Ilulissat Means Icebergs

The 24 hour daylight definitely threw me off, but after that late evening I got to sleep pretty quickly, with the help of (almost) blackout blinds and an eye mask. The morning was gorgeous. It was only 8 degrees C but the brilliant sunshine and lack of wind made it feel warmer, as I walked back over to the harbor.

Today I’m heading out again with the same tour guide as last night, Jonas, for an all day excursion. As we again headed slowly out of the harbor, the container ship I’d seen pulling in yesterday was still unloading.

We headed north along the coast – passing by this lovely iceberg with multiple arches and caverns.

Our first stop to drop off a few passengers is the small (38 residents) settlement of Oqaatsut, which seems to have a restaurant (center of the photo behind the dock) and not much else. Most of the people getting off here were doing a “popular” (for Greenland) hike back to Ilulissat along the coast which takes about 5-6 hours. Curiously, one person, was hanging out in Oqaatsut all day until we passed by to pick her up on our return in 7 hours. Not sure if she knew what she was in for… hopefully after the first 30 minutes of walking around exploring the entire village she found somewhere to enjoy the vibe for the rest of the day.

We headed further north – in total, we’re going about 50 km from Ilulissat on the boat. We were treated to plenty of icebergs as we whizzed by at 25 knots, and lots of seabirds.

About an hour from Ilulissat in Disko Bay brought us to a point where we turned east into the Paakitsoq fjord. On today’s trip there are myself, and 2 couples from Germany joining Jonas on a hike at the end of one of the branches.

Half an hour of beautiful fjord scenery, and we were at the end of our ride. An inconspicuous, well hidden outflow from a hydroelectric facility greeted us beside a concrete dock.

I was surprised to see development this far away from town, but it didn’t occur to me that we’d need something like this to dock. It’s not like we were prepared to get out in the water, and I believe in most places the water gets deep very very quickly.

The flowers were so cheerful in the morning sun. It was hard to avoid stepping on them, there were so many.

Hiking up above the fjord, the views really started to open up.

A lot of the ground was covered in a very dry moss. It crunched when you stepped on it.

We wheezed our way up a snack spot. The mosquitoes were ferocious here and Jonas shared some strong DEET bug spray to keep them away.

Now about 300 vertical metres above the water, and we get our first views of the ice cap and an outlet glacier to the north east of us.

Typical terrain on top of the gentle ridge. Plenty of boulders, moss, lichens, and occasional pools.

This rock wall which looks rough was actually completely smooth yet covered in lichens.

Jonas provided some great hiking snacks – including my favorite – chips.

We reached the end of our hike, overlooking the inland ice, a spectacular outlet glacier, and the glacial lake that provides meltwater for the hidden hydroelectric project that supplies Ilulissat with most of its electric power.

When the trip itinerary said lunch was included, I was expecting sandwiches or meats and cheeses. Surprisingly, Jonas had brought a backpacking stove and extra water up the hill for a hot lunch. It really hit the spot!

What a great lunch spot. There was a light but continuous breeze which kept the bugs away.

After lunch, I walked up on top and a little further along the ridge to see if I could get closer to the inland ice.

Here I caught Jonas taking some pictures of the trip for his website.

After a very enjoyable hour up there, it was time to head back down to the boat. Seeing the fjord ahead of us and below was gorgeous.

Farewell, gorgeous ice cap!

This moss was particularly squishy. I felt really bad to step on these plants as they’d likely taken hundreds of years to establish themselves in this harsh environment, but about half the time we had to walk off of the rock.

Opposite of squishy, these crusty lichens had grown in a circular pattern on the rock.

Back at another extremely smooth wall.

Another perfect day up here. There were absolutely no sounds from other people the entire hike.

We descended a very steep grassy slope down to the water’s edge.

On to Jonas’ boat and back out into the fjord. This chokepoint up ahead was very interesting, very shallow, and had a really strong current. It was so strong that it looked as if the fjord was flowing on the edges, with rapids.

Back out into Disko Bay, I couldn’t help but take a few pics of the amazing iceberg scenery.

As well as a very interesting cloud pattern above us.

After picking up our passenger who’d spent the day soaking in the vibe in tiny Oqaatsut, we passed by the new Ilulissat International Airport which is being constructed just north of the existing airport and will be able to accommodate jets and have an ILS. It is supposed to be open in Fall 2026.

We got back to town and I was pretty hungry. The small bag of chips earlier left me wanting more. So I stopped by a local grocery store, Akiki, for some more chips. I also picked up a local beer to take home as a souvenir.

Curiously, at the cafe next door, a local had dropped off his gun outside the door while he went in to get a drink.

Is this Greenland or what!

After demolishing half the bag of chips I treated myself to a local draught beer from the hotel bar, on the deck.

I needed real food though so I headed back out for a very late supper to Cafe Iluliaq where I had a muskox burger and fries with a Jolly cola. It was about $32 Canadian for this meal.

Hard to believe that it’s 9 PM as it’s so bright out. I walked back up past the doggies to the Icefjord Centre to get a view from the rooftop, before heading back to the room for an early night.

Next morning, now, I didn’t have this in my plan, but it was so nice out again that I couldn’t resist adding one more activity to my time in Ilulissat. A sightseeing flight over some of the lakes, the ice cap, and the spectacular glaciers east of town. On Jonas recommendation I reached out to Air Zafari tours via WhatsApp while I was eating breakfast to see if they had anything I could join this morning. I was in luck, albeit a bit rushed, as they had a group of 4 leaving in an hour that I could join. I still had to finish eating and pack up the room, but I made it work, and it was completely worth it.

Got a taxi up to the airport and before I knew it I was in the back seat of a Partenavia P68, joining a family from the US on what was also their final morning in Ilulissat. Our pilot was a Danish guy who lived here in the summer, and in Italy in the winter.

We flew northeast over some beautiful lakes, and further along, to the Northern Glacier, Sermeq Avangnardleq.

The inland ice goes literally as far as you can see in 3 directions.

I took a picture of where we were hiking yesterday – the fjord in center left, and the lunch spot was in the rocky area beneath the wing.

Far from being smooth and featureless from this height, the ice sheet edge was amazing.

We flew south over to the Southern Glacier, Sermeq Kujalleq, which produces all of those icebergs in the fjord and sea. The glacier front is so productive that you have to look carefully to determine what’s glacier and what’s floating, detached ice.

Here is a view looking north, of about half of the glacier front of Sermeq Kujalleq. The iceberg factory of Greenland. More icebergs come from this glacier than anywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere and float as far south as New York.

Looking to the west, the Icefjord is filled with icebergs for 70 km before reaching the sea, where we were touring in the boat 2 nights ago. No wonder it’s been a protected UNESCO site for the past 20 years.

We flew down very close to the icebergs along the length of the fjord – the altimeter read 550 feet, and it was just spectacular, especially when flying over some of the monster icebergs, which will take a couple of years to get to the sea.

Sorry for so many photos, I did delete some.. honest….

We reached the sea and flew over the area where we’d been boat touring.

And finally, back to the airport over the town.

The red buildings in this picture are Hotel Arctic – one of the larger hotels in Ilulissat.

The main cemetery, very close to the airport.

What an awesome and unforgettable flight!!

Back on the ground, here’s the same Dash 8 that brought me here from Nuuk 3 days ago. No weather delays today!

Instead of baggage carts here, all of the baggage is loaded into a container that is picked up by forklift.

There was a surprise in the terminal parking lot – a vintage Land Cruiser.

I had the taxi drop me off at the Icefjord Center as I wanted to check it out on a nice day. Look at the view from these windows.

And the coffee was very good as well.

Here’s a first for me after all of my years of flying – a flight that is being moved up, and not just by a little bit. Glad that I had the Air Greenland app installed so get instant notifications.

I still had time to walk back down the blue trail. It was such a huge contrast from my first day, shrouded in fog. All of the subsequent pictures are from the same places as 3 days ago.

There were plenty of people out at the fjord’s edge today, battling thousands of mosquitoes. I didn’t have my bug spray with me so I didn’t stay long.