Halfway through the trip now – Tbilisi seems a long time ago.
The plane was a small turbo prop (Dash 8) with about 20 people on board.
Flying north, there were some amazing views over the island. The landscape was hilly, brown with hundreds, if not thousands, of lakes, mostly small, some huge. Most were a dark blue but some of the larger ones were a very pale blue, I think they may be glacial water. There were no trees to be seen, just the grass and rocks.
The flight took 40 minutes and after about 25 we saw the first glacier, the ice feeding into one of the pale blue lakes, so I was right.
A few minutes later we saw icebergs, a few small ones at first, then dozens, then hundreds going off into the distance.
Quite suddenly we flew over a glacier and some large icebergs – the snow really white, the sun reflecting off.
Landed (I thought we were now inside the Arctic Circle, but Kangerlussuaq is actually inside it as well) and got a taxi to the hotel (about 30 AUD), which drove around the bay, full of icebergs. When we got there they said there was a courtesy bus, but Song didn’t see it mentioned on their website. What also wasn’t mentioned was that you had to pay per person – and they only had one person booked. We dug out the confirmation and it said per room. We pointed out that we’d hardly travel from Australia and only book for one person, and if it was an option on the website we would have picked it – we wouldn’t risk not having somewhere to stay for 6 nights. The manager came over (he looked about 12) and we showed the print out that had no mention of the per person charge (an extra 500 AUD surcharge on top of the 2350 AUD for 6 nights), only the room. To be honest I was prepared to pay, because what was the alternative? But he said that he wouldn’t charge us which made us happy.
The room wasn’t ready so he made me a cup of coffee and we sat on the terrace overlooking the bay with icebergs everywhere. It turned out his brother studied in Melbourne. Small world.
The weather was fabulous – about 7C but sunny, clear skies.
We haven’t booked any excursions, we’re here for 6 days so will do a couple of things but also just have some downtime and go for a few walks – the weather looks pretty good, cold (2C – 6C) but clear. I don’t mind that temperature, as long as it’s not grey and wet, but we can’t control the weather. So there may not be any interesting updates.
The room was small and basic – clean and comfortable but 2.5 star and not very flash. There was a 4 star nearby but that was fully booked, but was also a fair way out of town. The rooms there looked better, but not many of them had views over the bay.
The view out of our room was spectacular, looking over the bay full of icebergs with a snow capped mountain range in the distance.
Left the hotel to walk into the main part of town (population around 5000), weather perfect. Great views over the bay everywhere, more icebergs.
Before we decided to come we worried about the quality of the food, thought it might be very expensive and basically whale and Musk ox. Didn’t need to worry regarding the variety , the first place we stopped had a menu that included Pad Thai, burgers, pizza, burritos and plenty of choice. Song had halibut and rice in an Asian sauce, I had fish and chips. Song’s was nice, my fish was a bit bland to be honest, but there were heaps of chips. I also had a local beer – yes, Greenland has a brewery. Cost about 50 AUD. A bit overpriced but not extortionate.
We were talking about how it’s a bit surreal – it’s very isolated in that there was nothing for hundreds of miles as we flew in – no tracks or settlements, just wilderness. Yet here we were sitting in a cafe that served Pad Thai and burritos with chips, and wifi.
Decided to go back to the hotel, spotted a bay with more icebergs so went down to take more photos.
I thought it would be a good idea to take one next to a big chunk of ice that had washed up. Turned out to be a bad idea because I slipped and put my left foot completely in a pool. Luckily I didn’t drop the camera or Song’s iPhone, that would have been a bit of a disaster.
Finished taking photos and squelched back to the hotel.
Hopefully the boot will dry by tomorrow – travelling with just hand luggage means we don’t carry luxuries like spare shoes.
Sat in the hotel room looking out of the window watching the icebergs – over time different ones floated into view, there were a couple outside our room that broke up and drifted off, it was ever-changing.
Luckily this room has better curtains than the last one so it won’t be as light.
Nothing planned tomorrow, we’ll just go for a wander. An amazing place.
