It is a strange sensation to take off in a dark evening, and land during a sunny night. But this is exactly what can happen to you when you fly to the arctic circle from Denmark (a common stopover when flying to Greenland). I did this trip a few years ago. My objectives were: 1) see the magnificent Disko Bay, 2) test the gear I had bought for future mountain climbing, and 3) spot a polar rabbit.
From Denmark it took two more flights to reach the destination of Ilulissat, but boy was it worth waiting for…the view from the terrace of the rented apartment was as if you were standing on the deck on an icebreaker sailing through the arctic ice. Icebergs going on for miles and miles. Outside you could hear the barking of the thundered of husky dogs in town, and smell the fish from the harbour.
The arrival was in the afternoon so the first thing to do was hop on a boat and do a night tour around the bay. It was a cold night at sea, despite the sunlight: it was cloudy and I was thankful for my merino wool, thermal fleece, hardshell and down layers! But we all l warmed up from excitement when the first two whales approached us. A very nice start of the holiday.
Next morning we left Disko Bay by boat. It was a foggy morning which provided us with some great photos of icebergs. The destination was the Eqi glacier which was going to be the starting point for a two-day hike To Greenland’s permanent ice cap. Known for its continuous calving, it would also be the most northern point of the trip; at almost 70 degrees latitude it is located less than 3500 km from the geodetic North Pole.
We stopped at the glacier to see the many pieces of ice breaking off, with a loud cracking noise. The ship’s landing at the dock was less pleasant though: we were attacked by thousands of flys who went straight for your face. The buff went straight up to cover my face (and another gear checked 🙂 ).
And so we set off for a two-day hike. We were a group of five, me being the only male participant. We hiked for several hours along the green fields not seeing a soul. We made camp next to a lake, and continued the hike towards the ice. This time the scenery was rocky and steep, as we had to climb out of a moraine of a receded glacier. The rewards were, again, lovely. We finally stood on the permanent ice cap of Greenland! A very wild terrain in which we couldn’t go far due to the many crevasses and us not having much time nor the gear to handle it. But standing there does make you realize that this is a special place.
We head back for the night (without darkness) and fell asleep after dinner. Wind was picking up a bit but I fell asleep easily. Something woke me up in the morning. I could have sworn I heard someone shouting “Help!!!”. I must have been wrong, I thought, and fell asleep again. “Help please! Why is no one helping me!”. Now I knew I wasn’t dreaming and someone did actually call for help. Waking up, I now realized we were in a storm. Got dressed as quickly as possible and got out. The storm had shifted the tent of one of the group’s members, a Dutch girl, about ten meters towards the lake, with her inside! Our guide was quicker than I was and had secured the tent. What a way to wake up!
The return hike was tough. We tried to reach an icefall of a glacier but the wind simply pushed us back and we turned around. We were lucky that the wind was blowing in the same direction that we were going. At one point I was changing jackets because I got very hot (the clothes were certainly warm enough) and turning back again I found the rest of the group staring at something,
It was a polar rabbit….. and it was gone now…..the group kindly informed me….
The one chance I had, after years of waiting, to capture a polar rabbit on camera….and I missed it! Plenty of curses went through my head… I kept looking around on the remaining part of the hike but nothing…no humans nor animals in sight.
Back in Disko Bay another nice excursion lay ahead of us: canoeing by night in the bay! A funny Spanish guide took us along the coast and even brought some Baileys to drink! While we were all close to each other sharing the bottle of Baileys, suddenly an enormous cracking sound penetrated our ears…. a large piece of ice had broken off the iceberg next to us. Beautiful as it is, it created an enormous wave that was heading right towards us! We turned all canoes to line up against the incoming wave but as the guide had kept us at a safe distance, the wave was small by the time it arrived at us. After this excitement, we headed back to the dock while the low Sun gave us again opportunities for amazing pictures.
The surprise of spotting those two whales on the first day begged for more, and we boarded a boat again now with one goal only: see more whales! We certainly got what we asked for: dozens of whales passed by within our trip of only a few hours. One of them even kept breaching not far from the boat, giving us a fantastic show.
On the last day, I thought I had seen the best by now. I was wrong. A hike to the mouth of the Ilulissat glacier gave one of the most stunning views I have ever seen in my life: a sea covered with icebergs going on until the horizon. icebergs so large that Dutch buildings would look like ants beside them. The pictures don’t do it justice! From where we were standing the largest calving of ice ever recorded was filmed here.
In the evening, at the airport, I was reflecting on this beautiful trip. My gear was fantastic and very warm, and Disko Bay proved to be as wonderful as hoped for. As for the missed polar rabbit…..it’ll be a nice excuse to come back again.
Ciao!
Robin
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