After such an incredible day exploring Disko Island and Eqip Sermia, we woke up to views of the magnificent Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland.
It’s not too far (in terms of nautical miles), maybe around 150 miles from Eqip Sermia. This meant we had much more time to explore Ilulissat after anchoring up.
Now, the Ilulissat Icefjord is a UNESO-protected site, and with good reason. From what I remember, it’s an area for glacial runoff, contributing to 4% of the world’s water. So, as you can imagine, there’s lots of ice.
Now, what makes the area around Ilulissat even more special is that there’s a glacial ‘ledge’ or ‘deposit’ of sediment and rocks that traps lots of the calving glacial pieces from moving into the open ocean around Disko Bay.
To put it simply, colossal icebergs get trapped in the lagoon around Ilulissat, and you end up seeing vast icebergs the size of mountains, and that’s no exaggeration. It’s mindblowing and a sort of iceberg traffic jam.
So, with all this information in hand, we hopped on a trusted zodiac to take us to the jetty in Ilulissat town itself.
Ilulissat is a town that, by Greenlandic standards, is pretty large. By UK or US standards, you’d consider it a large village or small town.
You can spend an hour or so wandering Ilulissat, checking out the iconic red church and visiting the local stores. These sell tupilak (see picture below) or soapstone figures, both of which are great souvenirs from Greenland.
However, Ilulissat’s main drawer is the Icefjord.
We had planned to book a boat tour through the icebergs in Disko Bay via Albatros Expeditions. However, we’d left it too late to book, and all the spaces had been filled. So, after arriving in Ilulissat, we took a stroll through the town and headed to Ilulissat Adventure.
These guys organise tours in and around Ilulissat and Disko Bay, and they have heaps to choose from. We popped in, and they were immediately available for a private RIB tour of the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland.
We jumped at the change, and we were so thankful they had last-minute availability.
The RIB tour, by the way, was incredible.
We spent the next hour weaving between the colossal icebergs, and it was so severe. In fact, we had the whole lagoon to ourselves; it was magical, and the views were just spectacular.
As you can see, the icebergs are absolutely massive, so naturally, you don’t sail too close to them. After all, a calving or spinning iceberg (or even a growler) can be very dangerous within the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland.
The tour was epic, and I can’t recommend Ilulissat Adventure enough. Best of all, you can book their tours online if you’re visiting Greenland, so you won’t have to deal with the panic and stress we experienced when booking at the last minute.
So, with the sun shining once again (we got fortunate with the weather), we walked from Ilulissat’s harbour area towards the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre and boardwalk.
Now, the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre looks impressive, but I can’t say I felt it was the best use of this beautiful space. It has a small coffee shop (with great coffee) and an intimate exhibition for which you pay a small fee, but other than that, it felt a little ‘lost’.
I don’t say that negatively, by the way; the space is beautiful, but it didn’t really serve any purpose other than getting a coffee and cake (both of which were great, by the way).
However, the latter (the boardwalk) is a must.
The Ilulissat Boardwalk covers the protected ground around the Ilulissat Icefjord, helping to conserve the natural environment and limit visitors’ impact on this UNESCO-protected area. For this reason, you don’t leave the boardwalk until you reach the viewpoint overlooking the bay itself.
After strolling through the green expanse, historically created by the glacier, we reached the coast.
The walk along the boardwalk took around 15 minutes, but naturally, we were very slow and devoured every second of the views along the way. At the end of the boardwalk, we headed up the wooden stairs (which the boardwalk leads to). The views hit me like a brick wall. The icebergs were huge, colossal, in fact. I had to keep reminding myself that the icebergs were solid ice – they were like mountains.
We spent a good 45 minutes here. Sitting on the rocks, watching the views and seeing the icebergs lodged in the channel in Disko Bay. It was mesmerising and totally beautiful.
As the late afternoon approached, we strolled back to Ilulissat and headed to our pick-up point to catch our Zodiac back to Ocean Albatros. The sunshine was still incredible, so we quickly hopped onto the decking area of Hotel Hvide Falk. It was still chilly (around 8c), but we wrapped up warm and had a glass of wine overlooking Disko Bay.
In no time at all, it was time to leave the Ilulissat Icejord In Greenland. Time has whizzed by today. So, with that, we hopped on the Zodiac back to Ocean Albatros and headed straight for dinner at the onboard restaurant.
With full tummies, we headed for bed to wake up bright and early for tomorrow’s adventure in Itilleq.
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