I love the polar regions. And I’ve always had a soft spot for the Arctic. I completely fell in love with it on my very first trip overseas, in the Canadian Arctic in 1991. I’d dreamed about going to the Canadian Arctic from the age of 14 after seeing a photo of the Virginia Falls on the cover of an Explorers Guide to the Northwest Territories. I didn’t go to the Virginia Falls on that occasion, but I experienced the Arctic for the first time and I loved it. I’ve explored various Arctic destinations in the 25 years that followed and Greenland was the only part of the Arctic left for me. It’s become a bit of an up and coming destination in the last couple of years and now seemed as good a time as any to see this island of ice which should really be called Whiteland instead of Greenland because all you see when you fly over it is snow from the permanent ice sheet that covers most of the country.
I prepared myself for my flight to Greenland by putting on my “extra warm” thermals I’d bought from Marks and Spencer, jeans and a jumper over the top and my parka from when I went on an Icebreaker ship to the North Pole. I also had my waterproof trousers in my rucksack, 3 pairs of gloves, 2 hats and 2 scarves. I got on the plane, I was really going to Greenland after years of dreaming about it and bearing in mind it was March and should be warming up a bit, the pilot announced it was -25 degrees in Kangerlussuaq. I’d booked my window seat as soon as I booked my flight, so I got a good view of the east coast as we started to fly over Greenland. I’ve seen Greenland from the air countless times on my many trips to Canada, but this was the first time I was going to be landing there.
Kangerlussuaq is how I imagine the eastern Canadian Arctic, Nunavut to look. No trees just a few houses and lots of exposed rock. From what I can remember from geology, the oldest rock in the world is found in Greenland, gneiss rock. But I faintly recall that’s just in Eastern Greenland. And there really is nothing in Kangerlussuaq. Air Greenland have chosen this town as their hub because of the air base there, but there’s very little here except the airport and a few houses spread out. The locals call Kangerlussuaq a city. I can tell you now, it is as far away from a city as you could possibly imagine.
As for the accommodation, well the Old Camp is a series of buildings and the one I was in was like the Halls of Residence I lived in when I was at university. A long corridor with about 16 rooms, a shared kitchen, dining room, living room and 4 bathrooms. The rooms were very basic. But I can’t say I expected anything else. It’s not that bad. But it’s not that good either. I had my own room. I had to put my own sheets and pillowcases on the bed. But for the extra cost of a room at the hotel and probably not vastly higher standards, I decided I could cope for 2 nights. The bonus was they gave me the room for 3 nights at no extra cost, so when I wasn’t sleeping the following night in my tent on the ice, at least I could leave my luggage in the room.
When I arrived at the airport I got onto a yellow school bus which took me to the camp. Then I got on another bus shortly afterwards to go on a musk ox safari.
There’s a mineral lake where the musk ox like to go and drink and even though it’s frozen in the winter, the musk ox forget and apparently go there every day to try and get a drink. But not today. Today, they’d remembered it was frozen. So all I saw on this musk ox safari was the Greenlandic equivalent of RAF Fylingdales when it still had the golf balls and a couple of distant reindeer. Wow!
We did go up to a viewpoint to see the town below us and the fjord, but it wasn’t exactly exciting. I got the “city bus” into town later in the afternoon to have a look around. There were 4 shops, only 2 of which were open, a post office and a supermarket. I bought another pair of gloves from the supermarket because they were waterproof and you can never have too many pairs of gloves. Your hands lose the feeling in them very quickly without gloves in these temperatures. I wasn’t sure how was going to take photos because I don’t do well with gloves on, but I couldn’t take them off or I’d lose fingers!
What I concluded on my walk back to the Old Camp from town, because it didn’t look that far and I couldn’t be bothered to wait for the hourly bus back, that however daunting Camp Ice Cap might be, it was preferable to spending 2 days in Kangerlussuaq doing nothing. I was genuinely scared about being incredibly cold and anticipating getting no sleep whatsoever. I got none when I camped out on Antarctica. I’ll make sure I pack a fully charged iPod. Why did I decide camping out on the permanent ice sheet for the night was a good idea? But unless you’re booked on activities there was literally nothing to do in Kangerlussuaq.
I was tired, so I thought I’d try to get an hour or two sleep and then get up to try and see the Northern Lights. Kangerlussuaq is famed for its cloudless skies so is a really good place in Greenland to catch the aurora. I had a wander outside and could see the start of it, decided that I needed to wrap up warmer, so I went back inside and put more clothes on and then headed back outside again. I watched the skies for a bit longer, the aurora which was a pale white light at that point wasn’t doing much and I wondered how much longer I should stay out in the freezing cold looking at the sky. The sky was promisingly clear so we might get a good show.
I ended up joining a trip where we drove out of town and found a perfect spot for the wind to hit us and once again make me wonder how the hell I was going to survive a night on the ice. Then we drove to a more sheltered spot and that’s when the lights started to dance. And when they start to dance they start to glow colours. Mostly green with flashes of pink and purple. It was pretty spectacular to see. The guide said he’d been there 4 months and gave it an 8 out of 10 for the show the lights put on tonight. They were still dancing when we drove back. I hoped that I might see the aurora again while in Greenland, maybe even the following night when I was out on the ice and finding it impossible to sleep… Anyway I can now die a happy woman and I have got to see the Northern Lights.
I got into the bed I made myself, there were two sheets in the wardrobe, presumably as there are 2 beds in the room, so I made the bed up with a bottom sheet and a top sheet, with hospital corners and everything to try and make it as comfortable as possible. Once again, I had no idea how I’d manage on the ice, I remember very little about my night on the ice in Antarctica apart from I didn’t close my eyes once and spent the majority of the night listening to a rock band called the Little Angels, probably because they’re from Scarborough and that’s exactly where I was wishing I was at that moment in time. But that was tomorrow. Tonight I had a real bed in a warm room in a proper building. And I’d survived my first day in Greenland.
I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.
I stayed at Old Camp in Kangerlussuaq.
I travelled to Kangerlussuaq with Air Greenland from Copenhagen.
Read more about my adventures in Greenland.
Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile
Camp Ice Cap
Exploring Ilulissat
Snowshoe Hike to View the Kangia
Two Day Dog Sled Adventure
