We were so excited to finally be going to Greenland! We really didn't know what to expect. My first surprise happened before we even left Iceland. We flew with Iceland Air but the plane for our international flight was tiny!
We were hoping to get good views but we rose up through the clouds and stayed above them for most of the trip. As we approached Ilulissat, our destination in Greenland, we descended through the layer of cloud and suddenly a whole new world opened up beneath us. We were flying above a fjord which was filled with icebergs of all shapes and sizes. It was mind-blowing!
We learned later that this icefjord alone produces 46 cubic kms of ice annually. That's a fair volume.
We got off the plane with huge grins on our faces! What a flight! It was one of those really special events that we love to experience when we travel.
By the time we got to our hotel it was after midnight but the sun was still up. Ilulissat is inside the Arctic circle so the sun doesn't set at all here at this time of year. Even though our hotel is out of town and away from the coast a bit we could still see icebergs so before we went to bed we wandered to the end of our road to take a look. The icebergs looked lovely under the mild midnight sun.
You can see from the picture above that Ilulissat isn't a totally picturesque town but it's unique and interesting. I'll come back to this later as we were only here for a day before we headed out on a very special adventure. We went to Eqi Glacier.
Before I start, I need to explain a few things. A glacier forms when snow falls on the ice-cap. The ice-cap covers about 80% of Greenland. The weight of the accumulated snow continually forces the snow beneath it down, compacting it to ice. At its deepest, the ice is three kms thick. The ice slowly moves downwards and outwards, forming huge glaciers that get pushed along the low points of the land, like water forming rivers. These ice-rivers are glaciers. They run like fingers from the icecap. As the glaciers meet the sea, they melt and pieces break off, forming icebergs. These icebergs can drift for a very long time before they completely melt. Water then evaporates from the sea, falls as rain or snow on the ice cap and the whole cycle starts again.
We climbed aboard a boat in the morning and set off. I had taken seasick precautions but I needn't have bothered. The sea was as smooth as glass for the five-hour trip. As we headed out of Ilulissat we glided past an incredible array of icebergs. We stayed on the deck for the entire trip, in awe of what we were seeing.
The icebergs were sculpted into amazing shapes. Some had stunning blues and greens in them. The colours varied according to how much the snow was compressed.
Some were massive - up to about 80 metres out of the water! With around 90% of each iceberg under the water, it's hard to imagine the full extent of them.
The icebergs reduced in numbers as we got further from Ilulissat. The crew were mostly standing inside the cabin and one suddenly came out and told us they had spotted whales! The boat took a detour and we found two humpback whales. They seemed to be two adults and weren't worried about us at all which is surprising as they're still hunted here as they're a traditional food source for the Inuit people.
We saw another four whales after this!
There was even the odd waterfall however Iceland still claims first prize for these.
Two very happy Aussies.
The icebergs began to increase in number again as we approached Eqi Glacier. Most of the icebergs here had calved from the another glacier nearby, however that glacier calves such large icebergs that it's too dangerous to go near it. Large calving icebergs can create tidal waves which have killed many people in the past. This is a very real problem in Greenland.
Eqi Glacier typically doesn't calve big icebergs, despite what all the promotions say. It calves very frequently, but the calving is more like landslides where chunks of broken ice suddenly slide down the face of the glacier. As a result, the area in front of Eqi Glacier was filled with slushy ice which got thicker and thicker as we approached the glacier face.
The glacier was stupendous! For safety reasons, we couldn't get closer than one kilometre from it. As we approached it, I kept thinking that we would stop at any moment as surely we were one kilometre away but the face is so tall that my perspective was out. It's about 200 metres high! When we finally stopped I could have sworn that we were only 100 metres away.
A local boat got much closer than us (locals are allowed to). I'm not sure how far from the face of the glacier it was but this puts some perspective on the size of the glacier face.
We sat for an hour or so, eating a packed lunch and just watching the glacier. It calved often but we would hear the noise a bit after the calving happened so we rarely saw the calving but I managed to capture this one.
It was sheer magic gliding along the face of the glacier.
When it was time to leave we had to plough through the ice and the whole ship shuddered when we hit larger chunks.
Our accommodation was nearby. As we pulled up people waiting to board the boat back to Ilulissat seemed to be waving at us but then we realised they were swishing bugs. Oh no! Greenland has a terrible mosquito problem. Fortunately, they're larger and blacker than ours and are therefore easier to see.
We got off the boat and had to scramble up a steep track quickly to get to the "safe zone" which meant above tidal wave height, in case an iceberg calved. The "camp" had about 20 cabins and some glamping tents. We were shown to our cabin and couldn't believe the view from our balcony!
John still wasn't 100% so I went for a walk. I came across a beach where icebergs had been washed up. I desperately wanted to scramble down to the beach and walk among the icebergs but it's not allowed (for safety reasons).
Eqi Glacier stood tall in the distance. I just stood there on the hill above the beach for ages, soaking up the incredible surreal scene in front of me.
We met a lovely Dutch family who had been working in Ilulissat on and off for three years. They had a three-year-old daughter and they were loving life in Greenland. We all ate together. Meals were eaten in a dining room and were delicious - as was the cocktail I had before dinner, complete with ice from an iceberg! As the ice melts, there are slight popping noises as ancient pressured pockets of air escape. How cool!
The mosquitos were worse in some areas than others. So long as we kept moving they weren't too bad but they often drove us indoors when we wanted to be outside. Someone on the staff had a sense of humour.....
We went to bed that night to the amazing sounds of the glacier calving. It groaned, rumbled and thundered all through the night. Sometimes it sounded like a wild wind was whipping around us. It was incredible!
We only had one night here so John made a huge effort the next day and we joined in a walk to a lookout point over the glacier. The Dutch guy and a couple of apprentice guides joined us and we were led by Christopher, a great Greenlandic guide. We could have walked this trail ourselves, however the guided walk was included in our stay and Christopher had a wealth of knowledge about the myriad of tiny plants that we rarely notice. He showed us all sorts of flowers and herbs that we could eat. One flower tasted like honey and another plant had tiny seeds that looked and tasted like sesame seeds! I guess that Greenlanders had to know about these things as no fruit or vegetables grow naturally here that I'm aware of.
It was a steep climb up to the lookout point but it was so worth it. Wow!
Only a minute or two after we arrived, a large iceberg calved! This glacier doesn't usually calve full icebergs so we were very lucky to see this. The calving caught us by surprise so I missed the start of it on my camera but caught the part where it collapsed into the sea.
We walked back past beautiful lakes and drank wonderfully cool water from the flowing streams above them.
We really wished we'd booked another night here as there were more walks to explore but we had to return. The same boat picked us up and this time we were the ones standing above the jetty swishing at mosquitoes! We had another amazing ride back to Ilulissat. We saw more whales and many more stunning icebergs.
I love the drippy icicle layer on this one.
Some had amazing lines on them.
As we approached Ilulissat the town looked lovely with icebergs in front of it.
Over the coming days we explored the town. It had beautifully quaint coloured houses, however the town sits on granite rock and it's impossible to dig into so all plumbing and service pipes just run above ground. It's not very attractive but it's functional. Boats, snowmobiles and all sorts of things seem to get stored between the houses.
I guess these cookie-cutter houses are some sort of public housing but you've got to love the colours!
There were some funny sights. The town isn't big so everything has to be adaptable. One of our favourite eating places was right beside the only petrol station. As we walked out from eating lunch one day we were greeted by the sight of an enormous tractor filling up with fuel right outside the cafe.
The strangest thing we saw though was a man driving an ATV quickly down the road towing - wait for it - a dead seal! The seal was just tied to the ATV with a rope and was being dragged along the bitumen. The Inuit love hunting and fishing and I understand that as that's how they've survived for over a thousand years here. They still regularly eat seal and whale, and fish are the basis of their diets.
We realised later that the seal was probably partly for his dogs. We figure it might not have been dragged along the road if it was just for his family. Sled dogs are huge here. We've heard that there are 5,000 people and 3,000 dogs. We don't think we've seen that many dogs but there are a lot anyway.
During the summer, the dogs are kept chained up in groups owned by one person or family. Each dog has a kennel but that's it. The owners feed them each day. The town echoes with their strange noises, something like a cross between a bark and a howl. Dogs are the lifeblood of Inuit communities as they provide the main form of transport once the ground is covered with snow and ice.
We walked past one group of dogs as the owner arrived to feed them. They were tossed two decent-sized fish each. The mum of a handful of half-grown pups got extra. There was no patting or even touching but that's the same with some working dogs at home too.
The sound of Ilulissat.
The pups were pretty cute and very tame. You're not supposed to pat sled dogs but it was pretty hard to say no to these guys.
Wherever there are sled dogs, there are sleds. I would love to have gone for a sledding trip but we would have to be here in winter for that.
Love this road sign!
I've never seen sled dog food in a supermarket before!
I wonder how long dogs will remain so important to the Inuit as we saw many snowmobiles under cover during our walks. You don't have to feed a snowmobile for the six months of the year that you're not using it so I can see that people might become less and less reliant on dogs.
If there are 3,000 dogs here and they each eat two fish per day then that's 6,000 fish per day that have to be caught. That's a lot of fish. The Inuit love fishing but I can see that it's just easier to get out the snowmobile each winter. Then again, taking tourists on dog sled rides in winter is probably a good income earner.
Much to our surprise, we came across a set of whale jawbones beside a small suburban road one day!
There were more of them at the local museum.
We had heard stories about how guns and hunting equipment are a part of life but were still surprised when we saw a man walk towards a supermarket with a rifle slung over his shoulder!
Being a considerate person, he propped it at the front door while he went inside, leaving the gun unattended outside!
One of our favourite cafes was run by a very smart and lovely Philippine woman. The signs in her toilet were a bit graphic though!
There were a few parts of town that were quite beautiful.
The gorgeous church was sensationally located.
It was lovely inside as well.
There are a number of walks around the fjords. They all go out from the Icefjord Centre. This building had a spectacular design but the information inside it was a bit underwhelming.
John was feeling better and the weather was superb so we headed out on the longest walk first. We climbed a long way up a gorge.
The icebergs around Ilulissat mostly come from the huge Jakobshavn Glacier, the fastest moving glacier in the world (40 meters daily). The glacier sits at the head of a fjord which is 60 kms long. Ilulissat sits at the sea end of the fjord. The icebergs all travel down the fjord until they spill into the sea at Ilulissat, creating the Ilulissat Icefjord. This fjord is the one we flew over on our way here and is UNESCO World Heritage listed.
We came to the edge of the fjord and could see it was jam-packed with icebergs.
The water is a bit shallower where the ancient moraine is submerged at the mouth of the fjord and the larger icebergs get stuck there causing a backlog of icebergs behind them.
At one point there was a lookout with a great pair of binoculars. The sculpted shapes looked so cool close up!
Simply incredible. What an amazing world we live in!
On another walk we hiked past the largest icebergs. If you look really closely in this picture you can see people on the hill in the foreground. This gives some idea of perspective.
This enormous iceberg was more like a mountain.
Cotton flowers and icebergs.
At the end of a long day we bought a drink at the local bar and sat in the nighttime sunshine in short sleeves!
The port is an important hub. If there are 5,000 people and 3,000 dogs, we reckon there's got to be hundreds of boats here.
There was only one bar in town and they have live music on weekends so we thought we'd go along. We were too tired on Friday night as the music doesn't start until 11pm, so we went on Saturday night. We started with dinner at one of the flasher hotels in town. I had booked this months ago. The food was wonderful and we finished with drinks outside.
We then headed to the bar at 11pm. We had heard it gets crazy but it wasn't too wild at all. It was much like any other nightclub but the band was worse, although the locals we spoke to thought the band was fantastic.
We staggered home after 2am, just in time to see the sun very low on the horizon. There are only three more days before it starts to set again. The colours it created on the sea and icebergs were stunning! I would love to have got something more beautiful than cranes and industrial structures in the foreground of the photos but that's the reality of the area where we're staying.
There are no roads between towns in Greenland - you either have to fly or catch a boat. As I write this, we are waiting to catch a plane to our next destination. We can't wait to see what that will bring!
Heather and John
Greenland looks to be a stunning place. You are certainly seeing the unforgettable sights.
ReplyDeleteMarvellous how you describe them and the pics are amazing as always.
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Thanks so much Anne!
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