Greenland.. land of myth and magic!
I was sitting by my computer one sunny day here back home in Denmark when an email popped on my screen.. When I opened it and read the content I though it was just another scam… some new way to get your details to use in a bad way… But then my phone peeped.. And it was an instagram message from a person about the same details that were in the email… And then it sinked it… I was actually being invited to join a sailing trip to Greenland…!
The reality of it kicked in fast.. They were leaving Ísafjordur, a small town in the westfjords of Iceland within 4 weeks.. I had a sense that this would be something that I would never forget, so I did everything I could to be able to make this trip… Seeking funding for the travels there and back again, planing everything back home with my wife… Not that I had to.. she is a master in taking care of things when I am away, but after a few days I saw that I could actually make this happen! So I sent them an email that I would be joining!
Few days later I packed up all my gear, loads of warm and waterproof clothes and then I was off for the adventure of a lifetime! It took me one 3 hour train ride and 2 flights to get to the town Ísafjordur, where I joined the rest of the crew in getting the yacht ready for the crossing from the westfjords of Iceland to the east coast of Greenland.
Unfortunatly the weather was quite bad in the Denmark strait so we had to wait for 2 days before we could start the crossing, and even then the weather was quite rough. I got lucky that I did not get seasick, never had that problem thankfully, but there were some upset stomachs at that point haha! After a day and half of sailing we started seeing the beautiful coastline of Greenland during sunset… And what a sight it was!
As we got closer we started seeing the ankerspot that we were going to spend our first night at the east coast of Greenland. And what a spot it was! A narrow and short fjord within a bigger one called Kangerlussuaq… And that name is not even close to be the hardest one that I learned on this journey! We arrived at the anker location around 01:30 in the morning and then I spent a few…or many minutes taking pictures of our spot and flying the drone around the majestic fjord!
The next day I woke up around 7, everyone else was still sleeping after the rough crossing so I brewed some good coffee and took my cup up on deck and enjoyed the immense silence. I have been in remote places before but that one takes the win.. Absolutely no one around for dozens of miles! No villages and unfortunatly no polar bear!
After everyone woke up and our masterchef made us breakfast we started our next leg of the journey… The day and a half sailing up to Scorisby sound, where the plan was to spend the rest of our trip! It was on that part of the journey that we saw the first real iceberg.. It was MASSIVE.. I flew the drone close to the top of it and it and the top reached 101 meters! Our little yacht was not so big next to that amazing iceberg!
After we spent a good amount of time around that beauty we moved closer to the coastline and continued our journey further and further north. It was quite foggy as we reached the last cape before the opening of Scorisby sound but we could always see a little part of the cape sticking out from the fog. From the cape we took the course to the village Ittoqqortoormiit… and yeah that was the hardest word I learned on the journey! We arrived around 2 a.m and set anker. That night was the best sleep I have had in a while. Early morning I woke up to the howling of the hounds! The Greenland sled dog is obviously the roosters of Greenland! It was quite weird but amazing to wake up to that sound! We had another amazing breakfast before heading ashore to explore the amazing village.
I have to say that I was quite suprised to see how the village looked… It was like stepping into a movie about the old settlements.. So many of the houses looked like they had not been lived in for years… But there were people living in them… I loved everything about the village, the puppies running around, the smell, the people as they smiled at you when they walked by. But it definatly felt a bit unreal! We walked around for a bit and then we visited the only store for miles, actually the last store we would see before we head back to Iceland after a few days, and got some supplies to take with us the rest of the journey. Then we set sails and heading into the amazing Scorisby sound as the sun slowly set!
The plan was to sail over a 100 miles to the amazing Bear islands, a group of 11 islands deep in the sound. It took us about 14 hours to reach the first island and I had no idea how absolutely amazing that location actually was! It was most definatly my favourite anker place during the whole trip! Steep cliff faced mountains into narrow sounds and fjords, and fog crawling up the hills and mountains around… It was in one word “Breathtaking”!!
It was impossible for me to go to sleep, even if it was already 3 oclock in the morning when we sat anker… That place just had a huge affect on me and I had to sit up on deck for a while. And then I flew the drone around and explored even further into the unknown… In the morning as we sailed out and into the fjord called Oy fjord.. A very long and narrow pass with high mountains and glaciers on both sides. Like straight out of Lord of the rings.. It was epic… Just epic!
After sailing around Scorisby sound for a few days an seeing all the amazing locations, Icebergs and people I feel the need to go back.. I felt that as soon as we were sailing our last miles before we crossed the Denmark strait back to Iceland. So I know I will return as soon as possible!
I want to say a big thank you to Xploration.club for inviting me along on this amazing journey! I will never forget the first time I came to Greenland!
My plan is to write a book that will go over the journey with more details, so keep watching this space;-)
