Sled dogs and big bergs!

Despite the heavy snow, we only had a day in Nuuk and we were determined to see the capital. Nuuk is the only place in Greenland that feels like a city – they even have traffic lights, about 4 of them! Though there is little to attract tourists, many Greenlanders come here to work. One of the jobs on offer is answering Santa’s mail, as all mail addressed to Santa Claus, Greenland is delivered here. One of the consequences of the mass migration to the city is the solution to the housing problem, rows of drab looking 60s-style apartment blocks, one of which houses over 1% of Greenland’s population.

By the following morning the clouds has cleared and the sun was out again so we spent the next day on the ferry sunning ourselves on the deckchairs, admiring the landscape of what is Greenland’s most attractive area of coastline. After 41 hours on the boat we arrived at Disko Island, where we spent 5 relaxing days. The highlight was our dogsledding trip. We hiked up to the glacier, including a stretch on snow shoes and were greeted by 50 howling sled dogs, who were hoping we were going to feed them. To say they were making a huge noise would be an understatement. For the trip there were 9 dogs pulling three of us (including the driver) but they still managed to get up quite a speed. That night we had reindeer stew for dinner and stayed on a hut on the glacier, which had a great view of Disko Bay with icebergs floating in the sea. We also visited an arctic research station on the island, which had an amazing library, which included expedition diaries and incomplete maps from early polar expeditions. Unfortunately the researchers were unable (or unwilling) to answer our question as to whether global warming is due to human activity or a natural climactic cycle.

We have spent the last few days in Ilulissat, which is the tourist capital of Greenland due to it’s incredible icefjord. Where the inland ice meets the sea, chunks of ice break off – these chunks can be up to 120 metres high and 2 miles long. It is one of these chunks of ice that sank the titanic. We have been enjoying the amazing scenes that these create from various viewpoints - one was from a hotel balcony sipping the most expensive beer that we have ever drunk (8GBP per pint!) and the other from a hunter’s hut, where we stayed overnight, which we trekked to yesterday.

Tomorrow we head to Uummannaq, at 600 km above the arctic circle our furthest north destination.

Immaqa

Immaqa is the Greenlandic word meaning maybe and is a common response to any specific questions to locals about travel plans. Changes in the weather here are notoriously dramatic and unpredictable. Part of the experience of travelling is remembering that the weather will also have the final say.

After ten glorious days of sunshine, once we reached Narsaq, the day after our last update, the weather took a turn for the worse with strong winds and snow in the high mountains, meaning the route of our four day treck was no longer safe. The silver lining was the fact that we got to stay anotehr day in Narsac and watch a greenlandic fashion show of clothes made from sealskin and reycled rubber.

We were also fortunate that our stay in Narsaq coincided with the regional fire brigade contest where teams from the surrounding area came to compete for the most bizarrly large cup we had ever seen. Goven some of the skills on display, we were glad we weren´t caught in a fire, particularly on that day as all of the fire brigades were in this competition.

Once the wind had dies down we took a boat half way up the peninsula and spent the next three days trecking in the lower regions, whihc would have made up the second part of our walk. It did rain, quite a lot, but it was amazingly liberating finding our way through the middle of nowhere with no paths and nothing but our map and compass. One of the highlights was lunch on the second day, when we arrived at a remote farmhouse, dripping wet. we knocked on the door and the farmer invited us in for lunch with his niece and nephew, who had walked an hour from the next farm to deliver him an invitation to their confirmation.

The following day we arrived at Qassiarsuk, a small sheep station that was the site of the first viking settlement in Greenland back in 982 . While we spent the afternoon visiting the reconstructed longhouse, another storm was brewing up outside, making it impossible to cross the fjord to Narsarsuaq, where we were due to catch our ferry at 08.00 the following morning. In any event this did not matter as we then discovered that the ferry was stuck some 500 km up the coast and could´t travel further south due to heavy pack ice. We sailed across the fjord the next day and were put on a replacement flight to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, where we met the ferry. We slept on the boat that night and work up in the morning to find that it was snowing.

We are now in Illulissat, the land of the midnight sun, sled dogs and huge icebergs, but more on that later...........

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