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....