Greenland - Kangerlussuaq

Next stop after Ilulissat was Kangerlussuaq. You think that's a strange name? You should hear how it's pronounced!

The first sign that something was a bit strange was after I booked the hotel at Kangerlussuaq months ago. I wrote to them asking how we get from the airport to the hotel The answer was, and I quote, "The hotel is located in the same building as the airport, no need for transfer." What??????

Once we knew this, we looked at google maps and realised that the whole town is based around a really long airstrip. There are buildings along both sides of the airstrip and that's it! The Americans built a huge runway here in 1941 and it's now Greenland's main international airport, although that's all about to change with international airports being built elsewhere.

Sure enough, we landed at the airport, picked up our bags then followed a few signs to the hotel reception, without leaving the terminal. The receptionist wasn't particularly helpful or friendly and, as we made our way down long dilapidated corridors to our room, I was thinking "Oh no - we've got four nights here!" Walls were cracked and we had to carry bags up and down flights of stairs. It was reminiscent of Fawlty Towers. 

Dinner was - you guessed it - in the airport. On night one I was starting to feel like Tom Hanks in that movie where he can't leave the airport terminal. It was so weird! We returned to our room and I realised the room smelled exactly like the motel rooms I used to stay in 30 years ago for work! It's not a bad smell but I really don't know what it is. Again, so weird!

Not only does Kangerlussuaq have Greenland's longest runway but it also has Greenland's longest road. In the 1990's, Volkswagen thought the ice cap would be an ideal place to test cars so they built a road from the town to the ice cap, 37kms away. They then built a road on the ice cap. They didn't seem to realise that the ice cap is not a permanent surface and after having to re-build the road on the ice cap every year for a few years they gave up. The legacy they left behind though is a good dirt road so people like us can access the ice cap.

We aren't normally people who do organised tours but there's no other way to get around so we signed up for a tour of the ice cap. We duly met our guide, Pawel, at the appointed hour. To our delight, we learned that the only other person on the trip was an Aussie woman. The four of us piled into an ancient Land Rover and headed off along the long road.

The views were amazing! We passed pretty lakes and cool mountains.

Pawel showed us some 400 year-old Inuit graves. They are always buried above ground, which makes sense as it's almost impossible to dig through this rock. Plus the permafrost isn't far below the surface.

We passed two huge glaciers, including Russell Glacier. 

Arriving at the edge of the ice cap, we strapped on harnesses and crampons and headed out onto the ice.

Pawel was an enthusiastic and patient guide who knew this ice cap incredibly well. He's so passionate about it that he brings tourists here most days then comes here by himself or with friends on his days off.

We didn't really know what to expect but I was surprised at how much the terrain varied.

We found a patch of "rock flour", rock that has been ground up incredibly fine by the pressure of the ice cap. It was strange stuff.

We walked up hills, across ridges and down gullies.

Much to our amazement, we were shown a number of moulins. These are huge holes formed by meltwater drilling holes in the ice. Pawel put an ice screw in the ice and we clipped into it and used it to lean against so we could peer over the edge of the moulin. It was so cool!

Inside, the water had bored through the dense blue ice forming a long vertical drop.

The water formed a river before pouring into the moulin.

The variety in the landscape was amazing! Two Aussies on the other side of the world.

These amazing holes are formed where rock flour sits under the snow. Being darker, the rock flour absorbs heat and melts small holes, maybe up to 15cms across, in the show. Some of these freeze over trapping air bubbles inside. They're so pretty!

There were a few lakes and this one was a stunning blue.

There was even a small cave. I love the deep blue ice at the back of it!

We were tethered again to look over the edge of a gorge.

At another gorge we laid on our stomachs to peer over the edge! I noticed Pawel stood close by in case we did anything stupid.

Of course it was another incredible view of a river-formed canyon over the edge.

A cool shot of our intrepid leader.

At one point we straddled a narrow gorge and walked up it. It wasn't easy!

The blue of this lake was incredible!

We had to jump this river. John and I got a bit wet, haha.

We couldn't go near this moulin as it had dangerous sloping edges and was 50 metres deep!

A very happy team!

After four or five hours on the ice we returned to the car, tired but totally thrilled. Woohoo! On our return, we stopped at a gorgeous spot where a couple of waterfalls were backed by a glacier.

A cup of tea with a view.

Musk ox and reindeer live in this area. We didn't think we would see either of them on this trip but we saw two of each although they were a long way away. We saw them through binoculars. Much to our surprise, an arctic fox ran across the road in front of us at one stage! This was a huge bonus as it's not so common to see them.

And lastly, there was one lake that contained "sea tomatoes' which are actually a type of cyanobacteria which can release toxins into the lake.

It was a truly incredible day full of adventure and wonder!

The next day was largely free so we hiked up a nearby hill. It was a long walk just to get around the airport! 

We saw these unusual signs. This one means that when a plane takes off or lands we're not allowed on the road which is right at the end of the runway. 

Much to our amazement there were warning signs about quicksand!

We saw these cool feathery plants. They gave a splash of colour on a largely green/grey landscape.

We took lunch with us and ate it at a picnic table overlooking the valley. They seem to have a lot of these tables. The bloody mossies liked us though!

We then jumped on a huge 4WD bus to do a tour to see wildlife. We knew this tour wouldn't be our cup of tea but there was no other way to get out and see things. We lasted 100 metres then got off. The sound system, where the driver talks to the passengers in the back, was super loud and distorted. It was awful! There are always going to be times that aren't so great and this was one of them.

The town is so unusual in many ways. The longer we stayed, the more we realised that everything is owned by the one company. The hotel, the cafeteria, the restaurants and the tours were all owned by the same company. And it's all there for no other reason that it has a long airstrip that can land large planes. There is a new international airport almost ready at Nuuk, the capital, and another one is being constructed now at Ilulissat. Once these open, this town will be vastly different. It only has a population of about 500 now and I'm sure that nearly all of those work in something to do with the business created by the airport. I don't know if the town will survive the change. I'm also not sure if that's a bad thing seeing it only came to life in the second world war.

About six kms from the town is a restaurant set on a beautiful lake. Once a week they have a Greenlandic buffet which is very popular. The same company owns that and we were transported there by one of the company's buses. The food was interesting - there were dishes like reindeer liver pate and roast musk ox - but the people were wonderful, especially the bus driver and the barman. We had a lovely night chatting to a Danish woman who is working in the cafeteria for six weeks, just for the experience.

The next day was overcast and drizzly so we put our coats on and climbed up the hill that we look at from our room. The views up the valleys and across to the fjord were amazing!

The town has two distinct parts with the runway dividing it. This is our side where the accommodation, restaurants and planes are! The other side of the airstrip is more the industrial area.

As we came back into town another arctic fox ran between the buildings! This is as good a shot as I could get in the few seconds that I had. We later saw it near this area again.

They're pretty cute. This isn't my photo.

And this is a musk ox, again, taken from the internet. They get hunted a lot here as they're great eating. There's no room for vegetarians in this country! 

The hotel seemed really full again that evening and we learned that strong winds in Nuuk were preventing flights coming in so 150 people were stranded in our tiny town of Kangerlussuaq. At 5pm there were three beds left in the whole town.

The next day, the backlog of passengers had to be got out, even though the winds hadn't improved much. We were also flying to Nuuk this day so we kept a nervous eye on the flights going out. Everything to Nuuk was delayed but they did seem to leave eventually.

While we waited we were entertained by events on the airstrip. We watched as passengers walked out on the tarmac to their plane within 50 metres of a departing large plane. Later there was a cacophony of sirens on the tarmac. Three fire trucks and emergency vehicles had their sirens sounding and lights flashing. Oh no - was there some sort of disaster? Nope - they were just giving a special send off to someone!

We finally boarded our plane, the only flight to Nuuk for the day that wasn't delayed! Woohoo!

See ya!
Heather and John

Greenland - Ilulissat

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.

We woke the next day to perfect clear weather! It turned out that we had clear blue skies every day here and were often down to t-shirts when we walked. We didn't expect that!

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!

The hills we were hiking along were rocky and rugged. They only grew small alpine plants - there wasn't a tree in sight. I love these cottony plants. They are so soft that when I touch them with my fingertips, I can't feel them!

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.

This really was such a special place. In all our travels we've never experienced anything like it. 

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