Greenland
The fascination with ice and bears made Greenland a dream destination for a long time.
We decided rather suddenly to travel there this summer, ‘before the Americans would claim it’.
East Greenland is remote and sparsely populated; it was difficult and pricey to find an insurance covering SAR here. Because of the complex logistics (in the summer you can only move around by boat or helicopter) and danger of polar bears (you need to carry a rifle), we chose to travel in a group.
Kulusuk is relatively easy to reach from Iceland. There are daily flights from Reykjavik in a small, noisy aircraft (35 seats); about half of the flights get cancelled because of the unpredictable and fast changing weather in the Arctic. After 1 hr and 30 min we landed at Kulusuk airport, a dirt strip surrounded by mountains.
The population of Kulusuk is 250. The sled dog huskies here outnumber the people. They are active only in the months between Dec-April, the rest of the year they are kept on a short chain, except the puppies which are allowed to roam free. To keep the breed pure any other dog breed is restricted from entering Greenland.
Houses in Greenland used to follow a colour-coding system which was introduced in colonial times. Since there are no street names and house numbers in Greenland, the colour-coding system was an efficient solution to help identify the function of a building. Red buildings would signify churches, schools, teachers’ houses and trade. Yellow colour hospitals, doctors, and health care personnel. Green houses and buildings were assigned to power works, auto mechanics, teleoperations, and such. Blue buildings and housing were related to the fish factories. Police stations were black. It was never a very rigid system, and especially today locals are free to paint their houses in any colour, but the church will always be red and hospital always yellow.
We spent one night in Kulusuk, then the following day we took a speed boat to Karale area, the start of our 10 days trek. Our skipper very skilfully zig-zagged between chunks of ice, some the size of warehouses. The 150 km trek from Karale to Tasillaq Fjord passes some incredible scenery, incomparable to anything we’ve experienced before.
I could look at ice for hours and not be bored, observe its movements, slow dances in the water and admire its various shades of white and blue. However, when in Greenland, my peaceful moments with ice were quickly disturbed by the aggressive Arctic mosquitoes. Not only they’re a nuisance in the summer, but I also discovered I am highly allergic to their bites. Even the head net didn’t stop the very determined little vampires from getting my face all swollen up. Four layers of clothes was also not a thick enough protection. Greenland is surely not a land for day dreamers like me. And yet, no matter how many itchy mosquito bites, foot blisters and frostnips in my fingers, my eyes would always sparkle at the sight of ice.
