08.07.03 - Travelling to Greenland in March

If you want to share a real Greenlandic experience, go to Qeqertarsuaq, where you can see what Greenlanders do during wintertime.

There are several nice trips:

Kangerluk
Dogsled trips to Kangerluk start in Qeqertarsuaq. You'll pass through Blasedalen, a deep gorge between the huge basalt mountains of Disko Island and, having reached the top at the end of the valley, you'll have a great view of the next fjord!



Crossing the ice on your dogsled, you'll arrive in the small village of Kangerluk, where 30-40 people live all year round. It's one of the smallest settlements in Greenland. There's a small shop/post office, a school, a church and the so-called meeting-house, where you can have your meals - somebody from the village will provide you with meals. If you arrive in a group of 10-15 people, you'll be divided into small groups of 2-4 people and stay in local hunter dwellings. For the most part, you'll sleep in bedrooms provided by the local people; staying in their homes makes it a genuine and typical Greenlandic experience.

We enjoyed their hospitality. Walking around in the village, you can see what the locals are doing: going ice-fishing or seal-hunting - one week ago somebody shot a polar bear! In the evening the people organized a spontaneous “Disco-dancing event” in the meeting house and we had a lot of fun! It was a nice, warm atmosphere.

The following day we went on another dogsled ride along the coast on the frozen ice and the light was completely different compared to the day before. On the third day we returned to Qeqertarsuaq. The dogs had to climb a steep mountain and we often had to run next to the sled in order to make it easier for them. There were several young dogs which were on their first long trip and they occasionally preferred playing to serious work! It's a perfect experience: you hear nothing but the dogs panting.

Qeqertarsuaq
From Qeqertarsuaq it's possible to go to the Lyngmark glacier (Lyngmarksbraen) by snowmobile and spend the night in the comfortable new hut on top of this glacier. We built an igloo. It's hard work cutting snow into pieces and putting them on top of one another until reaching the “roof” of the igloo, where you have to be particularly careful to fix the different blocks, otherwise the roof will collapse!!

It's quite “warm” inside the igloo but you need good sleeping bags and mattresses to stay there for longer. We preferred to stay in the cosy hut, where we enjoyed a nice candlelight dinner and watched the outside thermometer drop to -25 degrees Celsius that night!

Another nice daytrip is a dogsled tour along the coast passing Kuannit with its frozen waterfalls. On this tour on the frozen ocean you're surrounded by huge icebergs. It's a unique feeling to be so close to them and you realize that ice has a multitude of different colours - ranging from white to grey and green!

The aforementioned tours were part of Topas' “Dogsled at Disko Island” trip.