Duplo's blog

Hi All,

And welcome to a hopefully long awaited Duploworld update.

I have been away for quite some time again, not necessarily because I wanted to, but the real world has been keeping me so busy that updating this blog has been difficult.

Fair to say though that since my last post, my life has been turned upside down, pulled inside out and I am currently feeling better than I have done in years

A large part of that reason actually grew from my visit to the peak of Sermitsiak, but I will save that particular story for another day

I have been hiking extensively, travelling both in Greenland and an extremely beautiful part of the US, not to mentioned passed over Denmark a few times, so I have been a busy and happy boy for a couple of months now

The US story and the trips to Deer Prong Mountain and Qingaaq, I will save for another post later this week, The focus of this post will be to share a round of summer photos and stories from the very beautiful Ilulissat.

The most beautiful place in the world?

Ilulissat, may or may not be the most beuatiful places in the world, but The Icefiord, where above image was captured, sure must be among them.
It has recently been included on UNESCO's world heritage list and that fact alone tells a lot about the unique nature of this place and the stunning beauty which can be experienced here.
Golden Ice

A visit to this area during daylight, impressive as it is, is nothing compared to what happens here when the last days of the midnight sun, starts its game during night.
It gave me a whole new meaning to the term "Golden hour", here it is a powerful and 2-3 hour long experience where colours are changing rapidly in an aboslutely amazing display.
Iceberg

I have never made a secret out of my fascination with this area of Greenland and each new visit seems to bring with it a better understanding of its truly unique nature and stunning light.
Summer is a fantastic season to experience this area, as is winter, autumn or spring.
Amazingly enough there is so much more to this area than shown above....
Fin Whale

Another popular sport is whale whatching, there are an abundance of different whales up along the Greenlandic Coast. the Fin Whale shown above (estimated to a little over 20 meters by the captain) is somewhat rare to see and extremely fast. from a visual point of view it is impressive, but not as fun as the humpbacks, as it rarely shows its tail. But an amazing experience none the less.
Oqaatsut (rodebay)

Oqaatsut is a small settlement a couple of hours (by boat) North of Ilulissat and having the chance to stop by there was an interesting experience, save for it being an odd location for a gourmet lounch restaurant during summer, it is a native fishing and hunting comunity and probably one of the most relaxed places I have ever been.
By the soccer field

The people living here, lives by the hand of nature, hunting and fishing from either boat or dog sled.
It is a settlement so small that no roads exist, there are small trials from the harbour to the houses and dog yards, but aside from that it is basically a small number of woodenhouses situated in the middle of nothing but amazing Greenlandic nature and the Disco Bay.
Nattoralik, by Sermeq Kujalleq

Sermeq Kujalleq or the Icefiord Glacier, is a stunning and dangerous place.
Only way to get there is by helicopter and the ride in there is an experience that I am not likely to forget ever, a truly stunning display.
It is however a glacier that one does not want to walk. more than 7 kilometers wide and moving at a speed of 20 meters per day, means that Sermeq Kujalleq calves off approx. 20 million tons of ice daily and makes it responsible not only for all the icebergs in the icefiord, but also 10 percent of all the icebergs in Greenland.
Sermeq Kujalleq

To understand the kind of force it takes to move all that ice is almost impossible to comprehend, and the endless view amazing. the photo above really does give no clue to the size, but i was simply unable to find a way to display its massive size and beauty.
What an experience it was though:)

Well that comcludes some of the impressions from the trip to Ilulissat.
I am in the process of updating the "Greenlandic Summer Photos 2009" album with a bunch of images as this post hits the blog, so go there if you have not had enough already.

an unusual iceberg

Above is th final image in this post and with that I will head for some sleep.
More posts to come over the next days, both from "Deer Prong Mountain", "Qingaaq" (another mountain) and my trip to the US. So do stay tuned for more in the days to come.

Thank you for reading and do take care:)

Thomas