle), bought a storage card for my phone for lots of photos and bought micropore tape in case of blisters... Just counting down the hours now and hoping nothing (London transport, airline strikes or pandemics...) gets in the way.. 

Wednesday 27 July - Arriving in Greenland... Kangerlussuaq

The only scheduled flights to Greenland are from Rekjavik or Copenhagen, which is lucky for me as I have family in Copenhagen. It is a member of this family which is one of the main reasons I decided to visit Greenland. My cousin Rasmus Wendt, who has been living in Greenland for two years, and is Head of Division, Ministry for Agriculture, Self-Sufficiency, Energy and Environment for the Greenland Government.  Luckily for me, a trip to Copenhagen for Rasmus coincided with my travels so I met up for dinner at my Uncle Peter's with both my cousins as well as Rasmus's family for a slap-up 3 course meal prepared entirely by Peter. I just hope that I can be that sprightly in entertaining a large dinner party at his age! Having walked the 7km into town from my hotel at the airport as practice for Greenland, I got the train home and the next morning was looking out for Rasmus as we boarded the 9:00am Air Greenland flight to Kangerlussuaq.  

Air Greenland's livery is easy to spot... (FYI features in 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty').  My travel agent (Charlotte and Jessie at Travelbee - highly recommended), had secured me a great window seat on the airline's only Airbus 330 to view the the ice sheet however unfortunately the weather didn't play ball.. 

(Below) The best view of the ice sheet, just a few minutes before landing..

As in Iceland, Greenland's largest runway was constructed as a US Air Base, established in 1941, but returned to the government of Greenland in 1992.  Kangerlussuaq is at the end of a long fjord, effectively 130km inland and therefore more accessible to the rest of the island. It also has some of the more reliable (hmmm.... more of that later) weather in Greenland so was a great spot for an air base. Unfortunately, being so far from the sea, makes it not very much good for anything else, such as fishing or freight, and therefore the population of the 'town' almost doubles each time a large jet flies in.  The majority of these passengers will have onward flights around Greenland via the airline's fleets of Dash 8 propeller planes.  When the weather in Nuuk or Ilulissat or Sisimut gets iffy, Kangerlussuaq becomes one big, crowded departure lounge..

Border control is also a bit more informal to handle the one or two international flights a day. Coming off the plane, a border guard simply asks: "EU or Danish passport?" - say yes and you'll walk straight through... Say no (bugger Brexit), and you are asked to stand to one side, so that the border officer can process you once everyone else has gone through...

My connecting flight to Nuuk wasn't until the afternoon and Rasmus had booked his connecting flight for the next day (big discounts available!) so, having dropped my baggage at the Greenland government's Kangerlussuaq airport 'office' to escape the chaos in the departure lounge , I headed across the road to telecoms provider Tusass to get a Greenlandic SIM (EU 'roaming' deals do not operate in Greenland...) and then went for a wander through the town.

The first thing I noticed was that a patch of road about 100 metres up from the airport was being re-tarmacked.  There weren't any signs or diversions, all cars are 4WD, so the few that need to go past, just go around, off road. 

Anyway - here are a few views of Kangerlussuaq... whilst I waited for the fog to clear at Nuuk.. 

Looking back towards the airport

A large meltwater river flows down from the ice sheet which is only a few miles away.

A brief description of the Sondrestrom Airbase in English and Greenlandic.

There are vast glacial silt deposits on banks of the river which give the impression of sand dunes (hence the 'Miami of the North' moniker), here being colonised by pretty wildflowers. 

For those with an interest in agriculture, these deposits are being seriously considered as fertiliser supplement and have been shown to increase maize and barley yields in Ghana and Denmark by up to 30%.

The main street in downtown Kangerlussuaq. The Polar Bear cafe is the main eatery outside of the hotel...

Wednesday 27 July - Arriving in Nuuk - Greenland's capital city

 My afternoon flight to Nuuk was only delayed by about 45 minutes so that by the time it took off at 4pm, the fog down the coast was fully cleared and, with my 1A window seat secured, we had some great views or the wilderness, albeit through the propeller.

Note the milky blue of the silt-laden glacier meltwater rivers compared to the dark blue of the myriad scattered lakes

Our first view of a glacier making its way down to the sea.

The fjords around Nuuk are stunning in fine weather. The white dots in the water are little ice bergs.

Here is a link to a short video of the approach to Nuuk, Greenland's largest city - with a current population of just under 19,000. Although birth rates are low, the city's population is predicted to double through immigration from smaller settlements, with huge development ongoing, including the construction of a large new international airport (video link below) which will undoubtedly not be good for Kangerlussuaq...  Fans of Kangerlussuaq point at the daily flight cancellations to/from Nuuk due to weather. Hopefully all the necessary homework has been done!

Although he wasn't with me, I had clear directions to Rasmus's flat and with the help of Soren, a Greenlandic 'cheeky chappy' cabbie who wouldn't be out of place (... well much...) on London's Old Kent Road, located it without a hitch.

Thursday 29th July - Exploring Nuuk.. and its steps

The next morning I decided to explore Nuuk, a settlement founded just over 300 years ago by Norwegian-Danish missionary Hans Egede. Hans Egede had become concerned about the loss of Christianity of earlier Norse settlers who had discovered the south of the island in 1000 CE (a very 'green' land at the time) but had vanished by about the 1500s, probably due to the cooling temperatures of the Little Ice Age. Hans Egede was given permission by King Frederick IV (then of Denmark and Norway) to re-establish a colony.   Today Nuuk is by far the largest town in Greenland.

The statue of Hans Egede in the Old Town, close to the 'cathedral' of Nuuk.

I've re-written the next paragraph about 4 times... The politics and history of Greenland are complicated and different depending on who you speak to.  The fact seems to be that the country was as first settled around 5,000 years ago, however 2,000 years ago it depopulated: there is no trace of anyone living there until Inuit cultures came to the north of Greenland from North America, and the Norsemen (Vikings) came from Iceland to the south at around the same time about 1,000 years ago. 

Extract about marketing in 950AD (or CE..) from Nuuk's fascinating Greenland National Museum & Archives.

Then in the 1500s, due to the Little Ice Age, or drought, the Norsemen disappeared but the Inuit thrived. It was these Norsemen that Hans Egede sought, but instead of finding them, he found the Inuit and began the process of colonising the area and converting the people to Christianity. Greenland appears to have had its share of the recent anti-colonial protests, however when the statue of Hans Egede was vandalised in 2021 during the 300 year celebrations, local people voted to keep it where it was, as it was also local Greenlanders who had chosen to erect it 100 years ago.  'Greenland' was Erik the Red's name for Greenland. The Inuit name is Kalaallit Nunaat, the land of the people.

Today, since 1979, Greenland as been an "autonomous" country within the Kingdom of Denmark, with a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby the prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system.  Greenland also has two seats in the Danish parliament. Greenland is suffering from many socio-economic problems. I'm not about to start discussing why...  However I will say - they are autonomous in their ability to make fishing deals outside of the European Union.. I bet the UK's Brexit-voting fisherman weren't expecting a large trade deal on shrimp and cod to be signed with Greenland...  Those of you who may have been watching the most recent Borgen series on Netflix will also know that it's not 100% clear who makes decision on exploitation of the island's natural resources.

Anyway - back to the pictures...  Nuuk is a small, hilly (or more accurately, rocky), city. As walking from one end to the other is no biggie, there are often short-cut stairways for pedestrians.. To reach Rasmus's flat from the centre of town, you needed to climb one that is 230 steps, which I climbed at least once every day whilst in Nuuk (invaluable practice for later treks!).

Nuuk is also presided over by the striking Sermitsiaq mountain, which is actually an island behind the city. You'll find it popping up in the background of a lot of pictures.  On my first morning I climbed to the highest point that I could find in Rasmus's residential neighbourhood, which was between two houses. A small terrier in one started barking uncontrollably and caught the attention of the owner. She came out, and, when I explained that I was trying to get to the top for a view, she offered to accompany me up behind the house (asking patience whilst she put on sun cream before leaving the house). We talked in a combination of broken English and Danish.  Like many Greenlanders, she had spent a good part of her working career in Denmark, having been born in Greenland's second biggest town, Sisimut. When I asked her about climate change, she was annoyed that Nuuk was becoming colder and foggier as more icebergs were coming down the fjord. 

Here's her picture and another of Sermitsiaq with the view over Nuuk's Old Town.

From there,  I walked down the steps and across the harbour (and up another set of 100+ steps) into downtown Nuuk and on to the National Museum near Nuuk's old town.  Some of the views along the way.. 

A cruise ship docked at the old harbour with a mega-yacht. The larger container port is to the left of the picture.

After asking if I was with the cruise ship when I enquired about entry fees, the receptionist at the National Museum told me that, after an absence of about 2 years, the cruise ships had returned since June, at a rate of almost one a day.

One of very many cranes that are littering a rapidly developing Nuuk. It's estimated that the population will close to double in 10 years time, helped I'm sure by the expanded international airport.

Literally the dead centre of town... with a view to Sermitsiaq in the distance.  Probably once at the edge of the city, now a stone's throw (literally) from the commercial centre of town.

These rather cheerless blocks (left) have fine views over Sermitsiaq and the appropriately named Myggedal (valley of the mosquitos) (right), which nonetheless is one of the priciest bits of real estate in a town where land comes at a very high premium.

Rasmus returned from Kangerlussuaq during the day, and suggested a short hike after work to Nuuk's famous Paradise Valley, behind the new airport. Unfortunately we made a schoolboy error and forgot our mosquito head-nets, and had to abandon the walk after being surrounded by clouds of the pesky things, but not after we had visited Nuuk's architecturally stunning new ... prison complete with internet golf balls and bicycle lane on the road which literally goes nowhere else! (Personally I think it's a Bond villain's hideout.. but we will just have to see.....)

The next day, I had a late start and went down again into town and noticed that, not only had the cruise ship been replaced by another, but that my 'ride' for the next 3 days - the Sarfak Ittuk ferry of the Arctic Umiaq Line was in dock... perhaps disturbingly testing its life raft? Embarkation wasn't until 8pm so I visited the huge and abundantly stocked Brugseni supermarket and picked up some cutlets and vegetables (a steal at £30) as a relaxing thank-you dinner for Rasmus.. Relaxing until he remembered that it was pay day and Greenlanders like to (a) go out drinking (b) drive around in taxis which meant that we couldn't get a taxi down to the docks for love nor money. Luckily, Nuuk has an exceptionally reliable bus service which Rasmus could see was arriving in 5 minutes and would take me to within a km of the dock, and luckily my fully-laden rucksack proved more comfortable to carry than I'd anticipated. Very swift thanks and goodbyes and I was off to catch the bus and start the next part of my adventure..... on the high seas..

Friday 29th July - The Sarfak Ittuq - from Nuuk to Ilulissat

We waved goodbye to Nuuk on a gusty and cool evening on board the Sarfak Ittuk, a ferry of the Arctic Umiaq Line that plies its trade up and down the west coast of Greenland on a weekly basis with a passenger list which seems to be 50-50 tourists and locals. Sailing along the coastline you get a great view of both the coast as well as the sea, and the setting (or not...) midnight sun to the west. I did have slight reservations when booking, as google Sarfak Ittuk and you might find images of it listing heavily after grounding in Nuuk harbour in 2012 or discover that it was 'lengthened' by over 3 metres (how?) in 2000.  However my fears were groundless... 

From the deck as the Sarfak Ittuk pulls away from Nuuk harbour punctually at 9pm

An amazing cloud over Nuuk - formed by the particular wind patterns caused by the mountains

A final view of Sermitsiaq from out at sea

Having had a good dinner earlier with Rasmus, and with our next stop not until 7am, I checked into my very comfortable cabin and spent about 10 minutes trying to work out the 'TV' before giving up and taking a quick stroll to get my bearings around the ferry.  My cabin was on the top (4th) deck at the back (stern?) on the right (port) side which meant I had a good view of the coastline from my bunk.  There are about 40 cabins sleeping up to 4 people (mainly tourists), and then three different areas of couchettes which were open bunk areas (mainly Greenlanders). The cafeteria was on the 3rd deck along with a small viewing lounge and cinema at the front of deck 4.  Note, the Sarfak Ittuk is definitely a ferry rather than a cruise ship, however nonetheless a very comfortable way to travel that I would highly recommend. It was also easy to reach the open decks giving panoramic views of the voyage. 

I woke up the next morning as the captain announced 30 minutes until the 7.00am arrival at our first port, Maniitsoq, a town of 2,750 inhabitants, the 6th largest town in Greenland (according to Wikipedia).  Here's a short video of our arrival... 

Next stop at 11:00am was the island settlement of Kangaamuit, population 293, reduced from 550 in 1990. I say 'stop' rather than port, as (even) the Sarfaq Ittuk is too big to dock here and passengers embark and disembark via a tiny tender boat. Only a few people get on/off so the process is very quick, however manoeuvring our way out of there, seemed to take another 40 minutes, it what reminded me of an attempt at reversing around a corner early in my driving career!

(Left) Kangaamiut and (right) you can see how close the ship is to the rocky fjord banks. 

As we pulled out into the sea from the shelter of the fjord, it became rather choppy and overcast, so I decided to take a rest day, reading and listening to audio books in my cabin, keeping an eye on the views, popping out quickly to deck when it looked really interesting outside..

(Left) Picture of me wrapped up on deck with glaciers making their way down the mountains to the fjord and (right) a stunning example of a glacial U-shaped valley. If you look carefully, you can still see the remnants of the retreating glacier at the end. 

Later in the evening we approached Sisimut, one of Greenland's oldest recorded settlements and the country's second largest town with a (growing) population of close to 5,500.  I took a couple of quick pictures and then decided to dive into the cafeteria for a quick Tuborg and open sandwich whilst everyone else was up on deck.

Approaching Sisimut.

Things were clearing up nicely for the evening so I went on deck to watch the midnight sun setting from deck and was not disappointed.

The next morning, clear blue skies as well as the odd iceberg greeted us as we made our way towards Aasiat, our penultimate stop, before we reached our final destination of Ilulissat and its famous iceberg fjord.

Aasiat was founded in 1763 by the son of Hans Egede (founder of Nuuk). Apparently Aasiat means 'spiders' in Greenlandic but the reason why is vague as spiders are rarely seen in Greenland, at least these days. I took a picture of the Sømandshjemmet (Seamans home), almost identical to buildings I'd seen in Nuuk and Sisimut that I had thought was accommodation for seamen, however it appears to be a fairly upmarket chain of hotels!

Leaving Aasiat only 30 minutes later, we made our way towards Ilulissat...  with its icebergs.. big...

and small....,

...another cruise ship, and my hotel for the two nights each side of my Eqi trip, the Hotel Hvide Falk.. (right, The White Falcon). What surprises would Ilulissat bring?

Sunday 31st July - Ilulissat and icebergs by day

Although the Hotel Hvide Falk had not sent its transfer vehicle to meet the Sarfak Ittuq in a timely manner, my downloaded map (from maps.me - recommended you download Greenland before you leave) told me that I was only 750 metres away so I decided to walk and was ready to check in 15 minutes later, unfortunately an hour before the official check-in time of 3pm. But no hassle - I dropped my luggage off in the luggage room and went to explore Ilulissat, the third largest city in Greenland with a population just over 4,500 and, at 69 degrees North, approximately 350km north of the Arctic Circle.  Ilulissat means icebergs in Greenlandic, you will soon understand why..

Exploring Ilulissat started about 100m up the road at the small information office where a couple of Swiss Germans were trying to work out where their accommodation. It had apparently been arranged with 'Fleming' for whom they had a phone number but seemingly no other information (seemed a little un-Swiss German to me).  The 'officer' on duty in the information office regretfully said that he was not able to lend his phone however, armed with my Greenlandic SIM from Kangerlussuaq, I offered my phone for the local call. The husband reached Fleming quickly, however it appeared Fleming wanted to have a bit of a chat which was clearly agitating the wife who (probably having consulted roaming rates in Greenland and extrapolated the cost of phone calls) was wildly gesticulating to her husband that he should end the call. Some minutes (and only a few krone) later, their accommodation was sorted, but hey presto! Mrs Swiss German pulled a full size Toblerone out of her bag and offered it in payment for the call... I tell you that put a BIG smile on my face as you can see!

Anyway - feeling very happy, I then got a local map from the office and decided to take the 2 hour walk alongside Ilulissat's famous ice fjord, that started from the power station across the town. 

Like most Greenlandic towns, Ilulissat's houses are colourful as well as complemented by wildflowers growing by the roadside and ice bergs at the end of the street, a view that will be familiar to viewers of the latest 'Borgen' series.

Like the other larger Greenlandic towns, Ilulissat's resident population is growing, albert slowly (from 4,100 in 1990 to 4,600 in 2018) and, from the house construction that's going on, more is expected.

[ADDENDUM] Having watched 'Borgen' on my return, this (the only) petrol station in Ilulissat features in episode 2! 

Whilst every Greenlandic house/flat seems to have a car parked outside so it surprised me that there were so few petrol stations. Then again, if the furthest that you can drive is about 4km across town, you're probably not going to use that much petrol... 

What I hadn't seen in Nuuk, were the large areas on the edges of the town dotted with small boxes that looked like beehives.. which were in fact the hutches of Greenland dogs, most of which spend their summers on long chains, carefully separated from each other to prevent fighting. Every now and then a chorus of agitated and loud barking would break out across the town. These dogs are not particularly friendly..  Amazingly, apparently with very little summer exercise, once the snow falls again, they're ready to go.

Arriving at the power station, I headed off across the clearly marked trail towards the ice fjord. soon turning a corner to face a traffic jam of massive ice bergs, and the start of the Ilulissat ice fjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sermeq Kujalleq (also known as Jakobhavn glacier, the Danish name for Ilulissat) descends into the water at the start of the fjord, and is one of the few glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet that reach the sea. It is one of the fastest and most actively calving glaciers in the world, annual releasing about 40 cubic kilometres of ice to the sea. However, as the fjord is quite narrow, the ice bergs get jammed in, often trapped by bigger ice bergs stuck the fjord's mouth where it meets the open sea. Every so often, a gap appears at the mouth and a large number of ice bergs will escape, which can change the accessibility of the Ilulissat harbour overnight.

Here's a video which shows a wider panorama but still doesn't get close to the glacier at the end of the fjord.

Once I'd passed Ilulissat's cemetery (left) right next to the helipad (.hmmm) and Greenland's second Bond Villain hideout (OK.. Ilulissat's Icefjord Centre below right), I made my way back to the Hvide Falk, to dinner and, more even more exciting, my midnight iceberg tour....

 

Sunday 31st July - Icebergs in the Arctic night

 At 8:45pm, after my £50 dinner of fish soup, musk ox burger and a small beer (I really can't get my head around prices in Greenland), I made my way up to the World of Greenland office for my Midnight Iceberg Tour. There were 5 other passengers on our small boat including 2 Italians, an American and a Dutch couple. Somehow I managed to discover that, like myself, the Dutch woman had just started retraining as a teacher after working for almost 30 years in market research. Small world..

We boarded a small bus which took us down to the harbour. There we were met by our young guide Oliver and the boat driver and we hopped on board.  I'll let the pictures do the talking!

9:15pm - (left) facing east towards the front of the ice fjord and (right) facing west towards the setting sun

The still waters of the bay are ruffled only by other spotter boats, which also provide a scale to the icebergs.

Looking west, the icebergs provide a beautiful accompaniment to the setting sun.

And as if setting sun, stunning icebergs, glassy waters are not enough... what might that be....?

In total we saw 4 - apparently humpback - whales on our little trip, One of the drawbacks of relying on your mobile phone for pictures/videos is that you need to have your gloves off... which is tricky when it feels like quite a few degrees below... Then again, it means that most of the whales were seen through my eyes rather than the viewfinder... but you'll just have to believe me! Here were my attempts... 

Having been reinforced with a mug of hot chocolate during the whale watching, we made our way back to Ilulissat just after midnight with big grins on our cold faces and a head full of icebergs, whales and sunsets... We couldn't have asked for more!