Planes, trains & automobiles & a ship to Iceland, EastGreenland and NE Canada

[Major]

Sounds a great tour. Several TRs have covered these areas.

But another one would be great

 

[bPeteb]

Sounds a great tour. Several TRs have covered these areas.

I better get searching!

 

[hedge]

Thanks for sharing! The trip looks amazing and I can't wait to read the next TR!

 

[irv]

27/08/2015
Town visit - Ittoqqortoormiit

Pronunciation of this town has caused much merriment amongst the expedition team during the nightly expedition briefings. Laali, our Greenlander, pronounced it something like Ee-tock-a-tore-mitt with the 'tock' a strange clearing your throat kind of sound.

Tiny town of 500 very hardy people at the very beginning of Scoresbysund, right on the northern tip of land at the mouth of the sund.

If you search for images of Greenlandic towns it’ll look just like Ittoqqortoormiit – a scattered group of brightly coloured cottages sitting on a rocky coastline.

We had two safety instructions for the town – stay aware of speeding drivers on quad bikes (they call them four-wheelers) and don’t go near the sled dogs. Both good pieces of advice. The quad bikes raced around town, often with very small children propped up in boxes on the front of them.

The roads were crushed rock, the paths were crushed rock, the yards were crushed rock or not crushed rock. There is no vegetation in the town, anywhere. Just rock, and ice/snow still hanging around from winter. What a forbidding place.

The sled dogs howled all the time we were there.

They get two supply boats a year, one in August and one in October. If you want anything outside of those months the only way to get it is by helicopter drop! We were told that if we went to the supermarket don’t buy anything that we can buy on the ship. That supermarket is full of what the locals need, not stuff for tourists to buy for a laugh. Apparently when the boat came earlier in the month school was cancelled and they let off fireworks, in the daytime!

Saw a polar bear skin drying at one house and seal skins at a couple more. At the arts and crafts centre/gallery there was another polar bear skin and also a musk ox hide.

Water/sewer is in pipes above the ground, nothing can be dug under the rock. They have issues in winter with the pipes freezing so there is one place in town where water is always available out of a cistern/tank. Power is supplied by a large oil powered generator. They have internet but it is horrifically expensive.

Visited a little museum with some amazing photographs of the history of the eastern communities. Kayaks (qayaqs) originated in Greenland as did anoraks.

At the general store we bought a postcard and posted it. The store keeper had change for four different currencies – Greenlandic, Danish, Euros and US dollars. Outside they had some musk ox to sample. Apparently it is boiled for hours but despite the poor sales pitch it was delicious. Very much like beef.

As we sailed out of Scorsbysund the peaks on the southern shore of the sund were covered in the most amazing cloud as the sun shone on to them. It was spectacular.

During dinner we were treated to some whales surfacing not too far off the ship.

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I could cheerfully go here, don't know about the Mrs

 

[irv]

Brilliant adventure, planning a RTW in a couple of years. This has now floated on the agenda.

 

[Bindibuys]

A late entry to reading this TR, fabulous work.

 

[get me outta here]

I'm a very late reader and loved the TR, thanks Big Pete and Al. Now that I'm off to Greenland in August I had to take it all in. I am doing some of the same stops, and found your info fascinating. But, I'm gonna have to get obtain wellies. My childhood memories of wellies is that they make your feet tortuously cold, but seems they're better now.