Duplo's blog

Hi All,

This Duploworld update will take us from the easy and poor weathered start in Nuuk, to our first day in Ilulissat.
The flight to Ilulisat, all 2 hours of it, was a pleasure. Low altitude flying along the beautiful westcoast of Greenland. and along the coast of the huge Disco bay. Herewe faced the outlet of the Ilulissat glacier, which produce some of the largest icebergs in the world and is the most active glacier in the world.
Greenlandic sled dog puppies

After checking in on the Ilulissat hostel (very basic, but clean and with fantastic staff), we strapped on the boots and set off for an afternoon hike.
Ilulissat is know as the dog capital of the world and I firmly belive that dogs outnumbers people there, by something like a factor of 2. There are Greenlandic sled dogs all over the place. The two puppies shown above napping in the afternoon sun was adorable.
However as we approached the coastline and walked towards the Icefiord, we had our first real look at what Ilulissat is known for, the majestic and HUGE icebergs.
Iceberg

These icecubes are the size of small islands above water and to imagine that we only see roughly 10% of them and that the remaining 90% are hidden below is very hard to grasp. The fiords around Ilulissat range in depth from 400-1000 meters and these icebergs, they actually gets stuck on the bottom until they melt enough to drift either further into the fiord north of Ilulissat or towards the sea.
Overlooking Ilulissat

We took a break at this bench on the way back to enjoy the view of Ilulissat and the beautiful coloured houses.
Out of the blue I received a call from EA. He asked if we were up for an evening trip in his tiny boat (It could just hold the 3 of us) and we agreed to meet at the harbour a little later that evening.
Sailing towards the icebergs

for more than 3 hours we were sailing the rather rough waters and took in the immense beauty of the Icebergs up very close. now it was late and the air was chilly, however it was nothing compared to the water.
The water temeperature was an impressive -1,3C. Thanks to salt levels and the strong currents it actually does not freeze at that temperature, but it made me realise that swimming would not be advisable
Iceberg in evening light

I could post litterally hundreds of photos of Icebergs here and still be unable to convey the size of them, how amazing these 3 hours were or how deep an impact the trip had on me. however above is a prety fair representation of the scenery we witnessed. I am very thankful that we were given the opportunity to experience the icebergs from such a small boat and witness the sun set while at sea.
it was the first of many experiences on this trip that will stay with me forever.
Now as the sun set we turned towards harbour again, leaving a lonely fisher at sea, pulling up his nets
Working late

Well I guess that is it for part II, stay tuned for Part III and my promise that when I have walked you through our adventure, I will post a gallery giving you a chance to see more than the few photos from each day posted here.

Do take care you all and thank you for reading

Thomas