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First photo of me in Greenland above the frozen musk ox lake

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.

View of. Remote town of Kangerlussuaq from above — View of the remote town of Kangerlussuaq from above

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!

The throbbing metropolis of Kangerlussuaq

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!

Polar Ber sculpture outside the Old Camp - and the closest I got to seeing any big animals in Greenland! — Polar bear sculpture outside the Old Camp – and the closest I got to seeing any big animals in Greenland!

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.

A green leaping tiger in the clear night sky? The wonder of the Northern Lights.

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.

Aurora Borealis in clear night sky near Ilulissat

I’d only tried snowmobiling once before, in Canada back in the 90s, so when I went snowmobiling in Greenland, it was like starting from the beginning again.

I turned up at PGI Greenland to check in for my first excursion with them, 3 hours of snowmobiling. Joaquin would be guiding me today and I first had to get kitted out. Joaquin found it very amusing how bundled up with layers I was with 4 layers on the bottom half and 4 layers on the top half, or 5 if you count the fact I’ve got a double layered coat, fleece underneath and waterproof on top which detach into 2 separate coats. It was Greenland in March and around -20 degrees, of course I was going to be well wrapped up. He recommended for snowmobiling, that I wear their padded dungarees and a padded coat and only keep 2 layers on underneath. The dungarees and jacket were so enormous I looked like the Abominable Snowman! He gave me padded mittens to wear and a balaclava to go under my crash helmet. It was like I was going to be doing Formula One racing! Not Formula One racing as it turned out. Moto GP!

There was one other person on the snowmobiling tour, so it was just the 3 of us and Joaquin said I had a choice. We had 3 snowmobiles. So we could either take 3 and drive one each, but he warned me it would be around an hour driving each way. Or we could take 2 and I could ride with him. I asked him if driving the snowmobile was difficult and he said it wasn’t, but you had to move with the snowmobile, shift in your seat and lean into corners or if you were going sideways along a hillside you had to lean to balance things out. So I wasn’t going to be Nigel Mansell, I was going to be Valentino Rossi! Anyway I decided I was going to drive. That’s what I’d come here intending to do, the opportunity was here for me to drive and if there’d been more people on the tour I wouldn’t have had that option, so I went for it! I have to say, even though it was with some trepidation I started out driving the snowmobile, I absolutely loved it. I was completely buzzing when I came back.

Snowmobiling along trail to see Ilulissat ice fjord

I got my basic instruction on how to drive a snowmobile, the throttle was a lever on the right hand handlebar, the brake was like a bike brake on the left hand side. And there was a red emergency stop button… Joaquin showed me how to shift my weight when we were cornering and then we were off to have a practice.

We went to a snowfield to practise cornering, I was okay at it, but I had to get used to standing up completely to shift my weight and really lean over when we were going round corners. We tried one more time and then we were off! Joaquin said he would keep looking back to make sure I was okay and he’d slow down or stop and wait for me as necessary, that I was not to try and catch him because he’d just go faster. He also said the dog sleds had priority so we had to pull over for them, wait if there wasn’t room to overtake and only overtake when there was plenty of space. With all that in mind, we set off.

Looking like The Abominable Snowman, bundled up for the Greenland Winter - I could hardly move to walk! — Looking like The Abominable Snowman, bundled up for the Greenland Winter – I could hardly move to walk!

It is physically quite demanding with all the moving and leaning you have to do, plus I was quite tense to start with. I’m no natural athlete and I’m not very big either, handling a snowmobile was quite hard work, it was a heavy machine. It was less physical when I relaxed a bit more, but still reasonably difficult. I just had to follow what Joaquin did and lean the same way he did when he did. He warned me when I went uphill just to keep going, not to stop or I’d be stuck. So I made sure I accelerated up the hills even though there were some tight turns, quick leans and I was bouncing around like in the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard on some of those fast corners! As there had been a blizzard the day before, there was a lot of fresh snow on the ground, Joaquin also took us on the more difficult trail. So he said I’d done really well driving for an hour on the difficult trail in harder conditions than usual.

We did see quite a few dog sled teams while we were out, I bet the people on them thought we were right hooligans, tearing past on noisy machines, disturbing the tranquility! But I was having such an adrenaline rush. There was one really steep downhill section with seriously deep snow that Joaquin wouldn’t let me drive down. He drove his snowmobile down, walked back uphill, told me to walk down the hill and it was so steep I actually slid most of the way which was great fun. Joaquin drove my snowmobile down for me, just as well, I don’t think I could have got down that section without getting stuck.

View of Ilulissat Ice Fjord

We had a stop at a viewpoint to view the ice fjord, so we did a short hike to it. Joaquin helped me over the difficult bits, he was very good at watching me to make sure I was okay and helping me if I was struggling. The huge padded dungarees and enormous jacket, both of which were far too big for me hampered me quite a lot, which added to the difficulty with the slippery, uphill climb. When we finally got to a good spot to view the ice fjord Joaquin produced a flask of tea. I’d had this fantastic snowmobile drive and was now looking at this beautiful view over to the ice fjord drinking tea to keep myself warm. How much more perfect could it get?

We came back on a different trail so I didn’t have to negotiate that very deep snow, this time uphill! I know it is possible to do very steep climbs in snowmobiles from seeing the race up the mountain in Jackson Hole 4 years ago, but there was no way I could handle a snowmobile like the lads in that race could! I think that section of the trail would have been difficult for me to manage going either up or down, I’d probably have overturned the snowmobile.

The drive back was immensely enjoyable even though I was cautious on downhill sections. Joaquin kept holding both his arms out to illustrate that he was neither accelerating or braking, but I felt more comfortable braking a little bit to slow the snowmobile down. However, I was more used to the snowmobile now and how to move and balance so I was better at driving it. I was definitely on a high when I came back and ended up driving quite well after my apprehensive start in difficult conditions on a challenging trail. Something I found with my excursions with PGI Greenland, the guides were really encouraging and gave a lot of praise and compliments to make you more confident and make sure you were enjoying the experience. Without doubt, that was the best thing I’d done in Greenland so far. And it was to get even better the following night.

Ready to head back on an alternative snowmobiling trail

The undisputed high spot of the two days of tours with PGI Greenland was the snowmobiling night tour to see the Northern Lights. I was the only one booked on the tour, so they decided they were basically going to have a staff outing and take me with them! Four of the staff, both guides and office staff went out on a hunt to see the Northern Lights with me. The snowmobiles were out ready when we got to the garage, once again I was kitted up like the Abominable Snowman. Joaquin said the small snowmobile was for me to drive, the same one I’d driven the day before. Now he knew I could drive one, they’d just got one out for me ready. There would be a snowmobile in front, I’d be in the middle and the other snowmobile would be at the back.

The Northern Lights were already visible and a beautiful green was illuminating the sky at the location of the snowmobile garage. And then we set off driving. The aurora was glowing in the sky the whole time I was driving the snowmobile. I was trying to watch the sky while I was concentrating on the trail, it was easy at first, I could keep glancing at the sky because the trail was straight and flat. I can’t describe how beautiful it was driving a snowmobile across the snowfields watching the green glow of the Northern Lights in the sky. And no one else in town does night time snowmobile tours, so no one else was out, just 5 of us on 3 snowmobiles. It was pretty special.

After the straight, flat section there was a long uphill section and I had to give my full concentration to driving the trail and forget about looking at the sky for a while. But then when we got to the spot to watch the aurora, we turned off the engines, had tea and biscuits, took photos and enjoyed the dazzling display of dancing lights in the night sky. We were all so excited to see them and they were amazing. It was a magical night, a combination of a personal tour and an office outing, I was very fortunate. We watched the aurora dancing for a while, mostly green with pink and purple flashes like I’d seen before and also a shooting star that flew across the sky at one point.

Joaquin asked if I wanted to drive back and I said that actually I’d just ride back because I was tired and I didn’t feel like concentrating on the trail. There was a lot of going downhill on the way back and I took downhill sections slowly and I’d probably be worse in the dark. I’d driven there in the dark, I’d had 2 hours driving the snowmobile during the day on Friday too. So Joaquin took my snowmobile and I rode back with Jose. It was all so personal and made me feel very special, that’s what good customer service is, they were all so wonderful and did a marvellous job. I raved about them to everyone I met, they have made my visit to Greenland special and driving out on snowmobiles to see the Northern Lights will be my enduring memory of my trip to Greenland.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.

My snowmobiling tours were with PGI Greenland, a seasonal adventure activities tour operator based in Ilulissat with offices in the town centre.

Tag: aurora

Greenland: My First Day

Greenland: Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile