GREENLAND

Greenland can be a Hell of destination or heaven depending of the season you go and the luck you have with the weather. We spend three weeks of summer with our children and even we expected sunshine most of the time was misty, rainy and very humid. 

Probably the most magic experience in Greenland is when you come close to an Iceberg don’t matter if it is from Land or water, it is simply impressive.

We started our three weeks Greenland expedition in Ilulissat. The name, Ilulissat, means ICEBERG in Greenlandic. This little town is located in Disko Bay and area where most of the Icebergs are produced and visited by tourist in whole Greenland. The most interesting excursion from this point is Sermermuit Valley where you can hike along the coast and enjoy the views of the impressive Icebergs.The one iceberg who sank the Titanic came from this region.

Ilulissat 

This little fishing town has a couple Museums and nice coffee places, it is also interesting for kayaking and for whale watching. We took with our children’s kayaks to come close to the ICEBERGS. It was one of the most spectacular views, the closer you came the colder it felt!  Even the smell near the icebergs felt different… 

Qeqertarsuaq

After boarding our “Artic sailing boat” we started sailing through Icebergs direction QeqerTarsuaq. A very isolated area located south of Disko island. We spend our day sailing…

Most of the little islands around Disko Island are practically now inhabited due to the ban during the 80’s on seal hunting and leather commerce. 

Many Greenlandic families used to spend their summer here living out of their fishing and game. At that time, they used to cross the iced waters with their sled dogs but as the waters don’t freeze anymore due to climate change, this is not posible today; these little islands are just a graveyard of houses and bones.

Next morning we started a nice hike at Kuannit, probably one of the most fertile areas ( according to Greenlandic Standards). Now locals arrive here by helicopter rather than sled docs. That is the “local transport” offered to the Greenlandic people living in isolated areas.  

Llimanaq

A little colonie of 53 people with its little church but no supermarkets or coffee places.

Here you can find one of the most exclusive and remotes hotels around the world, Paul Egedes Hus, and the two Michelin temporary restaurant: KOKS. 

 It was a treat and an amazing experience: we eat for the first time Whale, seal, even dove and all kind of Seaweeds…

Next day we started our hike along the coast. It was probably our favorite hike during our entire trip. We saw whales playing very close to the shore, we run on top of the oldest stones in our planet, we even touched little icebergs. The journey was unfolding with lots of surprises the further we got along our way. 

We ended up our journey with the most amazing sunset ever. 

Leaving Greenland 

The bad weather finally  unfolded, we decided to leave Jakobshavn Glacier to reach Ummannaq, located 600Km north of the Artic circle.

Ummannaq, it’s a fishing and hunters center since 1763. But the main population has been living out of mining (Zinc and lead) for many years,this was  their main revenue in the 70’s and 80’s. 

We visited museums, the little church and learned the culture of their old nomadic habitants.

 Ummannaq

 We had to change our itinerary after a few days of bad weather.

 The risk of going to Greenland is that you never know when you might go back if you are blocked because of bad weather, so we decided actually to leave as we got a short window.  

Surely the trip was worth while visiting, but I Will say 10 days was more than enough!