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| Qullissat Photo © Esther Kokmeijer |
This morning, at 09:00, we had an unexpected, unscheduled landing at the abandoned coal mining town of Qullissat. It was an eerie feeling to wander around by all the abandoned homes, most of which are still in terrific condition. It seemed as if everyone walked away just yesterday. In it's heyday, Qullissat was the largest town in Greenland. However the coal mine was not profitable and was closed down in 1972.
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| Qullissat Photo © Esther Kokmeijer |
Once again the scenery is breathtaking. Steep, layered cliffs rise dramatically just behind the ghost town. Sparkling snow patches brighten the rocky landscape and the sky is streaked with equal swaths of blue and white.
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| Photo © Esther Kokmeijer |
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| Photo © Esther Kokmeijer |
Today is one of our really big ice days. Our objective was to reach the area of the glacier, Eqip Sermia. The cruise down the narrow channels can be very exciting as they are often chock-a-block full of ice.
As we got closer to Eqip Sermia the ice floes and icebergs got more and more concentrated, eventually blocking our path to the glacier.
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| Photo © Esther Kokmeijer |
This has happened to us before in this area and like before the decision to launch the Polar cirkel boats and go cruising in the ice was quickly made.
At 18:00 the first group of 5 boats headed into the dense ice. There was a beautiful waterfall just abeam of the ship. We cruised slowly through the ice in the small boats to the very base of the waterfall. Just to the left of the waterfall was a small colony of cormorants.
It was great fun to navigate around icebergs in the small open leads in the ice. It was practically wind free. The calm surface water mirrored the thousands of icebergs. It was a paradice of ice for photographers.
