Passing the "Greenland dog circle"

After a very long day of travelling yesterday everybody enjoyed a long sleep before we started our different information briefings around 09:00h. It was quite a long way from Nuuk to Sisimiut, our destination for today, but the weather was nice and as we had nearly no wind we could feel only a bit of movement in the ship - just enough to let us sleep like a baby in a cradle. 

Sisimiut lays just north of the polar circle and we celebrated our "crossing the line" with a special baptism. We could even be happy that her Royal Highness King Neptune took the time to show up again himself for this very important ceremony.

The polar circle is not only a mathematical, cartographic line. It is also the boundary between the area in the south, where you can see all kinds of dogs and the region in the north, where only the Greenland dogs are allowed. The Greenland dog belongs to northern sledge dog breeds but it is the only dog breed in the whole world that was never ever crossbred with another dog breed. The Greenlanders are very proud of their very strong dogs. They are not bred for racing, they are working dogs, and have been for thousands of years. They need to be strong dogs to pull the sledges after a successful hunting day in wintertime. During the snow free time of the year they live with their pack together in special dog fields just outside the town. In former times the dogs belonged to the typical town picture. Today you find only here and there a dog in the middle of the Greenlandic cities.

Sisimiut is the second largest city after the capital Nuuk. It is an important modern business centre with different kind of schools, colleges and special administrations. Sisimiut tries always to be a bit in concurrence to Nuuk. Even though it is still much more smaller than Nuuk, the city has a very special charm. Only the old apartment blocks, built in the 1960s, when Denmark tried to get enough healthy living room for all Greenlanders in a very short time, look a bit strange in this modern city. But where in the world can you not find these architectural mistakes?! Anyway, we will focus on the colourful colonial and newer buildings which look very attractive all over the city.

Our day here in Sisimiut has been sunny but very, cold for this time of year. With temperatures of only 0.7 degree Celsius in the shade and a bit of wind it was downright chilly. It even snowed in the morning!

As a result we had to be dressed warmly to be ready for our different excursions. We had 7 hours time to learn the city and its surroundings by climbing on a high mountain, the so-called Palaasip Qaqqa, sailing with little local boats to a small abandoned settlement, Assaqutaq, or to go on a very informative bus tour with several stops, including a dog yard.

In Assaqutaq it has been especially nice to see so many birds- Snow Buntings and Lapland Buntings flying around. It looked like that they were absolutely happy that the spring came finally. They were singing and fluttering around all over in the settlement. Love was in the air!

As mentioned in a previous post on Assaqutaq, the abandoned settlement is now used as a camp for young Greenlanders. We were lucky that several delightful children were still in the camp and keen to chat with us and be photographed. These are the faces of the new Greenland- bright, clever, modern and optimistic!

Before we left Sisimiut we got like always when FRAM is in town an amazing kayak show. Nobody from us understood how it can be possible to do so many kayak rolls in a row, especially in this very cold and still winter temperatures in the sea.

Our first expedition day went out as a day full of new impressions. We will need a while to work on them, to get them all in our brain.   

Back to Nuuk

We were not expecting to be back in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, quite so soon! Our plan "A" was to sail down the fiord towards Kangerlussuaq where there is Greenland's major international airport. Our guests were then to fly out to destinations in Europe and Iceland. However, Nature played a trick on us. The Danish Meteorological Service recently pronounced that May was the coldest on record in Greenland. This has caused more ice than normal to hang around into the spring, which has resulted in some tricky navigations for us. The Kangerlussuaq fiord is blocked with ice from the bottom to half way to the sea, which made it impossible for us to sail there and drop our guests off for flights home. Instead we have come back to Nuuk where there is another airport and flights have been arranged from here to Kangerlussuaq, then onwards as planned. We arrived to some fog in Nuuk but the flights went out and came in, and the fog burned off eventually to a beautiful sunny day.

Of course our incoming guests had to fly from Kangerlussuaq to Nuuk too. Plane by plane passenger groups arrived through the late morning, afternoon and evening. Those guests that arrived early enough used their time to learn Nuuk, Greenland's very modern capital.

On our first evening on board we just got a quite busy program already. Safety drill, followed by our captains welcome cocktail, followed by a first information briefing done by our expedition leader. But there was time too when we could enjoy our first nice dinner buffet on board.

As everybody had a long travelling day to reach the largest island of the world most passengers went to bed early, looking forward and dreaming of a spectacular trip along the still icy coast of Greenland.

Here is a montage of images from Chelsea our ship photographer.

The old Lutheren Church in Nuuk

Reindeer antlers

Cutting wild meat at the local market

Seal meat available at the local market

... also whale meat

An nicely decorated apartment block

Hans Egede overlooking Nuuk

Jasmine serving a welcome champagne

Luggage!

The harbour in Nuuk

Overlooking the mountains around Nuuk

Ilulissat- our furthest point north on this tour

Early in the morning, our expedition leader, Karin, woke us up with the message to get up and get out on decks to see the amazing view outside. We were in Disko Bay and completely surrounded by icebergs, everyone looking unique in form and colour.  Yes, icebergs have colour! The nooks and crannies often have a blue or green glow. This is caused by light penetrating the ice and the water molecules in the ice absorbing the reds, oranges and yellows and leaving behind the greens and blues.

Though we are in the town of Ilulissat, the theme for the day has to be ice. Millions of tonnes of ice pour down from the glacier behind the town every day and over about a year they make their way from the glacier front over 70 km inland, to the bay off Ilulissat. The front is at the end of the glacier where the ice calves off to form glaciers. At the front, the ice is still mostly floating on seawater and the tides apply forces to the ice due to its buoyancy. This promotes calving. Once calved, the bergs slowly move out but eventually ground on an undersea ridge and sit there, slowly melting, until they are released to pass into the Davis Strait. The grounded icebergs prevent the ones behind from moving out with the effect that they pile up in a traffic jam of ice back to the front. Once they are fully released into the sea, currents move them first north then south to the western North Atlantic.

In the bay off Ilulissat, many smaller icebergs and bergy bits of various sites gentle waft by, behind are the behemoths. The glacier making all these icebergs is the most productive in the northern hemisphere. Indeed, the iceberg that hit the Titanic off eastern Canada was almost certainly born in Ilulissat.

Climate change and warming in west Greenland is no better illustrated than in Ilulissat. The glacier front used to be much closer to the town but has receded over 60 km back. Once the front recedes so that it is totally on bedrock rather than partially floating on the sea, the large icebergs will no longer be produced and the end of an era will come to an end.

We had several options for activities today including hikes to vantage points where the large, grounded icebergs can be seen, a helicopter ride over the icebergs and inland to the glacier itself, a guided walk around town, and a boat trip in amongst the icebergs in the bay.  The sun was almost painfully bright today and sunglasses and sunscreen were a must! Little wind made for very pleasant, almost warm conditions. Here is a selection of images from the various activities of the day.

North to Sisimiut

Overnight and through the morning we sailed about 320 km north, along the beautiful west coast of Greenland. In the morning we crossed the Arctic Circle and felt a little bump as we did so! As is usual on Fram, because we occupy a special place in his heart, King Neptune appeared on the forecastle of the ship and baptised new polar circle crossers with a liberal dowsing of ice-cold water. His Highness feels no mercy on these occasions! You can see it in his eyes. So we are now in a special place on Earth where for one or more days per year the sun never sets (summer) or the sun never rises (winter)- the "Land of the Midnight Sun". By morning we had sailed far enough north that we are now in Davis Strait- the body of water that separates Baffin Island, Nunuvut, Canada, from west Greenland.

A little before noon we came along side in Sisimiut. With a population of about 6000, this city is the second largest in Greenland, and one of the fastest growing in the country. Like Nuuk, if you blink, the city will have changed. The area has been inhabitated for over 4000 years by earlier Inuit cultures, the Thule being the latest, and from which most of the current inhabitants descend.

Before we left Sisimiut, we had a real treat when a champion kayaker from the city demonstrated his skills by performing many different kayak rolls. The kayak is many 1000s of years old and over that time the Inuit of Alaska, Canada and Greenland have perfected the art and science of kayaking. If the kayaker ever tipped over, a roll would right them in the boat quickly, with no risk of drowning.

Some of us went on a fabulous boat trip to Assaqutaq. This settlement was abandoned in the 1960s after the closing of the salt cod fish plant. Man other settlements were also closed back then and the threat continues today. Most people from Assaqutaq moved to nearby Sisimiut. Today the buildings in Assaqutaq are used as a summer camp for children where they learn the traditional way of life like fishing, drying the fish, seal hunting, kayaking and so on. Here are a few images from the trip.

A lot of us joined "A Taste of Greenland", a wonderful lunch at a local hotel. There were enjoyed a sumptuous feast of all things Greenland including Musk-ox, reindeer, lamb, and other treats.

On the way back to the ship many of us visited a local workshop where craftsmen and women were making and selling a variety of beautiful objects. These are the sorts of things you want to take home with you to serve as reminders of this great place.

A sunny blue sky over Greenland’s capital Nuuk

It has been a long cruise from Ivittuut in the Southern fjords to Nuuk. So we used the opportunity this morning to listen to the lecturers well prepared by our lecturers to learn more about this wonderful Arctic country.  Through most of the morning, we could just see the coast of Greenland from a distance. The water in between was glassy-calm. Then, as we approached Nuuk, we realized how stunning the scenery is around the capital. Nuuk must be one of the most beautiful capitals in the world!  Snow covered mountains rise up behind the city including one called Sermitsiaq. Spring is very late in these parts this year (in fact May 2015 was the coldest on record in Greenland) and snow was to be found almost down to sea level. In this image, a whale catcher is coming into port with the backdrop of the city and mountains.  

The harbour of Nuuk is some distance from the centre of town so we had a regular shuttle bus from the ship alongside the pier to downtown. If you believe that “downtown” in not he correct word, then you have never been here. Yes Greenland is a huge but sparsely populated country, but about 16000 of 56000 live in this modern city. If you have been lucky enough to visit Greenland and Nuuk in the past, you get the feeling that it is changing almost day-by-day. Many shiny buildings now stand in the centre including a bright shopping mall and cultural centre.

There are cafés and restaurants and all the amenities of a modern city. Even though you can buy nearly everything in the very modern supermarkets, even nice beef from New Zealand, you can still find the traditional fish market in Nuuk’s centre where you can get fresh fish, whale and seal meat. Newly built suburbs with a good infrastructure like shops, kindergartens and schools grew out of nothing during the last several years.

In contrast to the modern buildings several older colonial buildings still exist and are obviously well maintained.

Next to the old colonial harbour lays the very well done Greenland National Museum where you can find the very famous mummies which were found in a cave in Qilakitsoq close to Uummannaq more in the north. They date from the 1400s. This stone bust depicts the classic look of Greenlandic women from the last century and before. Note the bun of hair on top.

A Musk-ox day

Yes it was! Today we visited Ivittuut, which is known to be  great location for Musk-ox. And it didn't disappoint! As we approached the abandoned US base we saw several groups of them in different placed along the shoreline and in the hills behind. The Musk-ox is the largest land mammal in the country (weighing up to 400 kilos) and is called Ummimak in Greenlandic, which means the "long-bearded one". They are native to the drier, colder parts of Greenland, for example northeast Greenland, and were introduced to the Kangerlussuaq first and from there into other parts of southern Greenland. They seem to be thriving in Ivittuut. One of the groups we saw had two beautiful calves. You can see one of them, second from left in this image:

Some of us walked up a valley from the buildings and discovered several small groups of Musk-ox and a herd of Reindeer!

Ivittuut was the former site of a cryolite mine. Cryolite is a rare mineral used in the making of aluminium. We found several pieces on the beach.

As mentioned above it was also the site of a US Army Post and Naval Base called Blue West 7. It closed in 1951. The Danes then established a modern base in the same location but moved to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, last year. There is now a lot of talk about what will be done with the modern facilities at the site. Nothing is decided yet.