Greenland
Karale to Tasillaq Fjord - 150 km, 10 days boat supported trek
The fascination with ice and polar bears has made Greenland a dream destination for a long time.
We decided rather suddenly to travel there this summer — “before the Americans claim it,” we joked.
East Greenland is remote and sparsely populated. It was difficult and expensive to find insurance that would cover search and rescue (SAR) in this region. The complex logistics—since in summer you can travel only by boat or helicopter—and the danger of polar bears, which require you to carry a rifle, make solo travel in this area impossible. So, for the first time, we joined a group for a 10 days expedition, organised by Arctic Hiking.
Kulusuk is relatively easy to reach from Iceland. There are daily flights from Reykjavik on a small, noisy aircraft with just 35 seats; about half of them are cancelled due to the unpredictable, fast-changing Arctic weather. After an hour and a half, we landed at Kulusuk Airport, a dirt airstrip surrounded by mountains.
The population of Kulusuk is around 250. The sled dog huskies here outnumber the people. They are active only between December and April; for the rest of the year, they are kept on short chains, except for the puppies, which are allowed to roam free. To preserve the purity of the breed, other dog breeds are not permitted to enter Greenland.
Houses in Greenland once followed a colonial-era color-coding system to indicate their function, since there were/are no street names or numbers. Red marked churches, schools, and trade; yellow for hospitals and doctors; green for power stations and mechanics; blue for fish factories; and black for police. The system was never strict, and today locals can paint their homes freely — though churches remain red and hospitals yellow.
We spent the first night in Kulusuk, then the following day we took a speed boat to Karale area, the start of our 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. Highlights of the journey included walking across glaciers, fording ice-cold rivers, spotting Arctic foxes, Canadian geese, and ptarmigans, exploring the abandoned WWII U.S. Army base and airfield at Bluie East Two, visiting the tiny fishing village of Kuummiit, and simply gazing at ice for hours—observing its slow, graceful movements and admiring its countless shades of white and blue.
My serene moments with the ice were frequently interrupted by aggressive Arctic mosquitoes. Not only are they a relentless nuisance in the summer, but I also discovered I am highly allergic to their bites. Even a head net couldn’t keep these determined little vampires from leaving my face swollen, and four layers of clothing were hardly enough protection. Greenland is certainly not a place for daydreamers like me. And still, despite the itchy mosquito bites, foot blisters, and frostnips on my fingers, my eyes always sparkled at the sight of the ice.
